Washington – The Senate Budget Committee approved three proposals from Sen. Ron Johnson, all of them winning support from minority members as well as the entire Republican majority.   

One measure, an amendment to the budget resolution, paves the way for a prohibition on federal bailouts of improvident states and cities. Taxpayers in Wisconsin, which has a fully funded state pension fund, should not be at risk of bailing out irresponsible states and localities. 

“Since 2010, 47 municipalities have declared bankruptcy. Estimates of underfunded and unfunded liability in state and local pensions is approaching 5 trillion dollars, said Senator Johnson.  “So this amendment just simply would prohibit the use of federal funds for bailing out those state and local governments. I think it would send a very necessary and very loud and clear signal that hardworking American taxpayers from other states should not be asked to bail out those improvident states and localities.”

The amendment was approved 15 to 7.  

The committee also unanimously approved another Johnson amendment, one that directs the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate the ongoing costs of Obamacare in the particular clear format that it used to project the program's costs in 2010. The CBO had ceased providing such accounting, making it harder for Congress to oversee the cost of the program. 

Earlier in the day, the committee unanimously approved a different Johnson ‎amendment, one that directed the CBO to project federal deficits over a 30-year "Johnson budget window" to allow long-term evaluation of the nation's fiscal condition.  

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