U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson anticipates the approach to dealing with the nation’s financial problems will continue to be a series of small deals instead of a grand bargain.

“I’d like to do it with a grand bargain, with a large deal that we actually solve the financial situation in this country. I don’t see the desire on the other side of the aisle there to actually do that,” the Oshkosh Republican said Friday after a presentation at a Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce board meeting.

Johnson’s day included visits to a handful of Northeastern Wisconsin businesses, where he planned to talk more about the budget, deficits and legislative deadlines.

Congress faces several deadlines near the end of February dealing with the national debt ceiling and mandatory spending cuts, also referred to as sequestration. Reports this week indicated Republicans in Congress may not pick a fight over the debt ceiling, as they did last year, but would try to use sequestration as their leverage for getting a deficit reduction deal.

The debt ceiling must be increased for the nation to continue borrowing money to pay its bills. Sequestration is a series of mandatory, some say draconian, budget cuts which Congress imposed in an effort to force itself to reach budget and deficit agreements.

“My guess is what will end up happening is we’ll do this in smaller increments,” Johnson said. “(House Speaker) John Boehner’s approach to getting $1 of deficit reduction for every $1 in debt ceiling is probably a pretty good formula.”

Johnson said he was disappointed in the President Barack Obama administration’s decision to issue 23 executive orders dealing with gun control in the wake of shootings in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 children and six adults.

“They were going to take a comprehensive look at this and really try and figure out what is the root cause of these horrible, these horrible tragedies that every American would like to see ended,” he said. “But what ended up happening is a week’s worth of meetings and about the only thing that their proposals are addressing now is gun control.”

Johnson said he’d like to see an honest conversation about those root causes, which he believes include mental health laws, violence in entertainment and dysfunctional families.

“If you really want to get to the root cause of the problem, it really resides with individuals, with families, with our communities,” he said.

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