In The Spotlight Blog

In the News: Blog 09/20/2012
Roll Call: Daniel Akaka Gets Lei From Ron Johnson
In the News: Blog 09/17/2012
Appleton Post Crescent: Food stamp flap at center of farm bill impasse
WASHINGTON -- At the height of the U.S. Senate debate on a new farm bill, Sen. Ron Johnson offered a motion to sever the food stamps section from the rest of the bill and have a separate vote on each piece. “This isn’t a farm bill. This is a welfare bill,” Johnson, R-Oshkosh, decried in explaining the motive behind his motion. “This bill is a great example of what’s wrong in Washington,” the freshman senator continued. “Decades ago someone realized that combining food stamps and agriculture programs together in one bill is a great way to pass both with a minimum of debate and controversy.”
In the News: Blog 09/7/2012
Fond du lac Reporter: Academy Day set for Sept. 15
U.S. Service Academy Day will be held on Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Experimental Aircraft Association Center in Oshkosh. The event will run 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The seminar is for all high school students in Wisconsin interested in discussing the requirements and procedures for seeking a nomination to the U.S. Service Academies. All necessary qualifications and the procedures for applying to the academies will be explained.
In the News: Blog 08/20/2012
Wausau Daily Herald: Sen. Ron Johnson to speak in Rothschild
In the News: Blog 08/20/2012
The Washington Examiner: Why we must audit the Pentagon
When the typical American family or business faces tough economic times, they tend to do two things. First, they take a close look at their spending. Second, they make hard decisions and set priorities. The American people have such a low opinion of Congress because we often refuse to go through these steps. Instead of making hard decisions, we simply borrow more money and force the next generation to pay the bill. Nowhere is this bad habit more obvious than with Congress' oversight of defense spending. Congress passed a law 22 years ago -- the Chief Financial Officer Act of 1990 -- requiring the Department of Defense to pass an audit. In the 22 years since, Congress has never bothered to force DoD to comply with this law.
In the News: Blog 08/20/2012
National Review Online: Opting Out of Hidden Taxes
In an affront to openness and representative government, the IRS is attempting to rewrite the president’s health-care law to overrule states that lawfully opted out of vast new taxpayer-funded subsidies to insurance companies. Fortunately, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has stepped forward with a resolution, S.J. Res. 48, that would overturn the IRS power grab. If enough of his Senate colleagues sign on, he can force a Senate floor vote, giving the American people an opportunity to see where every senator stands. It might be the only health-care vote in the Senate before the November elections. Insurance exchanges are a central feature of the president’s health-care law. These exchanges are tightly regulated bureaucracies through which the law’s new subsidies and employer tax penalties flow. Throughout the entire tumultuous debate — both before and since the bill was enacted — proponents have responded to charges that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) represents a federal takeover of health care by stressing that its exchanges are state-based.
In the News: Blog 08/6/2012
Daily Caller: Ron Johnson: ‘There is way too much political demagoguery out there that sounds good’
In the News: Blog 08/6/2012
Political News.me: Senators Introduce Bipartisan Pay for Printing Act
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators DeMint (R-South Carolina), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) are introducing the Pay for Printing Act, which would require senators to pay for celebratory or commemorative resolutions out of their own budgets, rather than using taxpayer funds. “The printing of symbolic, nonbinding resolutions has gotten out of hand and it’s costing taxpayers more of their hard-earned dollars,” DeMint said. “This bipartisan legislation simply requires senators to take responsibility for paying for the cost of printing these symbolic resolutions out of their own office budgets. This will require senators to be more judicious with taxpayer dollars and hopefully cut down on many of these unnecessary resolutions.”
In the News: Blog 08/4/2012
WTAQ: U.S. Senator Johnson calls July jobs numbers "troubling"
WASHINGTON D.C. (WTAQ) - The nation’s employers added more jobs in July than in any month since February. But the unemployment rate still edged up by one-tenth-of-a-percent, to 8.3 percent. U.S. Senate Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said the jobless rate was troubling and, “There’s a very real danger the United States will fall back into recession.” The Labor Department said 163,000 jobs were added last month – enough to keep up with population growth, but not enough to keep the jobless rate from falling.
In the News: Blog 08/3/2012
Federal News Radio: Bill would give DoD incentives to audit its books on time
Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), along with several other colleagues in the Senate, are advocating the Department of Defense create a financial audit itemizing its spending habits. The proposal, called Audit the Pentagon Act, would give DoD new incentives and enforcement mechanisms to help it pass an audit, according to an Aug. 2 news release. "By failing to pass an audit, the Pentagon has undermined our national security. This bill ends the culture of 'don't ask, don't tell' budgeting within the Pentagon that says, 'don't ask us how we're spending money because we can't tell you,'" Coburn said. "When the Pentagon can't tell Congress, or itself, how it is spending money, good programs face cuts along with wasteful programs, which is the situation in which we find ourselves today under sequestration."