CNN’s Chris Wallace Torches GOP Senator Ron Johnson’s Big Idea: ‘Terrible Policy And It’s Suicidal Politics’
CNN anchor Chris Wallace tore into Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) over recent remarks on spending that Wallace called “terrible policy” and “suicidal politics.”
In an interview on The Regular Joe Show Tuesday, Johnson suggested making Social Security and Medicare spending “discretionary” instead of mandatory:
Defense spending has always been discretionary. You know, VA spending is discretionary. What’s mandatory are things like Social Security and Medicare. If you qualify for the entitlement, you just get it no matter what the cost. And our problem in this country is that more than 70% of our federal budget, of our federal spending. What we ought to be doing is we ought to turn everything into discretionary spending so it’s all evaluated so that we can fix problems or fix programs that are broken, that are going to be going bankrupt.
On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, co-anchor Brianna Keilar played those remarks for Wallace, who reacted by ripping Johnson’s idea — which is also part of NRSC Chairman Sen. Rick Scott‘s (R-FL) plan — as “politically suicidal” and giving a detailed explanation as to why the idea is also “terrible policy”:
BRIANNA KEILAR: What do you make of that? “Fixing problems, evaluating problems, turning it into discretionary funding” — sounds like cutting Medicare and Social Security.
CHRIS WALLACE: Well, it’s certainly putting it up for grabs. I mean, it’s terrible policy and it’s suicidal politics.
You know, because of the fact that’s the old political cliche Social Security is the third rail of American politics, the third rail in the New York subway system being the one where you can electrocute yourself.
But the fundamental misunderstanding, Social Security is not money that is just handed out to to Americans. “Hey, here’s some free money,” we pay into Social Security. We pay into Medicare. It’s, in effect, an insurance policy like you pay premiums. Nobody would say, well, you’re not entitled to the benefit for a life insurance when the person who has the policy dies. We have been paying into the system for years.
You know, look, there are problems with Social Security and Medicare… But the idea of saying this isn’t an entitlement, an entitlement is probably the wrong word because I’m entitled to this. The fact is, you paid into it and you’re getting the benefit five times more than you actually paid in. But the benefit of what you paid into the system in the first place.
JOHN AVLON: At all, incredibly important points and clarifications.
CHRIS WALLACE: Can I just say one other thing about this? What’s interesting is that he, Ron Johnson, is running for reelection in Wisconsin. He’s running, it looks like, against Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor, who’s very liberal. And there are plenty of things to go after him on that he’s gone too far to the left, Green New Deal, Medicare for All, embracing The Squad. But when Ron Johnson says something like this, just as the race begins to shape up in Wisconsin, instead of sort of pivoting slightly to the center, it puts him further out on the extreme.
Watch above via CNN.
