Sen. Ron Johnson says there's enough opposition in the Senate to hold up Trump's 'big, beautiful' bill

Sen. Ron Johnson said he thinks there are “enough” Republicans to “stop the process” on the GOP's domestic package in order to prioritize spending reductions.

WASHINGTON — As the Senate prepares to consider the sprawling domestic package that House Republicans passed last week, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he thinks there are “enough” Republicans to “stop the process” in order to prioritize stronger reductions in spending and the national deficit.

The Wisconsin Republican has criticized the bill’s impact on the deficit, characterizing outsize spending as “mortgaging our children’s future.” The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill would add $2.3 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years.

Johnson said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” that congressional Republicans should examine spending “line by line, like DOGE has done” to find areas to eliminate.

The senator’s criticism comes as the Senate is gearing up to consider changes to the House bill, which passed by a single vote, setting up another fight over government deficit levels, funding for programs and attempts to rein in spending ahead of Republicans’ goal to send a final version of the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4.

Several Republicans in the Senate have expressed skepticism about aspects of the bill for what they view as inadequate spending cuts or shrinking Medicaid access and have promised to change it. Any changes to the bill would need to be approved by the House before it goes to Trump.