GOP presidential candidate Perry Johnson, who this weekend met the qualifications to participate in Wednesday's primary debate in Milwaukee, said Sunday on Newsmax that even though former President Donald Trump is far ahead in the polls, the race for the nomination "really begins on the debate stage."
"Everybody knows that Donald Trump is so far ahead that there is almost no one in second place, with the possible exception of [Ron] DeSantis, who at one time was near 40% and now is in the teens," the Michigan businessman said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
"[But] you really don't know a candidate until you actually get to hear the candidate, get to hear everything, you get to see what he says, and you have an idea of what this person is all about."
Johnson, who is scheduled to be featured on Newsmax at 9 p.m. ET Sunday in a special program, "Perry Johnson in Prime Time: Backstage Pass," said he's looking forward to presenting his "two cents" plan to cut discretionary spending during the debate, and he thinks that "will resonate."
"In my case, it doesn't take a whole lot of preparation because I made my position very clear," said Johnson. "I actually have a plan. I wrote a book, 'Two Cents to Save America,' and the concept is quite simple."
Johnson said he plans to freeze the nation's budget and cut two cents from every dollar of discretionary spending while incentivizing "the management" to make the cuts.
"If they do that, they get a bonus," he said. "If they don't, they don't. And in certain areas, we can get rid of whole departments. Think of the Department of Education … we can just literally get rid of it and then send the money directly to the states and have them distribute the money. Let's keep the government out of our lives."
Meanwhile, Johnson said the economy is the nation's most serious issue, and the government has "spent us into oblivion."
"Now we are $33 trillion in debt," he said. "The consequence of that is extreme. That's the reason we have inflation.
"People don't understand often why we even have the situation we have, but for 20 years we couldn't get inflation above 2% and then the government decided that they were going to throw an extra $4.5 trillion into the economy without supplying goods and services ... the whole idea of throwing more and more money into the economy, rendering our country in a more precarious position makes no sense.
"We only collect $4.9 trillion in taxes each year. So our indebtedness is roughly almost seven times what we've taken in a year."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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