There is a great deal of demand to raise $600-per-person payments to $2,000, including from President Donald Trump, but spending that much would involve "money we don't have," Sen. Ron Johnson insisted Wednesday.
"I've seen a report of another $464 billion to the total cost of that package," the Wisconsin Republican told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "That's money we don't have, money that we're borrowing from our kids' future, so I think we need to target that a little bit more."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a vote Tuesday for the bill to allow $2,000 checks, but proposed another bill that would allow them but that also includes the formation of a commission to investigate the 2020 election and a repeal of big tech liability protections, two measures Trump has demanded for some time.
Johnson said Wednesday he also shares the president's concerns about the liability protections, as well as what had occurred during the election.
"We need to seriously consider what fraud did occur," he said. "The other types of lack of transparency, the problems that we did have the irregularities in this election need to be examined and they need to be corrected for the next election, so I think those are the three issues that Leader McConnell talked about on the Senate floor yesterday."
Johnson also spoke about his concerns on Georgia's upcoming Senate runoff races and whether there will be an investigation into Hunter Biden's actions in China if Democrats end up taking control of the Senate.
"It'll go down in the dark hole of history and be completely buried," said Johnson. "One of my concerns is just unequal justice in this country. The damage that the Peter Strzoks and James Comeys of the world did to our law enforcement, the lack of credibility, the lack of integrity, people just don't have faith in that institution anymore. It's a real tragedy. We need people to have faith in our system of justice."
Johnson added that he's not a "real fan" of special counsels, but one might be necessary in Hunter Biden's case, depending on what President-elect Joe Biden does in terms of appointing an attorney general who is fair and independent.
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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