Did Wisconsin US Sen. Ron Johnson say he wants to end Social Security and Medicare?
In August, Wisconsin's incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson stated his stance in an interview that the government should make all federal spending—including budget items currently "on automatic pilot" like Medicare and Social Security—discretionary. He argued that this change would allow the government to evaluate and "fix" broken programs.
A spokesperson for Johnson elaborated his belief that "without fiscal discipline and oversight ... Congress has allowed the guaranteed benefits for programs like Social Security and Medicare to be threatened" to the point whereby seniors may "question whether the programs they depend on remain solvent."
Amid Democratic criticism, Johnson clarified in a September tweet that he wanted to "save" the programs from "massive, out-of-control deficit spending." Johnson has expounded on an overall budgetary stance in favor of fiscal discipline and procedural reform.
