Ron Johnson’s war on America
One of the more annoying traditions that the GOP has every year is claiming there’s a war on Christmas that Democrats are waging, even though no one’s ever been fined or imprisoned for saying “Merry Christmas!” which they claim is some bold, offensive political statement to make, and there’s never been any changes in legislation due to this supposed War on Christmas. I guess you could argue, however, that this year it’s the Republicans who waged the War on Christmas, or at least, Ron Johnson did by blocking stimulus checks for workers not once, but twice in one day.
With one week to go before Christmas when Americans are concerned about simply having enough money for food, Johnson is blocking a bill that would provide $1,200 stimulus checks because he’s (pretending to be) concerned about the deficit. Instead, he’s bringing up the same classic Republican talking points about more tax cuts and slashing regulations – even if it further jeopardizes the seats of fellow Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler who still have to face voters in the runoffs for Senate control.
Aside from not having relief funds that workers should have gotten months ago, Johnson is probably hoping that his performance will set the pace for when Joe Biden becomes president and Republicans can go right back to pretending to be fiscal conservatives – resisting every time Biden and his allies make a case for spending money on the people who need it. Instead, Raphael Warnock is seizing on this farce of a stump speech as a case for why America urgently needs to be rid of GOP control in the Senate. It should be yet another reason why Johnson is unfit to lead and why Wisconsin needs to replace him as senator when his term is up in 2022.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making