Sen. Johnson, Rep. Tiffany attend Republican party annual dinner in Stetsonville

Sen. Ron Johnson and Congressman Tom Tiffany were in Taylor County on Saturday to attend a fundraising dinner sponsored by the Taylor County Republican Party.

They were joined by county officials and state legislators at the event held at Centennial Community Center in Stetsonville. Prior to the start of the program, they met with The Star News and talked about some of the major issues at the national level.

Referring to it as an artificially generated crisis, Johnson called on house leadership to craft a proposal that can be passed in the house of representatives and senate to avert the potential for a government shutdown. According to Johnson concerns about the U.S. government defaulting on its debt are overblown, he said the constitution does not allow the government to default on its debt payments. Johnson said he would like to see changes in the way budgets are handled at the national level to be patterned off how Wisconsin does things where if the budget is not settled at the deadline it continues at the previous year’s funding.

He also noted that the United States has plenty of resources to meet its current debt requirements, but that congress must be diligent in keeping an eye on debt levels to prevent them from increasing further than they have done in the past few years with COVID spending measures.

Johnson, a longtime inflation hawk, also expressed concern if the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes needed to be continued noting the stress it was having on businesses. He cautioned that they could set up the potential for “stagflation” which was seen in the late 1970s when the economy slowed but inflation remained high.

He said the cause of inflation is due to too many dollars chasing too few products. A major driver for inflation was continuing supply chain disruptions due to COVID which are getting back to normal, only to have an influx of federal funds to the states and communities which is further driving demand for construction materials.

Congressman Tom Tiffany was optimistic of the Republican leadership being able to reach consensus on debt ceiling legislation. He said since the Republicans have regained control of the House of Representatives, they have been able to get things done and that he has been busy with new committee roles.

Tiffany also addressed the potential of if he would enter the race to challenge incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin in her reelection bid in 2024.

Speculation on the potential senate run came about following the registration of potential campaign website addresses. Tiffany said he is exploring opportunities and keeping his options open in regard to a potential Senate bid.