As a Republican holdout on the “big, beautiful” budget bill, as President Donald Trump calls it, Sen. Ron Johnson thinks he has a fairly simple request for the 10-year budget plan: Go back to the drawing board and cut spending down to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.

“That pretty well sums it up in one chart,” said Johnson, R-Wis., in his office Tuesday, passing a historical timeline of deficit levels across his desk.

Johnson, a fiscal hawk who was first elected senator during the fiscally conservative tea party wave of 2010, would like to see Republicans hit the brakes on the current bill and slash federal programs.

The chart goes from the $200 billion deficit levels of the early 2000s to the $2.6 trillion deficits projected by the Congressional Budget Office for the mid-2030s if the House of Representatives’ big, beautiful bill were to pass as is.

Johnson says these budgetary deficits could have catastrophic effects, as signaled by shaky bond markets he thinks are reacting to runaway spending and excessive borrowing.

“The bond markets are indicating things: Moody’s, the last credit rating agency to downgrade our credit rating. These are all signs,” he said.

“They’re not good signs. Global investors—one of the reasons interest rates are moving up is they’re not plowing their........

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