Ron Johnson Quotes

Debt ceiling is something that, you know, any time the president asks for the authority to increase the debt ceiling, the debt burden on our children and grandchildren, I think that requires a pretty serious discussion, robust debate.

- Ron Johnson

If we weren't running deficits, if we weren't spending more than we were taking in, there would be no reason whatsoever to increase the debt ceiling.

- Ron Johnson

With honest discussion, free speech, let people's voices be heard.

- Ron Johnson

In 2010, there were 57 lawyers, zero manufacturers, and way too many career politicians in the United States Senate.

- Ron Johnson

What you don't want to do - if you're concerned about poverty, if you're concerned about providing opportunity - you don't want to rip the bottom rung of the ladder of opportunity away from people.

- Ron Johnson

For nearly five years, I worked with Marquette University Law School and helped to administrate a community crime prevention initiative called Safe Streets. We used restorative justice practices to help reduce crime and violence in the Milwaukee community.

- Ron Johnson

The people that are proposing banning assault weapons, well, first of all they're already banned. Assault weapon is a fully automatic, those are already banned.

- Ron Johnson

I realize the voters elected President Obama in 2012, but they also, in 2014, elected enough Republican senators to gain a majority in the Senate, so we control the confirmation process. And these are two supposedly coequal branches of government involved in this filling of a Supreme Court vacancy.

- Ron Johnson

Vladimir Putin is only going to respond to action, strength, and resolve. He's not going to respond to words.

- Ron Johnson

We are in perilous territory the stronger Iran gets. And they're getting stronger. We should make them weaker.

- Ron Johnson

We certainly should support both parties having observers at the polling stations to make sure that neither side does anything that allowed a fraudulent vote. That's a very healthy check on the process.

- Ron Johnson

The whole climate change debate gives - and there are all kinds of quotes from adherents of and promoters of climate change - the reason they're doing it is it's such a great opportunity to control, you know, pretty much, government, and control your lives.

- Ron Johnson

I guess when you take a look at the book 'Atlas Shrugged,' I think most people always like to identify with the main character - that would be John Galt. I guess I identify with Hank Rearden, the fella that just refused until the very end to give up.

- Ron Johnson

We have demagogues on all sides of the political spectrum. It's not helpful. It's destructive. It's harmful. So, I don't like demagoguery whether it comes from the left, it comes from the right.

- Ron Johnson

I think it's unrealistic for public-sector employees to believe that they are immune from modifications to their pay and benefit packages.

- Ron Johnson

I created jobs. Russ Feingold, during that same approximate 30 years, what did he do? He built government. He built it larger and more intrusive.

- Ron Johnson

People oftentimes refer to me as 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' So, I'm Mr. Johnson. I'm a complete outsider.

- Ron Johnson

This is nothing negative about the other candidates. It's just a recognition of the fact that Governor Romney has won more delegates. He's the only person that really has a chance to take the winning number of delegates into the convention.

- Ron Johnson

In Wisconsin, we have got a lot of agricultural products that are exported. We have a lot of manufacturing products that are exported. I don't want to engage in a trade war.

- Ron Johnson

Fixing this broken system will take the perspective of someone who has actually solved problems. 31 years of manufacturing taught me how.

- Ron Johnson

What we should be doing is responsibly addressing the primary drivers of our debt and deficit issues.

- Ron Johnson

It's more complex than just slapping up a wall. We have got to take a look at all the complexities in terms of eliminating the incentives for illegal immigration.

- Ron Johnson

When I joined the Senate in January 2011, I raised my right hand, placed my left hand on the Bible, and swore a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Defending the constitutional domain of the branch of government in which I serve is an obligation of that oath.

- Ron Johnson

Scott Walker has provided some really excellent leadership in Wisconsin.

- Ron Johnson

One of the promises I made when I ran was, I'll never vote with my reelection in mind.

- Ron Johnson

I've certainly honored the two promises I made: Always tell you the truth; never vote with my re-election in mind.

- Ron Johnson

If you manage things properly - and, listen, I'm a business guy. I've got to prioritize spending in all my business career to prevent my business from going bankrupt. The federal government has got to start doing that eventually as well.

- Ron Johnson

I'm an accountant. I'm a manufacturer from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, who stepped up to the plate, and now I'm a U.S. senator.

- Ron Johnson

The outrages surrounding the Benghazi attack involve administration action - or lack of action - before, during, and after the attack.

- Ron Johnson

There is a real problem in terms of the refugee flow, the ability of ISIS to infiltrate those refugee flows, our inability to track them.

- Ron Johnson

If you're an Islamic terrorist, probably the last program I'd use to try to get into this country is the refugee program.

- Ron Johnson

There is something that happens when victims and offenders meet. Offenders and victims are able to see each other as human beings, with names and families.

- Ron Johnson

The Obama administration has an undeniable pattern of using regulatory overreach and intimidation to further its political aims.

- Ron Johnson

Far too often in the political realm, we demonize success; we demagogue against it. What we should be doing is incentivizing success.

- Ron Johnson

In an era of unprecedented medical innovation, we have to do more to ensure that patients facing terminal illnesses have access to potentially life-saving treatments.

- Ron Johnson

You could establish along the zones of the coast of the Caribbean in Honduras gorgeous resorts zones. If we could help them do that, they could start rebuilding their economy.

- Ron Johnson

From my standpoint, we ought to be talking about... how do you make Wisconsin a more attractive place for risk-taking, business investment, business expansion.

- Ron Johnson

We need different perspectives here in Washington - someone who has private-sector experience, somebody who's actually created jobs, manufactures products, understands the incentives and disincentives, the intended and unintended consequences of legislation.

- Ron Johnson

There are a lot of young kids serving in Washington, D.C.: kids that are smart, hard-working, but they've never farmed. They've never run a business. They've never been in the private sector. They went from high school into college and right into Washington, D.C.

- Ron Johnson

Iran is Iran. It has a regime that is destabilized in the region, that is spreading terror.

- Ron Johnson

Never denied climate change. It has always changed and always will.

- Ron Johnson

The best way to prevent the homegrown-inspired attacks is literally positive engagement with Muslim communities. Making sure that any immigrant population that comes into America assimilates, becomes part of our culture. That has been our history; it has made us strong.

- Ron Johnson

To me, support versus endorse are two totally different things.

- Ron Johnson

I'm going to be voting for Donald Trump. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure he wins.

- Ron Johnson

I don't think we can do anything about controlling what our climate is.

- Ron Johnson

We have seven months before the election. Our top priority as fiscal conservatives is to make sure President Obama retires.

- Ron Johnson

I don't like outside group ads. I don't like attack ads. I particularly don't like them now that I'm in the process and they are being used against me.

- Ron Johnson

In the general economy, you get government involved in making market decisions - first of all, they're going to get it wrong. For a minimum wage, you will actually reduce the number of jobs available.

- Ron Johnson

If you're looking for a metric that we have to measure, that we have to control, it's government in relation to the size of our economy.

- Ron Johnson

I think people realize I'm truly an outsider.

- Ron Johnson

Any individual that would be running for office, if they would say something that crosses a line and, in the end, is so significant, so major, that you couldn't support them, I'd have to withdraw support from any individual, okay?

- Ron Johnson

I believe the U.S. has been way too silent on the brutality, the lack of human rights in the Muslim world for women.

- Ron Johnson

I have a great deal of respect for Wisconsin workers.

- Ron Johnson

I am going to certainly endorse the Republican nominee, and obviously it looks like that will be Mr. Trump.

- Ron Johnson

It doesn't make any sense to continue to elect people like Ron Kind or Russ Feingold, individuals that literally are dedicated to growing the federal government.

- Ron Johnson

I am the epitome of a citizen legislator.

- Ron Johnson

We all have the problem of what do you do with the not-guilty-yet in free and democratic societies where you have the presumption of innocence. It's a very difficult problem.

- Ron Johnson

Many of us have felt that sense of desperation - of urgency - when we learn that we or someone we love is fighting for their life.

- Ron Johnson

It is past time for Congress to get serious about our spending crisis and impose fiscal restraint.

- Ron Johnson

The arrogance of liberal progressives is that they're just a lot smarter and better angels than the Stalins and the Chavezes and the Castros of the world, and if we give them all the control, and they control your life, they're going to do a great job of it. Well, it just isn't true.

- Ron Johnson

I have to - I think an endorsement is something incredibly important. I would never do it just strategically. I would have to have full confidence that I have got no questions about the person.

- Ron Johnson

When it comes to judicial nominations, President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats are fond of reminding Republicans that elections have consequences.

- Ron Johnson

It's not law-abiding gun owners that are the problem here - it's Islamic terrorists.

- Ron Johnson

Trust me: our critical infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber-attack, to potential terrorist attack, and we are not taking this threat seriously enough.

- Ron Johnson

All the time, you take a look at what government rules are, so you can minimize the impact of government regulations. That's just smart business.

- Ron Johnson

I'd be 100 percent supportive of a minimum wage - kind of industry specific, maybe regionally specific - for guest workers, so that we're not creating incentives for employers to bring in immigrants to lower the price of labor.

- Ron Johnson

Career politicians manufacture hogwash.

- Ron Johnson

I really don't think that the public-sector employees should be unionized.

- Ron Johnson

The Obama administration's hostility to school choice programs is well known.

- Ron Johnson

Mankind has actually flourished in warmer temperatures.

- Ron Johnson

How many people are moving up toward the Antarctica, or the Arctic? Most people move down to Texas and Florida, where it's a little bit warmer.

- Ron Johnson

I've been working like a dog as a United States senator.

- Ron Johnson

The federal government is way larger than it should be.

- Ron Johnson

We actually do need a federal government, but we need a limited one.

- Ron Johnson

Some stimulus is not a bad thing.

- Ron Johnson

Washington treats Social Security like a Ponzi scheme.

- Ron Johnson

What happens outside of the campaign is outside of my control.

- Ron Johnson

I think justice Scalia is really the gold standard of what a justice should be. Somebody, regardless of how he feels on an issue, is going to look at the text of the Constitution, look at the text of the law, and make his judgment.

- Ron Johnson

The only area that I would agree with minimum wage is in immigration reform, the guest worker program.

- Ron Johnson

What we do not need are career politicians that simply run for office to be somebody with a big title. We don't need that.

- Ron Johnson

Unlike Obama and the Senate Democrats, I respect the will of Wisconsin's voters.

- Ron Johnson

I think it's extremely important that the citizens of Wisconsin know the positions I'm taking.

- Ron Johnson

You always want to help people out.

- Ron Johnson

You don't get further outside than I do going into Washington, D.C.

- Ron Johnson

I absolutely do not believe in the science of man-caused climate change.

- Ron Johnson

You can't call ISIS the JV team. You can't say that they're contained. Sure, we've had some success, but we have not defeated them.

- Ron Johnson

George H.W. Bush assembled a 'coalition of the willing.' We need to do that again.

- Ron Johnson

The fairest and most democratic process in terms of Supreme Court nominees is let the American people have a voice.

- Ron Johnson

As long as ISIS is not overtly losing, they'll continue to be perceived as winners.

- Ron Johnson

I want to err on the side of constitutional liberty and freedom.

- Ron Johnson

Any president is going to need extremely good advisers.

- Ron Johnson

Russ Feingold is a career politician. He's addicted to it.

- Ron Johnson

We do not have a secure border on our southern flank.

- Ron Johnson

Donald Trump's a change agent. So am I.

- Ron Johnson

We have to get the oil where the oil is.

- Ron Johnson

When I feel there's a door open, you always walk through it.

- Ron Johnson

Successful ideas, they snowball.

- Ron Johnson