GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – United States Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin joins WTAQ’s Mid-Morning News on Thursday to talk about the inevitable Congressional discussions that will stem from last week’s deadly shooting at a Florida high school, which claimed 17 lives.
In tragedies like the Parkland shooting, the Oshkosh Republican says the problem is the person pulling the trigger.
“It is an issue of mental health. It is an issue of drug and alcohol abuse. It is an issue of the fact that the American family, there’s been a lot of damage done to that foundational building block of our society.”
Following the shooting, many Democrats have called for gun law reform.
Johnson reiterates that he supports the Second Amendment.
“Who am I as a United States Senator to tell a single mom who feels threatened in her home what type of weapon she can possess to protect herself in her own home?”
Johnson says the only way any of these talks will go anywhere is if Democrats are willing to compromise.
Shifting gears, as the immigration debate continues on Capitol Hill, Johnson says the Democratic Senators’ recent rejection of a deal that would’ve provided a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers was very telling.
“The fact that the Democrats weren’t able to meet the president more than half way, I think the president came more than half way, indicates that they would rather have it as an issue rather than actually solve the problem.”
The deal also called for funding a wall along the southern border, limiting chain migration, and ending the visa lottery program.
President Trump gave Congress until March 5 to find a fix for the DACA program.
Meanwhile, as Texas Senator Ted Cruz tells attendees at the conservative CPAC gathering that he aims to collect enough Republican Senators to repeal Obamacare, it’s a different message from Johnson.
“I think our opportunity to completely repeal was last year and unfortunately, there were too many Republican Senators who promised they were going to do that and then when they had the opportunity, they didn’t do that.”
While the Republican Congress has been unable to get rid of Obamacare, it was able to wipe out the healthcare policy’s individual mandate.
