The federal government has ballooned from $4.4 trillion in annual spending before the pandemic to a staggering $7.5 trillion today, with deficits now exceeding $2 trillion every single year. And according to Sen. Ron Johnson, that explosion in government power has come with an equally explosive revelation about corruption at every level of the federal bureaucracy.
“My eyes have been thrown wide open in terms of the capture and corruption of not just our federal health agencies,” Johnson said Monday during Breitbart News’s Fight Club Roundtable. “I would say every agency, every department of the federal government is captured by the very businesses and interests that they were designed to regulate.”
The Wisconsin Republican didn’t mince words when describing those responsible for the pandemic response failures. He called them “evildoers.”
“It’s not just what Fauci and the evildoers inside these federal agencies did. It’s across the board,” Johnson told Editor-in-Chief Alexander Marlow and Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
The senator’s comments came during a discussion about efforts to hold officials accountable for their actions during the coronavirus pandemic. But Johnson made clear that the rot extends far beyond former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and the health bureaucrats who dictated America’s COVID response.
Johnson argued that massive government growth has created a system where large corporations have learned to weaponize regulations against their smaller competitors. The very agencies created to protect American consumers and businesses have been turned into tools for the powerful and well-connected.
“They realize, ‘Hey, this ain’t too bad. I can use government. I can use these regulations to my advantage if I’m big enough, if I’ve got enough money,'” Johnson explained.
“If you want to understand what the problem is, it is government, plain and simple,” he said.
Johnson came to Washington with a mission to reduce the size, scope, and cost of the federal government. That mission took on new dimensions when he became chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and began conducting oversight investigations. What he found clearly disturbed him.
The pandemic served as a clarifying moment for many Americans who watched unelected bureaucrats impose unprecedented restrictions on their lives, their businesses, and their churches. Johnson’s comments suggest that even seasoned lawmakers were shocked by what the crisis revealed about how Washington really operates.
“As government grows, our freedoms necessarily recede,” Johnson warned.
