'Staggering': Fiscal hawk Mike Johnson backs mass deportations 'no matter what the cost'
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), a fiscal hawk, agreed to support President-elect Donald Trump's mass deportation plan "no matter what the cost."
During a Sunday interview on Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker noted that mass deportations could cost the American taxpayer "trillions" of dollars.
"He told me in a previous phone call, there is no price tag for his mass deportation plan," Welker said of Trump. "And yet, by some estimates, it will cost as much as $88 billion per year just to deport a million people."
"Are you, as Congress, prepared to support and pay for President-elect Trump's mass deportation plan, no matter what the cost, no matter how expensive?" she asked Johnson.
"Kristen, I cannot think of a better dollar-for-dollar investment than to restore the security and the safety of the country," Johnson replied. "The best thing we can do is return those people from where they came."
"And yet, the cost is staggering," Welker pointed out. "And you said just last summer, quote, our biggest national security challenge is our national debt."
Johnson insisted that the deportations were a "small investment in terms of what it cost us, what this staggering cost, the lack of resources in our local communities that has been pulled to handle this sanctuary cities nonsense that these Democrat cities brought about and all their policies."
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"Just bottom line, you are willing to spend trillions of dollars if that's what it costs to get this plan passed?" Welker asked.
"Look, it won't cost trillions of dollars," Johnson insisted. "I think we don't yet know the dollar figure, but I will tell you that the American people are going to support that effort."
Watch the video below from NBC or at the link.