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House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that Democrats are lying about the impact President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will have on Medicaid, casting a pall over the legislation and giving them cover to vote against the sweeping proposal.
Mr. Johnson said the only people who the proposed changes to Medicaid will affect will be illegal immigrants and able-bodied Americans who are cheating the system, while preserving the health care program for those who need it most, including single mothers.
“Young men, for example, who are on Medicaid and not working,” the House speaker said on CNN’s State of the Union. “They are choosing not to work when they can. This is called fraud. They are cheating the system.”
“If you are going to be on the public wagon, you have to do something to pull it — if you are able,” he said.
“Democrats are twisting the facts,” he said. “They are trying to put out misinformation because they are going to vote against this, and there is no way to defend it.”
Sen. Michael Bennet, Colorado Democrat, challenged Mr. Johnson’s claims, saying they are “not true.”
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“I spent a ton of time listening to health care providers in red parts of the state that voted for Donald Trump that are not engaged in waste, fraud, and abuse,” Mr. Bennet said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They are engaged in trying to deliver health care on a shoestring as it is.”
“It is going to drive a lot of these providers out of business,” Mr. Bennet said. “It is going to make it impossible for people that live a very long way from Denver to be able to get health care for their kids.”
Medicaid was created in 1965 under President Lyndon B. Johnson to provide health insurance for low-income people. It was limited to mothers and children, pregnant women, and people with disabilities.
The program expanded under Obamacare to include low-income, able-bodied adults without dependents earning up to 138% of the poverty level. The law directed every state to expand the program, but the Supreme Court ruled it optional in 2012. Currently, 40 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the expansions.
The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated the House-passed plan would leave millions without health insurance.
The findings provided more ammunition for Democrats to oppose the bill. They also generated some unease among some Republicans, including Susan Collins of Maine and Josh Hawley of Missouri, who have raised concerns about the proposed Medicaid changes.
That creates a challenge for Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
The South Dakota Republican only has three votes to spare in the Senate, where another early sticking point is the bill’s impact on the national deficit and debt.
On Sunday, Sen. Ron Johnson said the Republicans’ debt concerns are big enough “to stop the process until the president gets serious about the spending reductions and reducing the deficit.”
The Wisconsin Republican said the spending cuts in the proposal, which top Republicans have described as historic, amount to a “rounding error” and are dramatically outweighed by the more than $4 trillion the measure would add to the national debt over the next decade.
“We have to focus on spending, spending, spending,” the Wisconsin Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “You don’t defeat the deep state by funding it.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Johnson, the House speaker, said the critics are overlooking the bill’s ability to spur economic growth and help reduce deficits.
He also urged Senate Republicans not to tinker too much with it, including the provision to raise the existing $10,000 cap on state and local taxes, known as SALT, to $40,000 for taxpayers earning up to $500,000 in high-tax states.
“The reality is, in the House, that our majority is made up by our members who serve in states like California and New York, Republicans elected in very difficult, close districts and they have to provide some relief for their folks,” the Louisiana Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“So, I think we reached a good equilibrium point over more than a year of discussion, negotiations, and planning,” Mr. Johnson said. “We balanced the interests of a very diverse Republican caucus.”
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