Johnson Torches Media Over Spreading Lies About Medicaid in Bill

Johnson Torches Media Over Spreading Lies About Medicaid in Bill

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson lashed out at the media for repeating the lies Democrats spread about Medicaid in the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

Here’s the entire transcript, but I’ll highlight the media part:

Let me just talk about reconciliation real quick. Look, this bill is coming together, as you’ve heard. The last three committees are reporting out today. Everybody in this room gets fixated on a few final details about all this, but I think it’s important to state one more time what we’re achieving through reconciliation.

This will be one of the most consequential pieces of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress. It is large, it is comprehensive, and it deals with reconciling the budget in a way that will be fiscally responsible. We’re going to slash taxes, including on tips over time, Social Security for seniors, and job creators, restore American energy dominance, as you’ve heard, secure our border, and deport illegal aliens. We’re going to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, return to peace through strength, and reduce spending—all at the same time.

I put reconciliation on an aggressive timetable back in January. I said that we would try to do this as quickly as possible. We’re still on target to hit that Memorial Day deadline, which people balked at when we first said it. The American people are counting on us to get this done and get it done quickly.

President Biden left virtually every area of public policy in disrepair, and it is incumbent upon Congress to fix it and pass laws that cannot be easily undone or overwritten. We’re working around the clock to build that consensus, to get the 218 votes, and deliver on President Trump’s America First agenda so the American people can really begin to feel relief.

As we’re working to get this done, House Democrats are working overtime to deceive the American people about this. We’ve discussed it already this morning, but they’re not talking about what the bill actually does. They’re using talking points that are pretty stale. They’re not afraid to lie about what’s in it, and we’re not afraid to tell the truth about what the Democrats are doing. They’ve already been forced to take down their advertisements because they were filled with falsehoods about what the bill supposedly was going to have in it.

You probably saw last week—they’re at it again. They released a so-called CBO report that claims our legislation cuts many millions of Americans out of Medicaid. It’s obviously, demonstrably false. Other outlets have reported on this, okay? They included policies that are not even in the legislation. How could they have done that? Because they released the report before the bill text was issued, okay? Most of the media ran with that, okay?

I’m just going to say this to my friends in the media, on the Hill press corps in particular, right? If you allow Democrats to make these intentionally false claims without pushback, then you’re aiding and abetting the spread of misinformation. I mean, I’m stating the obvious. The job is to get the facts out there, so we hope you will.

We said repeatedly we are protecting Medicaid for the people who need and deserve it. This program is an essential lifeline for our most vulnerable Americans—pregnant women, single mothers, low-income seniors, the disabled. That’s who Medicaid is intended to be for, and that’s who we’re protecting while we’re eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse to improve Medicaid. These are reforms to restore and preserve the system so that it doesn’t collapse on itself.

That means ensuring illegal aliens don’t get coverage meant for Americans in need. It means implementing work requirements to ensure that adults who can work but refuse to cannot keep cheating the system. We’re going to continue to call this out, and we’re going to put the facts out there, and the people are going to be able to judge it for themselves.

.@SpeakerJohnson on reconciliation: "This'll be one of the most consequential pieces of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress. It is large. It is comprehensive." pic.twitter.com/O8uREzCl4Y

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 14, 2025

Yup. Here are a few headlines:

• MSNBC: ‘Largest Medicaid cut in history’: Leader Jeffries calls out Republicans over ‘tax scam’
• The New York Times: House Republicans Push Forward With Tax and Medicaid Cuts
• NBC News: ‘Thicket of red tape’ for Medicaid in GOP bill sparks fears of coverage losses
• NPR: Medicaid cuts will hurt families and cost GOP politically, says Kentucky governor
• ABC News: House Republicans unveil Medicaid cuts that Democrats warn will leave millions without care
• Rolling Stone: ‘Children will die:’ Democrats raise alarm about GOP efforts to Cut Medicaid
• Associated Press: House Republicans unveil Medicaid cuts that Democrats warn will leave millions without care

It doesn’t help that Senate Republicans have been babbling about Medicaid.

If anything, call out Johnson for lying about the spending cuts. Johnson and others told us they’d cut $2 trillion and now can barely find $1.5 trillion to cut.

Despicable.

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