Defending the “big, beautiful” spending bill the House of Representatives has passed and is now waiting to see if the Senate will pass, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) explained that the bill does not cut Medicaid but rather blocks illegal aliens from leeching off of the program, which they are forbidden by law from accessing but currently are able to access.
That came when Speaker Johnson appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper on Sunday, May 25, and explained to the CNN host that was is really going on is that there are “more than 1.4 million illegal aliens on Medicaid” and House Repulbicans have taken action to end that illegal abuse of the program.
Beginning his commentary on the subject, Speaker Johnson explained that the House GOP did not, as the woke media and leftist Democrats have falsely claimed, cut Medicaid for Americans. He said, “We are not cutting Medicaid in this package. There‘s a lot of misinformation out there about this.”
Building on that, he explained that the House is slashing waste and fraud, and that part of the fraud is illegal aliens accessing the program. He said, “The numbers of Americans who are affected are those that are entwined in our work to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. And what do I mean by that? You got more than 1.4 million illegal aliens on Medicaid.”
He further noted, on that same point, that Medicaid is meant for vulnerable and needy American citizens, not invaders who have washed up on our shores. He said, “Medicaid is not intended for non-U.S. citizens. It‘s intended for the most vulnerable populations of Americans, which is pregnant women and young single mothers, the disabled, the elderly.”
Adding to that, Speaker Johnson then emphasized to Tapper that those vulnerable Americans will not see cuts to Medicaid, and that the actions taken by the House are meant to preserve it for them. He said, “They are protected in what we‘re doing because we‘re preserving the resources for those who need it most.”
Still not done, Speaker Johnson then turned to another form of fraud that the House Republicans are trying to root out, explaining that nearly 5 million Americans are able bodied but aren’t working and are instead relying on welfare and entitlement programs like Medicaid, which is fraud and will be cut.
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Beginning that point, the House Speaker explained the massive number of men who have chosen not to work despite being able to, saying, “You‘re talking about 4.8 million able-bodied workers, young men, for example, who are on Medicaid and not working. They are choosing not to work when they can.”
Concluding, he explained that what those people are doing is fraudulent, much like illegal alien access of welfare programs, and so that fraud will be cut. He said, “That is called fraud. They are cheating the system. When you root out those kinds of abuses, you save the resources that are so desperately needed by the people who deserve it and need it most. That‘s what we‘re doing.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Mike Johnson, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=139920652