Mike Johnson called out for cutting healthcare for 1.4 million of his own voters - Brian Tyler Cohen

[TexasTowelie]

Transcript:

the CBO found that nearly 8 million
Americans will in fact lose their
insurance coverage because of the
changes this bill makes to Medicaid so
how do you reconcile that with what
President Trump said
uh it's directly in line with what the
president said i've said the same we are
not cutting Medicaid in this uh package
there's a lot of misinformation out
there about this Jake the numbers of
Americans who are affected are those
that are entwined in our work to
eliminate fraud waste and abuse and what
I mean what do I mean by that you got
more than 1.4 million illegal aliens on
Medicaid medicaid is not intended for
non- US citizens it's intended for the
most vulnerable populations of Americans
which is pregnant women and young single
mothers the disabled the elderly they
are protected in what we're doing
because we're preserving the resources
for those who need it most 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 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 and that's why this is a u
the morality of what we're doing here is
precisely right and it comports with all
the public opinion polls when people ask
whether young men for example who are
able-bodied and have no dependent should
be working everybody says yes and that's
what our package does so these estimates
that you're hearing uh are are accurate
but it's it's dealing with those uh
numbers of of people in the population
and that's going to make the preserve
the program and strengthen it for those
who need it most so 1.4 million people
in your home state of Louisiana are on
Medicaid more than
800,000 receive uh SNAP benefits also
known as food stamps is it your
contention that if any of those
Louisianans lose their benefits it's
because they shouldn't have been
receiving them because they were
committing waste fraud or abuse
yeah look my district as every district
in America has people who are on the
program who shouldn't and when you're
talking about I keep using this example
a young able-bodied man with no
dependence there's no reason he should
not be working we are the party about
that that supports human dignity and we
find purpose and dignity in our work
it's good for the individuals involved
it's good for their community it's good
for society at large when you're talking
about work requirements by the way it's
very flexible it just means that you
either work or you volunteer do
something meaningful in your community
or you're in a job or work training
program 20 hours a week i mean this is
not some huge uh demand uh if you're
going to be on the public wagon you have
to do something to help pull it if
you're able first of all when Mike
Johnson says that Republicans are quote
not cutting Medicaid in this package
that is a bald-faced lie this bill
absolutely 100% cuts Medicaid to the
tune of $700 billion but it does so by
imposing ownorous work requirements that
make it so difficult to access and
maintain coverage that millions of
people will be forced off the roles in
fact the nonpartisan Congressional
Budget Office has scored this bill and
said that it would result in a
staggering 13.7 million Americans losing
their healthcare so to claim that this
bill wouldn't cut Medicaid when a
population three times the size of Mike
Johnson's own home state of Louisiana
will be stripped of their Medicaid
coverage goes to show just how shameless
this person is he even tries justifying
this Republican budget bill's deep cuts
to Medicaid by suggesting that 1.4
million voters from his own home state
including from his own district don't
deserve it that's a third of the entire
state population of Louisiana his
contention is that every single person
who's about to have their Medicaid
stripped away is committing some type of
fraud and so every single cut is somehow
warranted and justified so let's be
clear about who Medicaid actually serves
this program's eligibility is strictly
income based wherein your income needs
to be below
$34,800 at most to qualify depends on
the states but that's the top threshold
think about that for a moment 35,000
bucks a year these are working American
families elderly Americans people with
disabilities and children who literally
cannot afford health care any other way
if you think that these people are
gaming the system or getting away with
murder here then you might want to
rethink your math and consider what it
costs not to thrive but to simply
survive in the United States of America
today the notion that we should be going
after these people is batshit crazy unto
itself but what makes it even worse is
that Republicans are going after these
people expressly to offset a tax cut for
the top 0.1% of Americans according to
the Pen Wharton analysis people making
between about 17,000 and 51,000 could
lose about $700 on average people
reporting less than 17,000 in income
would see a reduction closer to $1,000
on average by contrast the top
0.1% including those with incomes over
$4.3 million would gain on average more
than
$389,000 in after tax income in 2026 in
other words hundreds of thousands of
dollars in giveaways to the richest
Americans and a net loss in after tax
income for the working class exacerbated
of course by the fact that healthcare
will be gutted but of course Mike
Johnson isn't moved by any of this
because he's decided that anybody who's
about to lose their Medicaid was
receiving it fraudulently that's a
pretty big claim to throw out there that
people are committing fraud left and
right and one might think that with all
this purported fraud that we'll see
charges being filed left and right but
just like how Elon Musk cried fraud to
justify gutting the federal government
via Doge there were no charges and here
there won't be any charges either
because the fraud accusations are not
real they are simply an excuse to hide
the fact that Republicans don't give a
flying about the working class and
are looking for any excuse any
justification to trot out on television
and justify their giveaway to the
healthiest Americans in fact I posed
that same question to Tommy Lahren on
Alexson's show on Fox LA and she too
didn't have much of an answer here i I
think you and I can both agree that if
if if these folks are committing fraud
that is a serious crime uh probably the
most serious crime that you could commit
and I mean anybody who is committing
fraud would obviously be charged tried
convicted and so can you explain to me
how we've been hearing this talking
point about fraud all this fraud is
getting eliminated over and over and
over again and yet not a single charge
has been filed so if there's all this
fraud that Elon Musk is tweeting about
on a daily basis that Fox is hosting
interviews to discuss where are the
charges
i can't wait for those charges to come
down as you know it takes a little while
now let's be clear the fraud charges
aren't going to happen and Republicans
know they're not going to happen but
this claim serves as the GOP's
placeholder so that they have some
plausible deniability to make these cuts
knowing that by the time we realize
there's no fraud the bill will have
already passed Republicans will have
already gotten their tax cuts and it'll
be a done deal so they'll just lie right
now because it's not about protecting
people it is about buying time until
they can codify their tax cut what's
particularly gling though is how
Republicans like Mike Johnson and others
will wrap this cruelty in the language
of fiscal responsibility they'll talk
about waste fraud and abuse in Medicaid
as if there are millions of people
fraudulently collecting benefits but
study after study has already shown that
fraud rates in Medicaid are extremely
low usually less than 1% of total
spending the real waste in our health
care system is the massive profits being
extracted by insurance companies and
pharmaceutical companies but Republicans
never want to talk about that and that's
the disconnect between Republican
rhetoric and reality mike Johnson
represents Louisiana again a state with
some of the highest poverty rates in the
entire United States louisiana has
terrible health outcomes objectively
speaking high rates of diabetes of heart
disease of infant mortality his
constituents need Medicaid but Johnson
would rather score political points by
attacking government dependency than
actually help the people who elected him
to serve he'd rather give tax cuts to
his wealthy donors than ensure that
children in his own district can see a
doctor when they're sick and let's be
honest about what happens when people
lose Medicaid coverage they don't just
stop getting sick they don't disappear
they still end up in the emergency rooms
when they have heart attacks or strokes
or when their diabetes gets out of
control they still need cancer treatment
and dialysis and prescription
medications but now instead of having
coverage through Medicaid they'll be
uninsured meaning hospitals will have to
eat the cost of their care which means
higher prices for everybody else or
these people will just suffer and die
because they can't afford treatment but
hey pro-life party am I right this
moment also reveals how Republicans
really see their role in government
because they don't view themselves as
public servants whose job is to help
their constituents they view themselves
as gatekeepers whose job is to decide
who deserves help and who doesn't
johnson isn't asking here how can we
make sure everyone in Louisiana has
access to healthcare what he's asking is
how can we kick as many people off of
government programs as humanly possible
that's not governing that is cruelty for
the sake of cruelty so the next time
that you hear Republicans talk about
being pro-life or caring about family
values remember this moment remember
Mike Johnson sitting on national
television and saying that 1.4 million
people in his own state don't deserve
healthcare remember that when
Republicans had the choice between
helping six people and giving tax cuts
to billionaires they chose billionaires
just like they do every single time

[wolfie001]

1. republican states are broken by design

The rich are fenced off in their secure neighborhoods. The rest are on their own.