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Alliance Alert: See below for breaking news on last night’s statements by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson from CNN and Politico, claiming that Republicans will not make major cuts to Medicaid (he didn’t rule out work requirements, Medicare or Social Security.

Summaries

CNN: House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed Wednesday that Republicans will not make cuts to Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security as they work to pass – and pay for – President Donald Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda.

“The White House has made a commitment. The president said over and over and over, ‘We’re not going to touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.’ We’ve made the same commitment. Now that said, what we are going to do is go into those programs and carve out the fraud, waste and abuse, and find efficiencies,” Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source.” Pressed on how they would cut the amount laid out in the House’s budget blueprint without touching Medicare and Medicaid, Johnson argued that it is possible through work requirements and other cuts. Johnson also said that per capita caps on federal funding for those programs are “off the table.”

Politico: In the wake of the House passage calling for $880 million from spending that is overseen by the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee, House Speaker Mike Johnson has clarified that the cuts to Medicaid won’t be reached by

• putting per person caps on spending that would have changed it from an open ended entitlement and
• reducing the amount of the portion of Medicaid that is covered by the federal government (see details of the devastating impact if such an approach was sought and approved).

Note that imposing work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries is still on the table.

Several other clarifications:

• The proposed cuts would not be exclusive to Medicaid as the Committee also oversees other spending sectors, including Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, Energy, Communications and Technology, Environment and Oversight and Investigations as well as Health
• The cuts would be levied over a ten-year period.

Johnson is looking for the Senate to approve the House measure in order to help the Republicans to maintain their very slim control of the House.

Johnson Insists Republicans Won’t Cut Entitlements To Pay For Trump’s Agenda
By Morgan Rimmer  CNN  February 26, 2025

House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed Wednesday that Republicans will not make cuts to Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security as they work to pass – and pay for – President Donald Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda.

“The White House has made a commitment. The president said over and over and over, ‘We’re not going to touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.’ We’ve made the same commitment. Now that said, what we are going to do is go into those programs and carve out the fraud, waste and abuse, and find efficiencies,” Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source.”

Though Trump has repeatedly said he will not cut entitlement programs, including during his administration’s first Cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday, Republicans have long sought to shrink Medicaid.

Pressed on how they would cut the amount laid out in the House’s budget blueprint without touching Medicare and Medicaid, Johnson argued that it is possible through work requirements and other cuts. Johnson also said that per capita caps on federal funding for those programs are “off the table.”

“Let’s let this play out,” he added.

Johnson’s promise came hours after House Republicans passed a budget blueprint to advance Trump’s legislative priorities, but it awaits Senate approval. Not all GOP senators are in favor of the trillions of dollars in spending cuts included in the House-passed version that Johnson was forced to add by conservative hardliners, as CNN has reported.

The House GOP plan calls for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts – and if it doesn’t hit $2 trillion, it forces tax-writers to downsize some of their plans. Almost $1 trillion of that will come from savings in the Energy and Commerce Committee, which even some Republicans fear could mean steep cuts to the popular health program Medicaid.

That’s yet another nonstarter for some Senate Republicans, particularly those from states where Medicaid enrollment accelerated after local leaders accepted more federal cash under the Affordable Care Act.

As the March 14 government funding deadline looms, Johnson acknowledged that Congress may have to settle for a yearlong resolution maintaining spending at current levels – with carveouts and adjustments to align with the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts, including to the US Agency for International Development. Those kinds of changes are likely to anger Democrats, whose support Johnson may need to pass the resolution.

“That’s why I say you add anomalies to a (continuing resolution); you can increase some spending, you can decrease some spending,” Johnson said, referring to a short-term stopgap spending bill. “You can add language that says, for example, the dramatic changes that have been made to USAID would be reflected in the ongoing spending.”

“It would be a clean CR mostly, I think, but with some of those changes to adapt to the new realities here,” the Louisiana Republican added. “And the new reality is less government, more efficiency, better return for the taxpayers.”

CNN’s Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.

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Johnson Rules Out Steepest Medicaid Cut Options
The speaker also said in an interview with CNN that he doesn’t expect the Senate will make changes to the House’s budget resolution.
By Ben Leonard and Mia McCarthy  Politico  February 26, 2025

The House has targeted at least $880 billion in savings from the Energy and Commerce Committee, a task that is expected to require significant reductions to Medicaid spending. That has spurred significant concern among centrist Republicans, many of whom have a lot of Medicaid recipients in their districts.

In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlin Collins Wednesday night, Johnson ruled out putting per-capita caps on Medicaid in the eventual budget reconciliation bill. Those caps would mean the federal government would pay a share of states’ Medicaid costs based on their population, instead of the program being an open-ended entitlement. He also said that changes to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage are off the table — a move that would cut into the share of federal payments for Medicaid, a joint state-federal program.

Both of those are options that could produce some of the most significant potential savings from the Medicaid program — but they also would have shifted significant costs to states and led to benefit cuts.

“We’re not going to cut into those programs that way,” Johnson said when asked if he would cap federal funding or reduce match rates. “We’re talking about finding efficiencies in every program, not cutting benefits for people who rightly deserve them.”

Energy and Commerce Chair  (R-Ky.) has told POLITICO that he wasn’t sure if per capita caps would get enough votes to become law, and GOP lawmakers have gotten assurances behind closed doors about protecting certain services. But Johnson’s red line Wednesday was the most definitive Republican leaders have been publicly so far about not entertaining specific major Medicaid changes. They’ve mainly said any reductions would go after fraud, waste and abuse.

 told senior Republicans that Trump wasn’t yet on board with significant Medicaid cuts. Republicans have been increasingly eyeing other potential options to fund the president’s agenda, including extending Trump-era tax cuts.

The speaker also said in the interview that he does not expect the Senate to make changes to the House’s budget resolution, which was barely adopted by the House’s slim Republican majority Tuesday night. But senators have already noted there will be issues on components like the debt ceiling, the current proposed spending reductions and tax cuts.

“I don’t think they will,” Johnson said when asked if he thinks the Senate would change the budget resolution. “I think they understand the necessity of letting the House lead on this. We’ve got a smaller margin than they do for the first time in the modern era.”

Ahead of the March 14 government funding deadline, Johnson noted that Congress will likely have to pass a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or a CR, in place of individual appropriations bills. Spending negotiations have stalled, and Johnson called Democrats’ requests to rein in Trump and Elon Musk’s power over federal funding in exchange for support on appropriations bills “crazy.”

Johnson added that he expects it to be a clean continuing resolution “but with some of those changes to adapt to the new realities here,” including some of the federal funding changes from the Department of Government Efficiency.

“It may be an entire year-long CR, with some anomalies on it,” Johnson said. “It’s not what we prefer, we would like to do individual appropriations bills.”

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Johnson Rules Out Steepest Medicaid Cut Options
The speaker also said in an interview with CNN that he doesn’t expect the Senate will make changes to the House’s budget resolution.

By Ben Leonard and Mia McCarthy  Politico  February 26, 2025

The House has targeted at least $880 billion in savings from the Energy and Commerce Committee, a task that is expected to require significant reductions to Medicaid spending. That has spurred significant concern among centrist Republicans, many of whom have a lot of Medicaid recipients in their districts.

In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlin Collins Wednesday night, Johnson ruled out putting per-capita caps on Medicaid in the eventual budget reconciliation bill. Those caps would mean the federal government would pay a share of states’ Medicaid costs based on their population, instead of the program being an open-ended entitlement. He also said that changes to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage are off the table — a move that would cut into the share of federal payments for Medicaid, a joint state-federal program.

Both of those are options that could produce some of the most significant potential savings from the Medicaid program — but they also would have shifted significant costs to states and led to benefit cuts.

“We’re not going to cut into those programs that way,” Johnson said when asked if he would cap federal funding or reduce match rates. “We’re talking about finding efficiencies in every program, not cutting benefits for people who rightly deserve them.”

Energy and Commerce Chair  (R-Ky.) has told POLITICO that he wasn’t sure if per capita caps would get enough votes to become law, and GOP lawmakers have gotten assurances behind closed doors about protecting certain services. But Johnson’s red line Wednesday was the most definitive Republican leaders have been publicly so far about not entertaining specific major Medicaid changes. They’ve mainly said any reductions would go after fraud, waste and abuse.

 told senior Republicans that Trump wasn’t yet on board with significant Medicaid cuts. Republicans have been increasingly eyeing other potential options to fund the president’s agenda, including extending Trump-era tax cuts.

The speaker also said in the interview that he does not expect the Senate to make changes to the House’s budget resolution, which was barely adopted by the House’s slim Republican majority Tuesday night. But senators have already noted there will be issues on components like the debt ceiling, the current proposed spending reductions and tax cuts.

“I don’t think they will,” Johnson said when asked if he thinks the Senate would change the budget resolution. “I think they understand the necessity of letting the House lead on this. We’ve got a smaller margin than they do for the first time in the modern era.”

Ahead of the March 14 government funding deadline, Johnson noted that Congress will likely have to pass a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or a CR, in place of individual appropriations bills. Spending negotiations have stalled, and Johnson called Democrats’ requests to rein in Trump and Elon Musk’s power over federal funding in exchange for support on appropriations bills “crazy.”

Johnson added that he expects it to be a clean continuing resolution “but with some of those changes to adapt to the new realities here,” including some of the federal funding changes from the Department of Government Efficiency.

“It may be an entire year-long CR, with some anomalies on it,” Johnson said. “It’s not what we prefer, we would like to do individual appropriations bills.”