House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), speaking of the need to cut the fraud, waste, and abuse out of Medicaid, made clear that people who took advantage of the system would be found.
Johnson spoke with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who asked if people would lose their Medicaid coverage due to the Trump administration’s effort to cut spending from the federal government payroll.
“The White House has made a commitment,” Johnson stated. “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,” he continued. “Couple of examples. There’s about $50 billion estimated that are lost every year in Medicaid just in fraud alone. No one is for that. We’ve got to make sure we eliminate it. We have the algorithms now to do that. We have advanced technology to find it. We need to ID, provide identification for people who are Medicaid recipients, to make sure they are not illegal aliens. That’s another big carve-out that we will make, to save a lot of money.”
Johnson stated that Democrats were lying when they said the GOP was going to cut Medicaid, prompting Collins to ask, “You say Democrats are lying, when they say you’re going to cut Medicaid. The plan that you passed does instruct the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in cuts, right? And so how do they get $880 billion in cuts from that committee, without touching Medicaid?”
“Because E&C actually has the broadest jurisdiction of any committee in Congress,” Johnson replied. “It covers everything. Energy and Commerce, the name indicates how broad the jurisdiction is. I challenge you, or anybody on your staff, do a word search for ‘Medicaid’ on the resolution that we passed last night. You will not find it. That is not part of this equation, OK? We’re talking about finding efficiencies in every program, but not cutting benefits for people who rightly deserve that.”
“Working requirements — work requirements for Medicaid, that is something that is public opinion polls almost 90 percent,” he asserted. “You don’t want able-bodied workers on a program that is intended, for example, for single mothers with two small children [who are] just trying to make it. That’s what Medicaid is for. Not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games.”
“We’re going to find those guys, and we’re going to send them back to work. That’s what everybody supports. That’s what the Republicans are for. And by the way, we find dignity in our work. That’s going to be good for everybody,” he concluded.
Medicaid is for single mothers with small children who are just trying to make it.
It's not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couch playing video games.
We're going to find those guys, and we will SEND them back to work! pic.twitter.com/3n0egvEkxO
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 27, 2025