Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Speaker Johnson Has Pushed For Medicare, Medicaid Cuts And Defunding Planned Parenthood
Common Dreams and Truthout: New House Speaker Had Proposed Trillions In Cuts To Social Security And Medicare
The newly elected Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has previously proposed trillions of dollars in cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and suggested that slashing the programs should be the top priority of Congress. During his tenure as chair of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) between 2019 and 2021, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) helped craft budget resolutions that called for roughly $2 trillion in Medicare cuts, $3 trillion in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts, and $750 billion in Social Security Cuts, noted Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress. (Johnson, 10/25)
The New Republic: New House Speaker Once Blamed Abortions For Social Security, Medicare Cuts
In a clip that surfaced Tuesday, Mike Johnson put the onus of Republican cuts to essential programs on unborn children, claiming that if American women were producing more bodies to churn the economy then Republicans wouldn’t have to cut essential social programs like Medicare and Medicaid. (Houghtaling, 10/25)
CBS News: What Is New House Speaker Mike Johnson's Record And Views On Abortion?
In Jan. 2022, the congressman from Louisiana said "a child in the womb" is a "unique human being with unique DNA" from the moment of conception and he called for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade long before the Dobbs decision in June 2022. Ahead of Wednesday's speakership vote, House Judiciary Democrats posted a video on X of Johnson saying "Roe v Wade gave constitutional cover to the elected killing of unborn children in America, period. You think about the implications of that on the economy. We're all struggling here to cover the bases of social security and medicare and medicaid and all the rest. If we had all those able bodied workers in the economy, we wouldn't be going upside down and toppling over like this." (Mizelle, 10/25)
ABC News: How New House Speaker Mike Johnson Spent Years Fighting Against Gay Rights
An ABC News examination of public records, news reports and documents shows the extent to which Johnson dedicated earlier phases of his career to limiting gay rights, including same-sex marriage and health care access, and through anti-gay activism on college campuses. In comments from over fifteen years ago, long before he became a lawmaker and while acting as an attorney and spokesman for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Christian advocacy group, Johnson described homosexuals as "sinful" and "destructive" and argued support for homosexuality could lead to support for pedophilia. He also authored op-eds that argued for criminalizing gay sex. "There is clearly no 'right to sodomy' in the Constitution," Johnson wrote in a 2003 column in a Louisiana newspaper. (Steakin, 10/25)
Axios: Mike Johnson's Health Care Record
Where he stands on abortion, gender-affirming care, appropriations and more. (Sullivan and Knight, 10/26)
CNN: Speaker Of The House Mike Johnson Once Wrote In Support Of The Criminalization Of Gay Sex
“States have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse,” Johnson wrote in a July 2003 op-ed, calling it a public health concern. “By closing these bedroom doors, they have opened a Pandora’s box,” he added. (Kaczynski and Gordon, 10/25)
Politico: Mike Johnson On The Issues: Where The New Speaker Stands On Abortion, Transgender Care, And Other Policies
Since being elected to Congress in 2016, Johnson has been a vocal advocate for spending cuts and enacting new restrictions on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the country’s largest program feeding low-income Americans. While he voted for the last farm bill in 2018, he criticized the legislation for failing to make deeper cuts to SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, which he dubbed “our nation’s most broken and bloated welfare program.” (10/25)
