ICYMI: 'Ron Johnson Says Republican Budget Doesn't Cut Enough Spending, Wants Medicaid On The Table'

MADISON, WI - New reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today highlighted Ron Johnson’s support for decimating Medicaid funding and stripping at least 52,000 Wisconsinites of the health care coverage they desperately need. This comes after Wisconsin House Republicans, including Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil, approved a budget that would cut as much as $880 billion in funding from Medicaid.

Yet, Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil have tried to claim that they will have no part in cuts made to Medicaid benefits. If Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil truly aren’t paying lip service, then it’s time for them to stand up to Ron Johnson’s negligence. Empty promises mean nothing when Wisconsinites face a real threat of losing the health care coverage they rely on to survive.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson Says Republican Budget Doesn’t Cut Enough Spending, Wants Medicaid On The Table

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is warning that congressional Republicans’ budget framework will fail to gain support without deeper federal spending reductions. 

And he is suggesting concerns from his GOP colleagues over cuts to programs like Medicaid are complicating the process. 

“The mistake people are making is they’re looking at programs that spend tens, hundreds of billions of dollars, ‘We can’t touch that, can’t touch that, can’t touch that.’” Johnson, Wisconsin’s highest-ranking Republican, said on May 5. “I would go through 2,400 lines and go, ‘Justify spending.’”

Johnson, who serves on the Senate Budget Committee, has said House Republicans’ proposed budget resolution needs to go beyond its target of $2 trillion in planned cuts. Republicans, he said, should slash federal spending to levels in line with those before the 2020 pandemic. 

“We certainly shouldn’t have a budget reconciliation that actually expands the deficit, and right now that appears to be the path we’re on,” Johnson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “That’s not something I can support.”

His comments come as Republicans on Capitol Hill have yet to reach consensus on specific spending cuts, with various Republican factions voicing concerns over lines they say they will not cross. 

Among the biggest concerns, particularly with Republicans facing tight reelection races, is the prospect of cuts to Medicaid.

House Republicans have called for an $880 billion reduction to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s budget, which the Congressional Budget Office has said is sure to impact the entitlement program. 

Multiple Republican senators, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, have said they will not vote for a budget that cuts Medicaid. And 12 House Republicans in a letter last month to their conference leadership said they “cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.”

“Balancing the federal budget must not come at the expense of those who depend on these benefits for their health and economic security,” the Republican lawmakers wrote. 

Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s office on Monday touted a resolution the battleground Republican signed on to disapproving of certain enrollment and benefit cuts to Medicaid.

Some members have said they would consider work requirements for Medicaid. Other proposals include putting a cap on federal Medicaid payments to certain states. 

Still, Johnson said it was a “mistake” for Republicans to single out programs that should not be cut. He said he would like to see Congress “eliminate the fraud” in Medicaid. He made similar comments recently to Fox News. 

Asked what he tells colleagues concerned changes to Medicaid could hurt their 2026 races, Johnson responded: “They ought to think about the country first and how this level of spending is completely unsustainable.”

Johnson called for a “forensic audit of all federal spending” by Congress and said spending should be scaled back from the projected $7 trillion this year to levels closer to 2019, when spending reached about $4.4 trillion.

He praised the Trump administration’s budget framework released May 2 that proposed cutting non-defense discretionary spending, which does not include mandatory entitlement programs like Medicaid, to levels not seen since 2017. But he called that budget “aspirational” and noted it would not pass.

Republicans are seeking spending reductions as they aim to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which are expected to contribute to the $36 trillion national debt.

“The only way we’re going to reduce discretionary spending is (with) continuing resolutions, so we don’t increase it, and rescission packages,” Johnson said. “And then other mandatory (spending) we’ve got to address through reconciliation.”

House and Senate Republicans, though, must pass the same budget blueprint to access the budget reconciliation process, which would allow Republicans in the Senate to bypass Democratic opposition to move legislation.

But in his Fox News interview, Johnson said he did not think Congress would meet House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline to bring legislation up for consideration. He said President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” should have been broken up into a “multiple-step process.”

Asked at the time if he thought Congress could come to an agreement before the end of the year, Johnson replied: 

“Not if we don’t come down with a reasonable pre-pandemic level spending. There’s enough of us in the Senate that will not agree to that.”