Speaker Mike Johnson got the big beautiful bill through the House, and now he’s on the full victory lap circuit. He was all over the Sunday shows, pitching the idea that this isn’t some slash-and-burn operation on social services — it’s “preserving and strengthening” Medicaid. He’s painting the cuts to SNAP and work requirements for Medicaid as anti-fraud measures. The messaging is clear: this is about waste and abuse, not cruelty. And on a long holiday weekend, with soft opposition and a press mostly focused on side stories, that message landed.
From a strategic perspective, Johnson and Trump are playing this well. Johnson didn’t promise the world. He didn’t make himself a hostage to the hardest hardliners. And Trump knew exactly when to lean on the Freedom Caucus to get them to vote yes. They locked in the SALT cap compromise first, then brought in the skeptics. No tantrums, no last-minute defections — just a quiet, ugly, but effective grind to 218.
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