Facing pressure at home, GOP lawmakers warn Johnson against ‘hatchet’ spending cuts

On the eve of their first major vote to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, key House Republicans are warning Speaker Mike Johnson that they won’t simply rubber-stamp steep cuts across the federal government.

On the eve of their first major vote to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, key House Republicans are warning Speaker Mike Johnson that they won’t simply rubber-stamp steep cuts across the federal government. Johnson plans to hold a vote Tuesday on a sweeping budget plan that calls for $2 trillion in cuts over a decade to help pay for tax cuts and new national security spending. But the fate of that measure is uncertain amid rising pressure back home, as Republicans across the country face blowback over the blitz of spending freezes and federal worker firings directed by billionaire Elon Musk. “You have to do this with a scalpel and not a hatchet. And we have to make sure that people who work hard but rely on Medicaid for health insurance, or seniors in a nursing home, or folks who are disabled, are protected,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, told CNN. Van Drew — who’s had protesters lined up outside his South Jersey district office — said he’s spoken to Johnson about getting “an assurance” before he agrees to advance Trump’s agenda. He isn’t alone. Several other Republicans, such as Reps. Nicole Malliotakis of New York and Don Bacon of Nebraska, have yet to commit to Johnson’s budget plan until party leaders can promise the final bill won’t gut key federal aid programs like Medicaid, food assistance and Pell grants, according to multiple people familiar with discussions. Bacon, for his part, said he wants to advance Trump’s agenda on national security, energy production and tax cuts. “But we don’t want to make significant cuts to Medicaid, and the current proposal appears to do just that,” he told CNN.