'People are hurting out here': Mike Johnson’s constituents turn on him over Medicaid

Even residents of House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) deep-red congressional district are voicing their displeasure with House Republicans' efforts to gut funding for Medicaid.

NBC News reported Wednesday that rural Louisiana voters in the southwestern portion of the state that Johnson represents are now calling on the speaker to prioritize the program that provides health insurance for low-income Americans. The Rev. Leroy McClelland told the network he has several medical issues and depends on safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps — both of which would be cut in the Republican budget — to make ends meet.

"People can’t do without it," McClelland said. "So I would tell [Congress] to help us out. Help us. People are hurting out here. And you may be from Louisiana, but you’re the House speaker. Cross the aisle. Work together to do whatever you got to do. That’s my message."

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According to NBC, approximately one in four residents under the age of 65 in Johnson's district rely on Medicaid for health insurance. And roughly one in five residents depend on food stamps in order to afford groceries. The budget resolution that passed the House last month on a party-line vote would cut Medicaid by $880 billion, while food stamp spending would be slashed by $230 billion.

At the same time, the Republican budget package would expand Trump's 2017 tax cuts through Fiscal Year 2035, which the Congressional Budget Office has estimated will cost $4.5 trillion. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) said previously that legislation was "skewed to the rich, expensive and failed to deliver on its promises." The CBPP estimated that the richest households would get more than triple the tax cuts that lower and middle-class households would get.

Vinton, Louisiana resident Summer Stinson told NBC that she worried about whether she would be able to afford health insurance if the budget her congressman shepherded through the House of Representatives became law.

“My children are on Medicaid. So yes, I do. I do fear that very much, and they make it to where insurance isn’t really affordable with our companies,” Stinson said. “I don’t know what we would do without it.”

Click here to read NBC's report in full.