U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to the media after the House failed to temporarily extend FISA, the law that allows the U.S. to gather intelligence abroad, at the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S. June 11, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
House Speaker Mike Johnson just lit the fuse on Republicans' politically explosive third rail, and a Salon columnist warned Saturday it's a sign the GOP is gearing up to gut Medicare and Social Security.
"The largest spending items, the reason we're in trouble, are because over 74 percent of federal spending is on autopilot — mandatory spending, that is, your entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and things like Social Security — they have to be adjusted and fixed," Johnson told conservative radio host Moon Griffon this week. "We have a plan to do that next year."
Salon columnist Heather Digby Parton argued the remarks confirm President Donald Trump's repeated promises to defend the safety-net programs were "another lie."
Project 2025, the conservative blueprint guiding much of Trump's second term, floated raising the retirement age to 69 or 70, altering benefit schedules, cutting disability payments, and pushing toward total Medicare privatization, Parton noted.
She also pointed to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has openly suggested Trump's "Trump baby bonds" could pave the way for the broader Social Security privatization push that failed under George W. Bush.
"There is no article of faith more fundamental to the American conservative creed than the premise that Social Security and Medicare are socialist programs that must be privatized or eliminated altogether," Parton wrote.
Johnson's remarks have already drawn scathing analysis — and prompted one GOP lawmaker to fake a phone call to dodge a reporter pressing him on the issue.
"There’s a certain 'boy who cried wolf' quality to the perennial alarms about the GOP’s lust to get rid of these big federal programs that go back to FDR’s New Deal (Social Security) and LBJ’s Great Society (Medicare)," wrote Digby Parton.
She also issued a grim warning.
"But make no mistake: The minute they actually get the chance to take them down, they will," she concluded.