Today's Lie

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson appears to be a devout individual. Shortly after becoming Speaker, he was asked a general question by Fox News' Sean Hannity about his political views and stated "Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That's my worldview."  In 2022, he had stated "There is not a distinction or dichotomy between your religion and your religious life and the rest of your life. It is all one." 

Thus it's surprising- or not- that Johnson is working overtime to spread this week's Republican zombie lie. Here he tells ABC's George Stephanopoulos

Forty-four Senate Democrats voted to reject a clean, non-partisan continuing resolution to keep the United States government open. The Democrats said instead that they wanted to give health care to illegal aliens instead of keeping critical services provided to American cities. That's what happened, plain and simple. Every Democrat in the House except for one voted against the clean, continuing resolution.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The Democratic proposal is designed to prevent millions of Americans from losing their health insurance, losing Medicaid coverage, or paying higher healthcare premiums. Why are you against that?

MIKE JOHNSON: That's an absurd statement

STEPHANOPOULOS: It's a… pic.twitter.com/1W2iXYlDMu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 1, 2025

"Non-partisan" because one Democrat voted for the GOP plan. However, Stephanopoulos called him out, noting 

Here are the facts. The proposal does not provide health care for illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants cannot buy health care under the Affordable Care Act. They cannot receive health care subsidies. Illegal immigrants are ineligible for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health program. the Democratic bill does not make them eligible. 

As can be seen in the video above, Johnson contested Stephanopoulos' statements. But in the Speaker's own words, this is the truth, "plain and simple," as explained by Newsweek's Dan Gooding:

Democrats released a budget proposal that seeks to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies before they expire at the end of the year. The plan, put forward by Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro and Washington Senator Patty Murray, also includes a reversal of Medicaid cuts made earlier this year.

The pair argues that if their proposal is not put in place, then “15 million Americans” will be kicked off their health care plans, because of the provisions made in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would see health care provisions expire in 2027, including for legal immigrants accessing ACA subsidies....

The proposal does not include free healthcare for illegal immigrants....

According to KFF, an organization that analyzes health policy in the U.S., under the Republicans' 2025 Tax and Budget Law, 1.4 million lawfully present immigrants could lose health coverage.

The analysis refers to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) own reporting, which said $131 billion could be saved by making it so that a smaller list of lawful immigrants is able to access Medicaid and CHIP. Among the immigrants set to lose access to health care plans are refugees and asylees, those paroled into the U.S., and those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

All of this is something Democrats have denounced, but there do not appear to be concrete plans to keep coverage for the groups about to become ineligible.

Immigrants in the U.S. without legal status—now referred to as illegal aliens, commonly as undocumented immigrants—are largely barred from accessing healthcare under the ACA, as well as Medicaid and Medicare.

There are some exemptions to this rule, namely for emergency room care, which the government does then repay, but this applies to all patients without other medical insurance, regardless of immigration status. 

Gooding is correct that in the federal code, these individuals are (remarkably) referred to as "illegal aliens" and in the media, among prominent Democrats and some prominent Republicans, as "undocumented immigrants." Both labels are ridiculous. The first can apply to extraterrestrial beings. (Ask 100 Americans what an "alien" is and most will rationally think of  unidentified flying objects.) Further, "aliens" is unnecessarily adversarial and disparaging.  

Kudos to Stephanopoulos for using the accurate, value-neutral term "illegal immigrants." "Undocumented immigrants" is a sanitized version of "illegal immigrants." There are, after all, illegal immigrants and legal immigrants, not undocumented immigrants and "documented immigrants."

Johnson is not the only well-known Republican skillfully and smoothly lying through this crisis. The cross-wearing presidential press secretary:

Democrats are shutting down the federal government because President Trump won’t force taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens.

Just think about that…

Democrat elected representatives are punishing their own constituents to fight for illegals.

Deranged. pic.twitter.com/tkp2evE7PA

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) September 30, 2025

Both Johnson and Leavitt are very open about their Christian faith. Given their commitment to dishonesty, it would be more accurate to say that they are very open about their alleged Christian faith. 

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