Rep. Mike Johnson Targets Young Male Gamers For Austerity

GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson proposes Medicaid cuts for young men while protecting benefits for single mothers

source: @bronzeagemantis on X

Trump and congressional Republicans plan to cut $880 billion from Medicaid, which could eliminate coverage for 15.9 million people. These proposed Medicaid cuts are to pay for the tax cuts that will mostly benefit the wealthy and corporations. Medicaid is healthcare for low-income and disabled people, which differs from Medicare for the elderly. The GOP refuses to cut military spending from the budget, which, along with Social Security, is the main budget expenditure.

GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson went on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins show to defend the proposed budget cuts. Rep. Johnson was blatantly dishonest in starting out by promising that he doesn’t plan to cut people’s Medicaid benefits but only wants to crack down on fraud and increase efficiency, which sounds reasonable. However, he then pivots when talking about work requirements, saying, “You don’t want able bodied workers on a program that is intended, for example, for single mothers with two small children who is just trying to make it. That is who Medicaid is for, not for 29 year old males sitting on their couch playing video games. We’re going to find those guys, and we’re going to send them back to work. That’s what everyone supports, and that is what the Republicans are for.”

source: @3aryan3wonk3 on X

About 90% of the responses to Speaker Johnson on X/Twitter were negative, though most were from dissident right types. However, under the YouTube video comment section, there was a lot more outrage from leftists, with some pro-Trump conservatives defending Johnson. Johnson epitomizes everything about the old GOP that Trump initially repudiated. This rhetoric harkens back to Never Trumper, Rick Wilson, who smeared Trump supporters as childless basement dwellers who self gratify themselves to anime.

source: @ElectionLegal on X

Speaker Johnson’s remarks were a giant F-you to struggling young men, many of whom shilled for Trump. Young men are the demographic that has shifted the most electorally to the right. Thus, the GOP should want to keep them on board and win over more of them rather than alienate them. It was literally a meme that Gamers got Trump elected. In contrast, single mothers are one of the most staunchly Democrat voting constituencies.

source: @aaron_renn on X

source: @Bobbythirdway on X

Many young rightwing men who are economically successful still interpreted Johnson’s remarks as a diss at young men in general. For instance, saying, fine, cut Medicaid, but I don’t want to have to pay taxes for single mothers. Single young men are far less likely to use government benefits, including healthcare, than single mothers or old people. However, a lot of young White men are underemployed due to anti-White discrimination or mass immigration, or they have just given up and dropped out of society due to demoralization over the direction of society. Not to mention that there is immense wealth redistribution from working age men to women, especially single mothers, as well as to the elderly, whose taxes on Social Security Trump wants to cut. Young men don’t have an equivalent of AARP, like seniors have to protect their benefits.

source: @MarmotRespecter on X

source: @MarmotRespecter on X

source: @GundamNoContext on X

Notably, Speaker Johnson chose the gamer archetype, which is stereotypically associated with young White men rather than a stereotypical ghetto Black dude archetype, who is much more likely to be unemployed. There is a mentality that not just women but Blacks are more deserving of assistance because they see them as victims who need greater support but also have lower expectations from them. White males, especially from middle class backgrounds, are expected to do well. Thus, if they fail, they are just lazy, so it is a moral failing. This same mentality permeates both the liberal and conservative sides. However, what is ironic is that the old GOP under Reagan and Gingrich used quasi racist rhetoric about Black Welfare Queens to justify welfare austerity.

source: @emperorthesteve on X

source: @DavidZsutty on X

A lot of middle aged and older conservatives, like Johnson, seem to really hate young men. It is instinctive for older men in power to try to quell young men, as they threaten to usurp the established order and are naturally rebellious. In contrast, single mothers are perfect subjects of the regime because they are hyper dependent and thus don’t rebel. Older conservatives also have a double standard where they expect young men to fulfill traditional gender roles yet excuse bad female behavior or view women as vulnerable and in need of special protection.

source: @DantzlerLowe on X

source: @uncledoomer on X

Johnson’s hyper moralism, as an Evangelical, is quite different from Elon Musk’s more cold, ruthless, amoral technocracy, which views people as just economic units. For instance, in Johnson’s CNN interview, he emphasized “the dignity of work”, though he doesn’t support workers’ rights. Favoring benefits for single mothers over young men is also analogous to how pro-life conservatives, like Johnson, are creating more of a Democrat voting constituency in the future, purely out of moralistic convictions. I am also skeptical of the notion that America’s economic problems are because ordinary Americans are too lazy or have a bad work ethic, as labor productivity has risen over the past several decades, and automation will accelerate productivity soon.

source: Joseph Politano on Substack

Single mothers have already fulfilled their biological imperative by reproducing while single young men have not. Even though some of these men might be the same deadbeat dads who impregnated the single mothers, pointing out this disparity hits people vicariously on an instinctive level. For instance, imagine how demoralizing it would be for an alienated and struggling young man to lose his healthcare and then get forced to get a crappy job so that he can subsidize a ghetto single mother’s kids? Basically, Johnson is for imposing austerity while also being ok with dysgenics.

source: @MedGold_ on X

Conservatives often correctly point out how the welfare state destroyed the Black family by incentivizing single motherhood. For instance, Black women kicked their husbands or boyfriends out because they would lose their benefits if they didn't. Thus, Johnson and many other conservatives are defending the worst aspect of the welfare state just to be a white knight.

source: @Casagrandezz on X

source: @TheAutumnalFire on X

Speaker Johnson was wrong to differentiate between those who are worthy of Medicaid and those who are not. Either we have free healthcare for all citizens who need it, or we don’t have it for anyone. Since America’s welfare state is not universal, it enables politicians to pit different welfare constituencies against each other with threats of austerity. While single-payer healthcare systems are far from perfect, if we had single payer, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.

While you could argue that scrapping the welfare state would be slightly eugenic, welfare recipients are an easy scapegoat, especially considering how much money is spent on corporate welfare, financial bailouts, and the military. Not to mention that scrapping the welfare state would cause a big increase in crime and homelessness. A UBI or a negative income tax for adult citizens only and not kids would mostly address dysgenics, which is the polar opposite of what Johnson wants.

Means testing, such as work requirements for benefits, greatly increases administrative costs, which is counterintuitive to the purpose of DOGE, unless they use AI to replace bureaucrats. Republicans support means testing more to punish people for some moral failing rather than for economic efficiency. The Republicans’ case for work requirements is that Medicaid disincentives looking for work, but many people on Medicaid are already working low wage jobs. While Johnson claims that the issue is about cracking down on Medicaid fraud, most of the fraud is from providers and insurance companies, not recipients.

source: @Big_crusher1000 on X

Medicaid use is high in poor White rural areas that voted for Trump, like Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arkansas, and 71% of Trump voters oppose Medicaid cuts. It is not just prole Whites, but Trump also made significant inroads among Hispanics in areas with high rates of Medicaid use, such as Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, Southern Arizona, and California’s Central Valley. GOP congressmembers who won in swing districts with lots of low income voters who vote for cutting Medicaid could cost the GOP the midterm elections. Regardless, I see a future political divide on the Right between austerity and welfare nationalism, that a social safety is good for our people but not for outsiders like immigrants.

source: nytimes.com