During a discussion on Wednesday's The Source with Kaitlan Collins, GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson sparred with Collins over the budget resolution which just passed in the House this Tuesday, which lays the framework for massive cuts to our social safety nets while boosting defense spending and extending Trump's tax cuts for the rich.

Johnson, of course, tried to lie that the bill they passed wasn't going to slash Medicaid funding, even though, as Collins repeatedly tried to point out, they aren't going to ever get to the numbers they're giving without doing exactly that.

Collins asked Johnson about the blowback Trump and Musk and their Republican enablers have been getting at these town halls, where angry constituents have been turning out to give them a piece of their minds over what's been happening with the DOGE slash and burn mayhem, and Johnson blew it off as just a bunch of "paid protesters" or Democrats showing up early.

I assume his condescending remarks about Democrats showing up means he believes Republicans have no responsibility whatsoever for their constituents they're supposed to represent if they didn't vote for them.

COLLINS: I was just asking because as you know, your home state of Louisiana, about 80 percent of the Medicaid spending there is covered by the federal government.

We've seen it in a lot of red states, of course, across the United States. It's not just a blue state issue.

As you have seen through this, and we've seen the blowback that some Republicans in your caucus are getting when they go back home to their districts, worried about these cuts or worried about what DOGE is doing.

Do you have concerns that that's anything that Democrats will be able to use to run against those Republicans?

JOHNSON: No, because...no, I don't, because the videos you saw of the town halls were for paid protesters in many of those places.

These are Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats.

If you had, if the videos had panned out...

COLLINS: You can't argue they were all paid protesters though, Mr. Speaker. One of your Republicans acknowledged they were his constituents.

JOHNSON: Ah... one Republican acknowledged they were his constituents, that's fantastic. Okay but, they had Democrats come and fill the seats early, all right?

This is an old playbook that they, they pulled out and, and ran, and it made it look like that what is happening in Washington is unpopular.

But I'm gonna tell you, Kaitlan, the American people are behind what's happening. The DOGE efforts is pulling over 80 percent right now.

They want us to find efficiencies in the federal government. They want the government to be smaller and leaner and more accountable to the taxpayers, and that's what these efforts are all about.

That's what the Republican Party is about. That's what our commitment is to do -- to make government work better for the people.

This is a restoration of common sense above everything else, and I think the American people are going to remain in favor of what's happening here.

COLLINS: Okay, I was just those lawmakers do also represent Democrats. That doesn't mean they were paid to show up if they're upset about this.

The only reason the polling isn't worse is because one, right wing propaganda is downplaying what they're doing. Two, the reality and real world affect of their actions hasn't hit them yet. Three, a lot of the American electorate doesn't pay attention to this sort of stuff until it does affect them directly. And four, they're not done yet and if they keep going at this pace, they're going to continue to harm and piss off larger and larger segments of the American population, a great deal of which are Republicans.

Johnson can keep telling everyone that what they're doing is popular, but it's not, and they know it, or they wouldn't have to lie about what it is that they're doing. They can try to gaslight us as Johnson did here, but that won't matter when the reality of the harm they're inflicting sets in with the people who rely on the programs they intend to slash.

Good luck in the midterms MAGA Mike.