'Disappointed': Republicans say they can't trust Mike Johnson — here's why

The Wall Street Journal reports mistrust is growing among House Republicans who say they don’t know if they can trust Speaker Mike Johnson’s word in budget talks.

“I’ve seen that on more than one occasion where the speaker will come in, have a conversation, and the group believes there is some sort of consensus and then finds out later that there really wasn’t,” said Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus.

Among others, skepticism appears to haunt the party’s wing of deficit hawks, who insist on major budget cuts to fund an extension of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, to avoid blowing up the nation’s debt. That ideology bangs against blue state and many moderate Republicans who prefer not to rankle constituents by gutting the nation’s Medicaid program to sustain the tax cuts.

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But Crane says the speaker is increasingly desperate to pass the budget quickly, and could be looking to cut corners, particularly when it comes to the wishes of minority party enclaves like the Freedom Caucus.

“I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we have such a narrow majority and the speaker is just trying to bring everyone on the same page, and not everyone is going to get everything they want,” Crane told the Wall Street Journal.

Johnson told reporters last week: “I don’t make promises I can’t keep. This is a consensus-building operation, as you know, and it’s member-driven, bottom up.”

The WSJ also reports Johnson’s spokesperson saying Tuesday that the speaker “has been clear and transparent with members throughout the reconciliation process—that the savings in the House bill will meet or exceed the targets laid out by the House Republicans’ budget resolution passed back in February.”

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But party critics say Johnson appears to tell different things to different groups depending on their priorities in private conversations.

“Lots of assurances were made when the [budget] framework passed, and now the chickens are coming home to roost, and the people who were given those assurances don’t feel like the assurances were kept,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told WSJ.

Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) said: “Overall, I am very disappointed in his leadership and his honesty.”

Read the full Wall Street Journal report here.