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Johnson wants ‘consensus’ on cutting funding for Planned Parenthood and PBS

Umito
Johnson wants ‘consensus’ on cutting funding for Planned Parenthood and PBS

President of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) wants to cut federal funding Planned Parenthood and the PBS as part of a broader effort to reduce the size of government and spending.

During an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Wednesday, Johnson detailed some of his hopes for shrinking the “administrative state,” which the incoming Trump administration is targeting through the new bill. Ministry of Government Effectiveness.

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“Two specific examples: Planned Parenthood and PBS are under the control of Congress. Are you considering removing both? » asked MacCallum.

“I would like to. That’s for sure,” Johnson replied before adding that “we need to reach consensus to get the necessary votes.”

“Or Congress is involved – this is where hard work needs to be done legislatively, to get everyone on the same page. So there will be a lot of ideas coming out. We don’t want to release too much at the moment, okay, but it’s part of preparing the playbook to launch and roll out in January,” he continued.

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The two organizations, which Republicans have always tended to criticize, receive millions of dollars in federal funding each year.

Johnson, along with other social conservatives, has long condemned Planned Parenthood, particularly for the millions of abortions it provides each year.

Planned Parenthood performed 374,155 abortions between 2021 and 2022, receiving $670.4 million in government funding during that period. It also offers a range of other health services, including cancer screenings and preventative treatments.

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Socially conservative organizations such as the Charlotte Lozier Institute have argued that many of its health services are broken. Breast exams have decreased by 74% since 2010 and contraceptive services by 36%, according to an analysis of Planned Parenthood’s 2021-2022 report.

Republicans have also often targeted the Public Broadcasting Service, a news organization created after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

PBS is among the news organizations that receive a fraction of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s (CPB) $500 million in federal taxes each year.

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PBS provides educational, cultural and science programming to public television stations across the country, with federal funding accounting for approximately 15 percent of its total budget.

Conservatives argued the news organization provided biased coverage, pointing to recent analysis of the Media Research Centera conservative media watchdog, to back up their claims. When examining PBS’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention, 88% of PBS’s characterization of the event was favorable, compared to its 72% negative coverage of the Republican National Convention.

Asked Wednesday how Republicans hope to implement their plans to cut these and other programs, despite resistance from donors and lobbyists, Johnson said the recent election results were a game-changer in Washington. .

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“You’re going to have a president bold enough to do it,” he said, comparing President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration to Argentine President Javier Milei’s recent sweeping reforms in the Latin American country.

“You know, we have our own version of Argentina overnight, with Donald Trump… we have to reduce the size of the government, so that it serves the people… we have here, what I think Martha is, a generational opportunity. bring real transformational changes to the administrative state, the deep state. We want to shine a torch on the regulatory state,” Johnson said, adding that he thinks “what Elon and Vivek have in mind can help us in that regard.”

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy lead the new DOGE department created by Trump to reduce the size of government shortly after winning a second term in the White House.

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Johnson will work closely with both men, as well as Greene, to achieve his goals of cutting government spending, including to organizations such as Planned Parenthood and PBS.

“House and Senate Republicans look forward to welcoming Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy tomorrow to discuss how the Department of Government Effectiveness can help us get there,” he continued.