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“The president has said repeatedly, we’re not going to hurt Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid recipients who are eligible for it. And that is our guiding north, our true north,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Punchbowl News last month.  

In his rural Louisiana district, nearly 25% of adults under age 65 rely on Medicaid, according to an NBC News analysis.

“I understand this acutely — it directly affects my people. We’re going to be very careful not to cut a benefit for anyone who is eligible to receive it and relies upon it,” Johnson told Punchbowl.

But last month, the Congressional Budget Office, which is nonpartisan, said House Republicans can’t meet their budget target without making significant cuts to Medicaid or Medicare, the nation’s health insurance program for seniors.

In the House, the Medicaid budget falls under the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Republican budget plan instructs that committee to cut spending.

In February, Johnson said that “we’re going to cut the fraud, waste and abuse and that’s where we’re going to get the savings to accomplish this mission.”

It would be very difficult to make the proposed Republican cuts just by targeting fraud, waste and abuse, said Megan Cole Brahim, an associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and co-director of the school’s Medicaid Policy Lab.

“This on the surface seems like a reasonable idea — nobody likes fraud, waste or abuse,” she said. “But there is a misalignment between the proposed cuts the Republicans are trying to make [and] the actual scope of fraud and waste.”  

Johnson identified another way he intends to save Medicaid dollars.

“You’ve got a lot of able-bodied workers, young men who could be out working, who are choosing not to because they’re on the government wagon,” he told Punchbowl. “I think that’s wrong, and I think if you get those people out of the program — and there’s a large number of them — then you preserve it for the people who actually need it and deserve it.”

Cole Brahim called this a “false narrative,” pointing to a KFF study that shows in 2023, nearly two-thirds of adults ages 19-64 covered by Medicaid were working and nearly 3 in 10 were not working because of caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, or school attendance.

In the McLaurins’ case, Ronnie McLaurin doesn’t have health insurance through his work as a self-employed electrician. 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Diana and Rick Bellamy initially planned to take a Caribbean cruise out of Houston before heading to Laurel, Mississippi, to visit the home of one of their favorite HGTV shows, “Home Town.”

The Calgary couple scrapped those plans and vacationed last month along Mexico’s Pacific coast instead, put off by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, the insults he’s hurled at their homeland, and stories about American border agents searching people’s phones and detaining foreigners for minor reasons.

She found it ironic that she felt more comfortable traveling to Mexico than the U.S.

“I never thought I would hear myself say that,” Diane Bellamy said.

Trump’s attacks on Canada’s economy and threats to make it the 51st state have infuriated Canadians, who are canceling trips to the U.S. in big numbers. They also seem to have also flipped the narrative heading into Canada’s parliamentary elections on Monday, with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party surging after trailing far behind in the polls just a few months ago.

A steep decline

The U.S. gets more visitors from Canada each year than from any other country, according to the U.S. Travel Association, an industry trade group, which said the 20.4 million visits from Canada last year generated $20.5 billion in spending.

But there has been a big drop in foreigners traveling to the U.S. since Trump took office, and Canadians are no exception. There were more than 910,000 fewer land border crossings from Canada into the U.S. last month than in March of 2024 — a more than 22% drop — according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. An Air Canada spokesman, meanwhile, said Canada-U.S. flight bookings for April through September are down about 10%.

Trump brushed aside the decline in tourism to the United States on Wednesday, saying, “There’s a little nationalism there I guess, perhaps. It’s not a big deal.”

Traveler worries

Since Trump started his second term, there have been well-publicized reports of tourists being stopped at U.S. border crossings and held for weeks at immigration detention facilities before being allowed to fly home at their own expense.

On March 3, Canadian Jasmine Mooney, an actor and entrepreneur on a U.S. work visa, was detained by U.S. border agents in San Diego. She was released after 12 days detention.

Before Mooney’s release, British Columbia Premier David Eby expressed concern, saying: “It certainly reinforces anxiety that … many Canadians have about our relationship with the U.S. right now, and the unpredictability of this administration and its actions.”

The Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents faculty and staff at Canadian universities, warned its members against nonessential travel to the U.S. due to the “political landscape” under Trump and reports of Canadians encountering difficulties crossing the border.

Academics who have expressed negative views about the Trump administration should be particularly cautious about traveling to the U.S., said the group.

“People are scared to cross the border. I don’t know what Americans are thinking, quite frankly. Are they that oblivious?” said former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who has family in Florida.

Mike Sauer, who runs a community policing center in Vancouver, said he and his partner have no interest in traveling to the U.S. now because of Trump’s politics and border fears. One of Sauer’s concerns is that if a border guard were to check his cellphone, the guard might see his past purchases of marijuana, which is legal to buy in Canada and about half the 50 states but is still illegal under U.S. federal law.

“The States have a different view on drugs. They could certainly look at my phone and see I’m 420-friendly,” he said, meaning he’s marijuana-friendly. “I think it kind of depends on which border guard would have a problem with that and which ones wouldn’t.”

Dietra Wilson, 32, said when she was younger, she often visited Detroit, which is just across the border from Windsor, Ontario, where she and her husband, Ben, own a secondhand shop. She hasn’t visited much in recent years, though, and she said she’s heard of people’s worries about crossing the border since Trump moved back into the White House.

“It’s worrisome,” she said.

Ben Wilson, 37, also has qualms about trying to cross.

“Why would I want to?” he said. “Regardless of the tariffs, if I’m going to be stopped at the border for my phone or something somebody texted me, why go?”

Industry worries

The drop in Canadian tourism to the U.S. led California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent target of Trump, to announce an ad campaign this month meant to lure Canadians back to his state, citing a 12% year-on-year drop in February.

McKenzie McMillan, a consultant with a Vancouver-based travel agency, The Travel Group, said the company’s bookings to the U.S. have dried up. “We have seen a near-total collapse of U.S. business,” he said. “Probably about a 90% drop since February.”

Lesley Keyter, the CEO and founder of the Travel Lady agency in Calgary, said she’s seen people actually forfeit money to cancel their U.S. trips.

“Even if they’re going on a Caribbean cruise, they don’t want to go down to Fort Lauderdale to get on the cruise ship,” she said.

Justin Bieber is hitting back at what he calls “gossip” and “lies” on social media, addressing for the first time a whirlwind of concerns about his mental health that has spread online in recent months. 

Bieber’s personal life has been a nonstop focus of internet speculation for years, with his every move documented by fan accounts and celebrity-focused media. Most recently, fans expressed concern on social media about his behavior at Coachella, where he was filmed smoking while dancing. 

Bieber has rarely responded to the online rumors, but posted to Instagram on Thursday. 

“They treat me like a– out here, but if I remember that I am flawed too and god forgave me, It helps me to stop feeling better than those people who are mean and hurtful,” Bieber, 31, wrote. “Because when I’m really honest I can be mean and hurtful too.” 

A representative for Bieber did not respond to a request for comment.

The pop superstar, who’s spent his entire adolescence and adulthood as a household name, has been open about the way his early fame has affected his mental health. More recently, he’s posted online about his “anger issues” and his fears around being “inauthentic” or “not enough.” 

That has done little to quell the online fervor around his personal life and anything he posts online. 

In recent months, his online followers have raised speculation about a series of cryptic social media posts from Bieber, who has been particularly active on Instagram this year. The posts, along with the fan-captured videos of him at Coachella, have fueled unverified rumors about whether the Canadian singer is struggling with substance use or mental health issues. 

During the music festival, Bieber also posted content to his Instagram page of him enjoying an artist’s set and riding in a golf cart on the Coachella grounds with friends. 

In February, a rep for Bieber told TMZ that rumors around Bieber are untrue, and that the continual speculation about his mental and physical health is “exhausting and pitiful and shows that despite the obvious truth, people are committed to keeping negative, salacious, harmful narratives alive.” 

In his latest Instagram post, Bieber wrote: “my instinct is to be like damn I wouldnt gossip and spread lies about someone on the internet but there’s other s— I do I’m not proud of.” 

As Bieber grew from a teenage internet phenom to a full-blown pop culture entity, his love life has been the focus of intense scrutiny and obsessive speculation from fans. 

Throughout the course of his decadelong relationship with his wife, Hailey Bieber, 28, fans have consistently compared her his former flame Selena Gomez, often making unfounded accusations about the two women. 

This parasocial dynamic, in which fans adopt one-sided emotional bonds with their favorite celebrities, has led to assertions about Bieber’s alleged lingering affection for Gomez. Their highly publicized on-and-off romance became a formative pop culture saga for some fans, who now insist that Biebers’ marriage is disingenuous. 

The pair, who got married in 2018, welcomed their first child, Jack Blues Bieber, last year.  

In 2020, Hailey Bieber shared in a lengthy Instagram post that she “hurt[s] very easily when I feel like people don’t see my heart and see me for who I am,” adding that social media is “SUCH a breeding ground for cruelty.” 

“I could sit here all day and say the hate doesn’t bug me, that the words that are said don’t affect me. But NEWS FLASH: it hurts to be torn apart on the internet!!!” she wrote. “It hurts to be compared to other human beings every single day, it hurts for people to jump to conclusions and make assumptions.” 

In his post on Thursday, Justin Bieber also appeared to allude to the persistent internet gossip around his relationship. 

“And honestly if I was u it would be hard not to be jealous if I saw me and Hailey going so brazzzzyy,” he wrote. “It’s really up for us and that’s understandable why people can’t stand it. I don’t blame em.” 

A judge on Thursday refused to rule out the death penalty in the trial of a man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in 2022.

Defense attorneys for Bryan Kohberger had sought to strike capital punishment as an option in his upcoming murder trial, but Judge Steven Hippler denied the request.

Attorneys for Kohberger argued that he was recently found to have autism spectrum disorder and that the death penalty would be “dehumanizing.”

“No court has ever found ASD to be a categorically death-disqualifying diagnosis,” Hippler wrote in the ruling.

He wrote that prosecutors were correct in their arguments that autism spectrum disorder does not qualify under the law for exemptions for the death penalty under intellectual disabilities, and that there is no national consensus on the issue.

Kohberger is charged with murder and other counts in the stabbing deaths of four students in an off-campus Moscow, Idaho, home where most of the victims lived on Nov. 13, 2022.

He is accused of killing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in the three story-home. Investigators believe the students were killed sometime between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m., according to court documents. Their bodies were discovered later that morning after roommates were unable to contact them.

Hippler in November had previously ruled that prosecutors could seek the death penalty in the case.

In a separate ruling Thursday, Hippler allowed the 911 call from the surviving roommates the day the bodies were discovered and texts to be admitted at trial, as long the proper foundation is laid. Some redactions were ordered.

Kohberger was a resident of Pullman, Washington, around 10 miles from Moscow, and he was doctoral student in the criminal justice and criminology department at the Washington State University when the killings occurred.

He was arrested in northeastern Pennsylvania on Dec. 30, 2022.

Kohberger has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. A judge has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

The trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 11.

A motive remains unclear in the slayings.

Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders was not selected in the first round of the NFL draft Thursday.

Sanders, 23, was one of the most polarizing prospects in this year’s NFL draft. Many mock drafts predicted Sanders would land with the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 21st pick in the first round, though opinions ranged from as high as third overall to out of the first round entirely.

The Steelers ultimately took Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon at that spot.

The only other quarterback taken in the first round after No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward was Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart. The New York Giants traded for the 25th pick to select Dart.

The son of NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, the Buffaloes’ head coach, Shedeur Sanders was the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in his senior campaign at Colorado, completing 74.0% of his passes with 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Sanders began his collegiate career at Jackson State, a historically Black university, in 2021, when his father was the head coach. After two seasons with the Tigers, he followed his father to Colorado, where he spent another two years.

The Buffaloes won only one game the year before Sanders arrived. In his second season they won nine, their most since 2016.

In the lead-up to the draft, scouts and coaches raised questions about Sanders both on and off the field.

One quarterbacks coach reportedly referred to him as “brash” and “arrogant.” Another assistant coach told NFL Network that he was “entitled” after what he described as “the worst formal interview” he’d ever been a part of. 

“He’s so entitled,” the anonymous assistant told NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. “He takes unnecessary sacks. He never plays on time. He has horrible body language. He blames teammates. … But the biggest thing is, he’s not that good.”

On the field, Sanders has been criticized for both his lack of arm strength and his decision-making. In his two seasons with the Buffaloes, he took a whopping 94 sacks.

But he has also been lauded for his accuracy, completing over 70% of his throws over the last two years.

“I truly don’t have any space for negativity, so it doesn’t play a factor in my life at all,” Sanders told NBC News this month about the criticism he has received. “I understand the easiest thing in the world to do is to be negative instead of positive. I truly don’t care what people have to say.”

He added: “I’m happy everything is happening this way. I like a lot of chaos, because it shows you who’s really there. I wouldn’t change a thing, because this adds to the story.”

The 2025 NFL draft was only minutes old when one of the league’s newest general managers shook up the night with a blockbuster trade.

The Jacksonville Jaguars moved up from No. 5 to select Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter with the second pick.

Follow along for live coverage of Round 1 of the NFL draft

Hunter is perhaps the draft’s best athlete, a top recruit out of high school who developed into a star while playing both receiver and cornerback for Colorado and coach Deion Sanders.

With the fifth pick it received from Jacksonville, the Cleveland Browns took Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham.

Cleveland badly needs a quarterback, with even team owner Jimmy Haslam recently describing the Browns’ disastrous trade for Deshaun Watson as a “big swing and miss,” yet the pick of Graham and the initial trade down from No. 2 suggest the Browns were not enticed by the class of quarterbacks available.

Next year’s quarterback class could potentially include Arch Manning of Texas and Penn State’s Drew Allar.

The trade to grab Hunter brought to mind comments made by new Jaguars general manager James Gladstone at his introductory press conference months ago.

“We will prioritize people and players that are intangibly rich, and by doing so, they will elevate our ecosystem by being nothing more than themselves,” Gladstone, 34, said.

Hunter is certainly more than a typical player. Last season he caught 96 passes, including 15 touchdowns, averaging 12.9 yards per reception — the type of big-play target who could help Trevor Lawrence, the Jaguars quarterback and former No. 1 overall pick.

Defensively, Hunter had 36 tackles and four interceptions with 11 passes defended.

Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Jaguars are expected to allow Hunter to play both offense and defense in the NFL, which was his wish.

Florida state Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo announced Thursday that he is leaving the Democratic Party.

“Here’s the issue, the Democratic Party in Florida is dead,” Pizzo said in remarks on the Senate floor.

He said he had sent in a voter registration form to change his party affiliation to “no party affiliation.”

Follow live politics coverage here

Pizzo said the state’s political system resembled “the infighting, power struggles, corruption and decline of civic virtue that pervaded and eventually ushered in the fall of Rome.”

“So, too, are we players, or perhaps props, in the mess that is bottom partisanship,” Pizzo said.

Pizzo, who is considered a potential candidate for governor next year, said he felt liberated by his decision.

“I think stripping myself of the title of the party designation allows me to run free and clear, clean and transparent and help many, many more,” he said in his remarks.

Pizzo, who was first elected to the state Senate in 2018, represents a district that includes parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He previously was an assistant state attorney in the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.

State Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement that the state party was “more united without him.”

“Jason Pizzo is one of the most ineffective and unpopular Democratic leaders in recent memory, and his resignation is one of the best things to happen to the party in years,” Fried said. “His legacy as leader includes continually disparaging the party base, starting fights with other members, and chasing his own personal ambitions at the expense of Democratic values.”

Pizzo did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Fried’s statement.

Senate Democrats elected Sen. Lori Berman as their new leader hours after Pizzo’s announcement. Berman was elected to the Senate in 2018 to represent part of Palm Beach County after having served in the state House. Berman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.

Other lawmakers have left the Democratic Party in recent months include state Reps. Susan Valdes and Hillary Cassel, who announced switches to the Republican Party in December.

Evan Power, who chairs the Republican Party of Florida, said in a statement that Pizzo “didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the party left him,” noting the two other lawmakers who recently left the party.

“This decision underscores the radicalization of today’s Democratic Party,” Power said.

There are roughly 1.2 million more registered Republican voters than Democrats in Florida. Roughly 26% of all registered voters in the state have no party affiliation. Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the presidential election in the state last year 56.1% to 43%.

A private equity executive is accused of raping and assaulting six women in his New York City apartment over a five-month period, and prosecutors say “there may be more survivors” of the man’s alleged wrath.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office unsealed a 116-count New York State Supreme Court indictment on Thursday, charging Ryan Hemphill, 43, with predatory sexual assault, rape and assault — among other charges — in a series of alleged acts that began Oct. 3.

Hemphill was arrested March 1. He has been held in jail since and appeared in court for his arraignment Thursday.

He pleaded not guilty, and the judge ordered that he remain in jail.

“The defendant told these survivors that he was untouchable,” District Attorney Bragg said at a news conference Thursday. “The indictment makes clear that he was wrong.”

Prosecutors say Hemphill used his wealth and power as a weapon, and allegedly beat and drugged the women in order to restrain them, threatened them with guns and knives and used a shock collar and cattle prod before raping them in what Bragg said was “hours of physical and sexual violence.”

In some cases, prosecutors allege that Hemphill asked the women to confide in him about their past sexual traumas and then re-enacted the acts they described. He also allegedly recorded the sex acts on video cameras throughout his Midtown Manhattan apartment.

Following his arrest, authorities executed a search warrant on Hemphill’s apartment and found high-capacity magazines and hundreds of bullets, a cattle prod, large amounts of drugs and surveillance cameras with videos of dozens of women, according to the Manhattan D.A.’s office. 

“We have reason to believe that there may be more survivors,” Bragg said. The D.A. later said “dozens, if not hundreds, of women are captured on that footage.”

Prosecutors said Hemphill told the women he was highly connected and bragged about his status as an attorney, insisting that because they accepted money he offered, they would be the ones who were arrested.

In one case, Hemphill allegedly agreed to pay a woman $2,000 in exchange for her dropping a police complaint, prosecutors said. He also allegedly forced the women to record videos saying they consented to the sex acts so he could have deniability if they chose to speak out.

“The power imbalance in his predatory acts could not be more clear,” Bragg said Thursday.  

Prosecutors said he met the women online and told them he would pay them “large sums of money” in exchange for sex. In many cases, he never paid the women, or paid them with fake money, prosecutors said.

In 2015, Hemphill was acquitted of choking and holding a knife to his ex-girlfriend’s throat.

If convicted, Hemphill could face life in prison.

At the arraignment Thursday, Judge Ann E. Scherzer ordered Hemphill to remain jailed without bail. His lawyer, a public defender, asked the judge to move Hemphill to a rehabilitation facility to deal with substance abuse issues.

Scherzer said keeping Hemphill in jail was the only way to ensure he would return to court, as his behaviors, laid out by prosecutors, “shows his extent to which he’s willing to go to protect himself from facing these charges.”

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