White House Budget Director Russell Vought falsely asserted that no Medicaid cuts would be made to anyone in the Republican Budget bill that is headed to the Senate.

After CNN host Dana Bash outlined the many criticisms and worries contained in the House budget bill, including Joni Ernst's callous "we all die anyway" statement, Vought responded by calling criticisms "Astroturf."

Astroturf is a synthetic surface used in baseball and football stadiums. The idiot doesn't even know what he's talking about. It's astroturfing, fuckwit. A common tactic used by Republicans.

BASH: The other reason why we're seeing some pushback is because of the Medicaid cuts that were passed by the House and that are going to go into the Senate.

There was a town hall, which I'm sure you saw, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst was asked, it was pretty raucous, about the Medicaid cuts, and she responded by saying, people were saying that people are going to die, and she said, we're all going to die. But the question that she was getting were, from constituents, were concerns about Medicaid, food stamps and other government support programs leading to people dying and premature deaths.

What do you say to those concerns?

VOUGHT: I think they're totally ridiculous. This is astroturf. This bill will preserve and protect the programs, the social safety net, but it will make it much more common sense.

Look, one out of every five or six dollars in Medicaid is improper.

We have illegal immigrants on the program, we have able-bodied working adults that don't have a work requirement that they would have in TANF or even SNAP, and those are something that's very important to institute.

That's what this bill does. No one will lose coverage as a result of this bill.

Vought is lying repeatedly. Republicans have not shown how his claims have been verified. Almost 8 million people will be kicked off Medicaid because Republicans want tax cuts for their wealthy donor base.

When Bash brought up Senate Republican criticisms, Vought had a different approach.

BASH: That's not what Josh Hawley, who is not exactly a liberal Democrat, said.

He said, it's wrong to cut healthcare for the working poor, and that's what we're talking about here with Medicaid.

VOUIGHT: Well, we continue to work with people in the Senate as to working through the specifics of the bill, what it does and what it doesn't do.

We'll continue to do that, and I think at the end of the day, the Senate will have a resounding vote in favor of a substantially similar bill.

Vought didn't say Sen. Hawley was "astroturf."

Instead, Vought wants to discuss the matter with Sen. Hawley.

Liars gotta lie.

Outrageous lies. In Ohio alone, the state has said 770,000 people will lose coverage. https://t.co/zg8Uh8gBcB

— Rep. Shontel Brown (@RepShontelBrown) June 1, 2025