On July 18, 2026, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson walked into WheatFields Eatery and Bakery in Omaha, stood in front of about 100 people, and made the case for Brinker Harding.

The event, the Nebraska Examiner reported, was built around a single provision of Trump's budget bill: no tax on tips. Here is what Johnson said, as WOWT reported it:

"This is a big thing. It's not just campaign rhetoric. We've delivered for the people," Johnson said. "The no tax on tips helps servers and waitstaff, like millions and millions of people across the country, keep more of their hard-earned dollars and not send it to Washington."

Then he framed the November election:

"It's a contrast election between common sense and crazy, and this is your common sense candidate."

Let's take the contrast seriously, then. Because the law Johnson came to Omaha to brag about did a great deal more to Nebraska than tips.

What that same bill is doing to Nebraska

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is the law that contains the tip deduction. It is also the law that:

• Could cost Nebraska up to $4 billion in federal Medicaid funds over the next decade and cause as many as 55,000 Nebraskans to lose health coverage, according to Nebraska Appleseed.
• Cut food assistance. About 150,600 Nebraskans received SNAP benefits each month in fiscal 2025 — and between April 2025 and April 2026, roughly 18,000 fewer were participating, a drop food-access advocates attribute to the new restrictions. That's not a projection. It already happened.
• Delivers roughly $1 trillion in tax cuts to the richest 1%.

Johnson came to a breakfast spot to talk about the one part of that bill that sounds good to a waitress. Neither the Examiner's nor WOWT's account of the event has him mentioning the other parts.

And the tip break is smaller than it sounds

It isn't even what the name says. As the Economic Policy Institute lays out, the law "did not eliminate taxes on tips. It created a temporary income tax deduction for a subset of tipped workers."

Who actually gets the money:

"Employers of tipped workers are the biggest beneficiaries; the deduction gives them more room to hold down or cut base wages. Some tipped workers benefit, but only those in eligible occupations who owe federal income tax. Many tipped workers earn too little to qualify, and lower-income workers benefit the least."

Read that again. A tax deduction only helps you if you owe federal income tax in the first place. A server scraping by on a tipped minimum wage often doesn't — so she gets nothing, while her employer gets a new argument for why her base pay doesn't need to go up.

EPI's assessment of the whole package is blunt: "The bill's harms dwarf any small, temporary benefits for workers."

And EPI notes the deduction is temporary by design — one of a class of tax breaks that "are often temporary and provide larger benefits to higher-income tax filers." The Medicaid and SNAP cuts in the same law are not temporary.

What Harding says he'll be in Washington

Here's why the guest list matters.

When the Nebraska Examiner's voter guide asked candidates about Congress's role, Harding answered:

"Congress is the first branch of government and it needs to act like it. ... Congress still needs to pass budgets on time, maintain genuine oversight and reassert its Constitutional authority. A strong Congress checks executive overreach regardless of party. I intend to do my part."

Good words. Now look at who he asked to headline his campaign.

Mike Johnson is the Speaker who has run this House. He's the one who decides what gets a vote and what doesn't. Nebraskans watched that machinery up close in July 2025, when House Republicans blocked a Democratic effort to force a vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files on a 211–210 procedural vote — and the effort stalled for four more months, until the President reversed himself and told House Republicans to vote for release.

That's not a Congress reasserting its constitutional authority. That's a Congress waiting for permission.

If Harding genuinely intends "to do my part" checking executive overreach, the Speaker who has spent this term running interference for the executive is a strange person to put on stage.

The rest of the pitch

Johnson also asked the crowd whether they wanted "the next chapter of America" to look like New York under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The crowd yelled no. "I would rather it be like the heartland," Johnson said.

Earlier that same week, he was in Iowa telling Christian conservatives that Republicans face "a spiritual battle" in November.

None of that is about Nebraska. None of it lowers a grocery bill in Omaha or puts a single one of those 18,000 Nebraskans back on food assistance. It's a national message delivered to a swing district, and Harding stood next to it.

A senior adviser to Democratic nominee Denise Powell put it this way: "It's not surprising that Brinker would bend over backwards to welcome Mike Johnson to Nebraska."

What we already know about Harding on this bill

This isn't the first time Harding has praised a law that cost his neighbors. He told Roll Call in April 2026 that Trump has been "doing great things," adding: "We've got tax relief for families. We've got 'no tax on tips.' I can go through the list."

Nebraskans can go through the list too. It includes up to $4 billion in Medicaid, as many as 55,000 people losing coverage, and 18,000 fewer Nebraskans on food assistance.

The Speaker of the House came to Omaha to talk about one temporary tax break and skip the rest. Brinker Harding stood with him. We deserve better.

Source

US House Speaker Mike Johnson says Brinker Harding is 'common sense' candidate for NE-02 — Juan Salinas II, Nebraska Examiner, July 18, 2026. Photo: Juan Salinas II / Nebraska Examiner. Johnson's quotations: House Speaker Mike Johnson visits Omaha to back congressional candidate Brinker Harding — WOWT, July 18, 2026.