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.

"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:

• Puts Nebraska on track to lose up to $4 billion in federal Medicaid funds over the next decade, with an estimated 55,000 Nebraskans projected to lose health coverage.
• Cut food assistance. About 151,000 Nebraskans receive SNAP benefits each month — and roughly 18,000 have already lost that help under 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. He did not, according to the Examiner's account of the event, mention 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 Republican leadership blocked the bipartisan effort to force out the Jeffrey Epstein files on a 211–210 vote — and the files stayed buried for another eleven months, until the President signaled it was fine to release them.

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 $4 billion in Medicaid, 55,000 people losing coverage, and 18,000 who have already lost food assistance.

The Speaker of the House flew to Omaha to talk about one temporary tax break and skip the rest. Brinker Harding smiled and stood beside 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.