The federal government shut down in the early hours of Wednesday morning after Democrats and Republicans came to an impasse over the former’s efforts to protect health care for the millions of Americans who are insured through the Affordable Care Act.
Vice President JD Vance has told Americans to brace for “pain” from the shutdown, which will furlough some 750,000 workers, while others, including active-duty troops, head to work without pay. President Donald Trump’s administration has also threatened to carry out mass firings during the shutdown.
The Trump administration is also being criticized for blaming Democrats for the shutdown in emails to federal workers ― something experts say may violate the Hatch Act. Trump and members of his inner circle have also repeatedly claimed Democrats are fighting to give free health care to undocumented immigrants, which is wildly misleading.
The White House continued to push its wildly misleading claim about Democrats’ shutdown demands with a press release boldly titled, “Fact: Democrats Shut Down Government Over Free Healthcare For Illegals.”
“Democrats and their Fake News allies want you to believe it’s all a lie that Democrats shut down the government over free healthcare for illegal aliens,” it stated. Quoting Vice President JD Vance, the White House said the claim was “not a talking point” and “not something that we made up.”
However, it is not an honest representation of reality. Unauthorized immigrants are already barred from federal health care programs by law. The Democrats are not trying to change that. They want to roll back the big cuts that Republicans made to Medicaid when Trump signed his so-called “big, beautiful bill” this year; among the programs affected was one that does not require hospitals to prove the immigration status of certain emergency-room patients. But the Democrats have signaled that their main demand centers around Obamacare subsidies. (HuffPost)
