SHUTDOWN LIES:
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You probably heard the bald-faced lies by the GOP about Democrats trying to provide such medicaid health care to "illegal immigrants".
PS: EPSTEIN FILEs MUST COME OUT. MAGA Mike Johnson has sent House on vacation for a another round to keep those files to being made public.
AI helped us get to the bottom of the lie.
The immigrant-related claim made during recent government shutdown arguments—specifically, that Democrats shut down the government to give "free health care to illegal immigrants"—is false.
A GIANT LIE
The debunked claim
- The accusation: Some Republican leaders have argued that Democrats are holding the government hostage to provide free, taxpayer-funded healthcare to immigrants who are in the country illegally. During the most recent shutdown, Republican Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson amplified this claim.
- The facts: U.S. law prohibits immigrants who are in the country without legal authorization from receiving federally funded healthcare coverage, such as Medicaid and subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. There is nothing in current Democratic proposals that would change this.
- The core issue: The actual dispute at the heart of the government shutdown was over Democratic efforts to restore and strengthen existing healthcare programs for U.S. citizens and legally present immigrants. Democrats wanted to reverse Medicaid cuts and extend ACA tax credits that had been targeted by Republicans in the "One Big, Beautiful Bill Act".
The misleading aspects of the propaganda
- Conflating emergency care with full coverage: Some who perpetuate the lie use the fact that federal law requires hospitals to provide emergency medical treatment to anyone who needs it, regardless of immigration status. This is legally mandated under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) and is not the same as offering comprehensive, free healthcare. Reagan signed that law.
- Hospitals would not be reimbursed at sustainable levels for care required by a REAGAN ERA LAW under the GOP plan. GOP plan makes more hospitals close than is already happening.
- PERHAPS MAGA WANTS OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS TO BLEED OUT IN ER ROOMS?
- Misrepresenting state-level programs: Some have cited state-level policies that provide healthcare for certain immigrant populations, which are funded at the state, not federal, level. Federal law dictates federal funding rules, and state laws do not change the federal eligibility requirements for Medicaid or the ACA.
- MISUSING THE TERM "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT": The propaganda often fails to distinguish between different immigration statuses. The Democratic initiatives being discussed would have restored coverage for certain lawfully present immigrants—like > 1 million REFUGEES and ASYLUM SEEKERS—who lost access to Medicaid under recent Republican legislation, and illegal reclassification by super-racist Stephen Miller in the White House--- but it would not have provided coverage to those without legal status.
- STEPHEN MILLER is not elected and he would never have a job outside this white nationalist
- autocratic government (Heather Cox Richardson). He hates everyone who is not a white MAGA.
- Make fun of him please.