Show Notes
The federal government remains in a shutdown and, depending on whom you believe, it is either because Democrats want to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants, or Republicans want to jack up costs on ordinary Americans.
What’s going on, and who’s right?
Host of The Drill Down podcast Peter Schweizer has seen his share of government shutdowns, and he adds some important context in the most recent episode. While it is technically true that an illegal immigrant does not qualify for federal healthcare programs, federal aid must cover emergency room visits by illegal immigrants with payments to hospitals for cover anyone too poor to pay for treatment.
“So, what’s interesting to me is the Democrats’ position – that immigrants that are in the US illegally are not eligible for federal health care programs. They say what the Republicans are saying is pure bunk, but that’s actually not the case,” Schweizer says. While that is technically true, “there are all kinds of other ways in which the federal government is subsidizing healthcare for illegals,” he says. “And we’re talking about large sums of money.”
He explains the large numbers of aliens admitted temporarily to the US under Biden’s vast expansion of the “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS) program, which in the past four years tripled from 400,000 people to more than 1,200,000. TPS holders have no legal right to live here, but that status means the government has promised not to deport them until their home country resolves whatever was the major destabilizing condition, such as earthquakes in Haiti more than 10 years ago, civil war, or political persecution. While here, those people are eligible for federal assistance.
Similarly, Biden allowed 2.9 million inadmissible migrants to enter the US via “parole,” which, like TPS, gives them a fixed time period to stay before facing removal. And that’s not counting those who slipped across the border, have overstayed temporary visas, and used other illegal means to stay in the country.
The Associated Press “fact checked” those Republican claims and declared them false while ignoring that detail. Democrats, AP explained, are pushing for the inclusion of key health care provisions in the next congressional spending package. They are seeking an extension of tax credits that millions of Americans use to buy insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges, and to reverse Medicaid cuts made in the “Big, Beautiful Bill” Trump signed into law in July. House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries even accused the administration of trying “to gut” the healthcare of the American people.
What the Democrats are really talking about are short-term tax credits for Americans to purchase coverage through Obamacare exchanges. Those credits were supposed to expire previously, but were renewed twice during the Biden administration. They were meant to be temporary, but Democrats want to make them permanent.
And what about those Republican claims that the real reason is to preserve health care access for people who are in the country illegally?
As co-host Eric Eggers notes, the key phrase Democrats often utter is “immigrants in the U.S. illegally are not eligible for any federal health care programs, including insurance provided through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.” But it’s not for want of trying on their part, as the hosts show with a video clip. Back during the 2020 Democrat candidates’ debate, every single hand went up for NBC moderator Savannah Guthrie’s question: Does your healthcare plan cover illegal immigrants? To the delight of the partisan audience, every Democratic contender on that stage heartily agreed.
Beyond the healthcare questions, there’s still more they are trying to undo from the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” Schweizer says. “The Democrats are attempting to re-litigate some issues,” he says. “The continuing resolution bill that the Democrats offered had everything that’s currently funded, but they had a few extras.” (He cuts to a hilarious clip of Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy going through some of those things.) “The Democrats say they’d like to reopen the government with these things as well.”
How long will the shutdown last this time? Schweizer, agreeing with the comments of Vice President JD Vance, thinks it will be weeks.
“I don’t see the Republicans in a big hurry to open things up,” he says. “They currently have kind of everything they wanted. … And if the government stays shut down, they can use that as an excuse not only to keep those things out of the budget but to eliminate some of the government jobs they tried to eliminate before, when Elon Musk was in charge.”
“There could be some agreement struck. I hope that agreement does not come at the expense of fiscal responsibility, which is trying to deal with these issues,” he says. “I hope we don’t get a cave-in by Republicans in the Senate. I hope that Trump and others hold them into account to make sure that this issue is not something that we give away.”
He notes the bizarre alignment of incentives for both parties. “The Republicans get to look financially tough and pro- US citizen, and the Democrats get to be pro- illegal immigrant and look like they’re fighting the Trump agenda.”
