President Trump to Meet Russ Vought to Cut ‘Political SCAM Democrat Agencies’ Following Government Shutdown: “I Can’t Believe the Radical Left Democrats Gave Me This Unprecedented Opportunity”
by Jim Hᴏft
Oct. 2, 2025
President Donald J. Trump listens to the Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought delivers remarks prior to President Trump signing Executive Orders (Credit: White House)
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would meet with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, a key architect of the Project 2025 blueprint, to determine which federal agencies, deemed by Trump as “political SCAM Democrat Agencies,” should face cuts and whether those cuts will be temporary or permanent.
With Congress deadlocked and the shutdown entering its second day, the White House is pressing ahead with sweeping plans to slash government.
Trump described the impasse not as a crisis but as a chance to purge bureaucratic excesses and reshape federal power in line with conservative priorities.
Officials say the meeting with Vought will lead to mass layoffs, departmental closures, and funding freezes, according to Reuters.
The President’s post signals that these changes may not simply be temporary austerity measures, but irreversible restructuring.
Trump wrote on Truth Social:
“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.
“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT”
While no definitive list has been released, if Project 2025 is implemented, expect these Democrat-run bureaucracies to be on the chopping block:
Department of Education – Trump has long signaled he wants to dismantle this agency, and early 2025 efforts already saw major workforce reductions
FEMA – Long criticized by the Trump administration, FEMA’s role in federal disaster relief has been repeatedly challenged.
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) – An executive order in March 2025 sought to eliminate it “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”
EPA (or parts thereof) – Under Project 2025, environmental oversight agencies are prime candidates for defunding or abolition.
More from Reuters:
The government shutdown, the 15th since 1981, has suspended scientific research, , economic data reports, and a wide range of other activities. Major benefit programs, like Social Security, will continue to send out payments.
A standoff in Congress has frozen about $1.7 trillion in funds for agency operations, which amounts to roughly one-quarter of annual federal spending. Much of the remainder goes to health and retirement programs and interest payments on the growing $37.5 trillion debt.
Pay has been suspended for roughly 2 million federal workers, with roughly 750,000 ordered not to work and others, such as troops and Border Patrol agents, required to work without pay. Many could face personal hardship if the standoff is not resolved before October 15, when the next paychecks are due to be issued.
A prolonged shutdown could disrupt air travel, threaten food aid for millions of Americans, and weigh on exports and mortgage applications.
However, past shutdowns have not had a lasting impact on the broader U.S. economy. The longest lasted 35 days in 2018 and 2019, during Trump’s first term, due to a dispute over immigration.
Late last week, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reportedly circulated internal guidance to agencies, warning them to prepare for waves of deferred resignations and reductions in force should Congress fail to approve full appropriations, according to the New York Post.
Agencies were told to begin drafting Separation and Reduction in Force (RIF) plans targeting nonessential positions.
On January 28, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo to the entire federal civil service titled “Fork in the Road,” offering employees a deferred resignation option.
The offer promised continued salary and benefits through September 30 if workers left voluntarily, but only if they signed away legal rights and accepted the exit by a looming deadline.
By mid-February, approximately 75,000 federal employees had signed the exit agreement.
More than 100,000 additional workers are expected to depart as of Tuesday, making this breakaway the largest one-day drop in federal workforce history, according to The Guardian.
CNN CUTS OFF Speaker Johnson as He Attacks Democrats For Shutting Down the Government Over Healthcare Funding for Illegal Aliens (VIDEO)
by Cristina Laila
Oct. 2, 2025 4:20 pm
Fake News CNN cut off House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday as he attacked the Democrats for shutting down the government over healthcare funding for illegal aliens.
Earlier this week, Vice President JD Vance made it clear that Democrats are refusing to keep the government open because they are prioritizing illegal aliens.
“Democrats want a $1.5 trillion spending package that funded free health care for illegals. We told them that was absurd, and now they’re willing to shut down the government over it. It’s unacceptable,” Vance said earlier this week after a meeting with top Democrats Schumer and Jeffries.
On October 1 at 12:01 am, the government partially shut down because two measures failed in the Senate. The measures to reopen the government failed again on Wednesday morning.
CNN cut Speaker Johnson off as he said the Democrats blocked the GOP-backed bills to give illegal aliens free healthcare.
The House passed a clean, short-term stopgap funding bill to keep the government open. Schumer rejected it.
Johnson laid it out clearly:
_ Democrats demanded restoring healthcare access for illegal aliens.
_ They wanted $500 million funneled back to leftist PBS propaganda.
_ They tried to slash funding for rural hospitals that serve working-class Americans.
_ They demanded $1.5 trillion in NEW spending tied to just a seven-week funding measure.
Instead of working with Republicans to responsibly extend funding until November, Schumer chose a shutdown.
CNN absurdly claimed that the Democrats don’t want to give illegal aliens healthcare.
“CNN is not a NEWS organization. They cut off the Republican press conference to CENSOR the truth from the American people and LIE about indisputable FACTS,” Mike Johnson said.
“On page 57 of the Democrat’s OWN bill – they insist we restore $200 BILLION in health care subsidies for illegal aliens,” he added. “CNN must correct this.”
WATCH:
CNN is not a NEWS organization. They cut off the Republican press conference to CENSOR the truth from the American people and LIE about indisputable FACTS:
On page 57 of the Democrat’s OWN bill - they insist we restore $200 BILLION in health care subsidies for illegal aliens.… pic.twitter.com/Aycaj1zopx
Secretary Kennedy Denounces Exorbitant Drug Prices for Americans
By Cristian Rosales
Oct. 03, 2025
In a powerful statement on the state of medication access in the United States, Secretary Kennedy warned of the abuses faced by citizens who pay disproportionately high prices for the same products sold much more cheaply in other countries. During his speech, Kennedy emphasized that Americans should not be taken advantage of, highlighting the importance of protecting consumers from exploitation by large pharmaceutical corporations that prioritize profits over public health.
“The American people should not be paying 300 or 400, or even 1,000% more than people in other countries for the same medication,” Kennedy declared. The federal official noted that, in many cases, these drugs are produced in the same factory in New Jersey that supplies international markets, such as the United Kingdom, where prices can be as low as a tenth of what is charged in the United States. This price discrepancy exposes a system that fails to protect citizens, benefits corporations, and generates widespread public dissatisfaction.
These practices demonstrate the need for strategic intervention to protect Americans from the abusive pricing policies of major pharmaceutical companies. Secretary Kennedy emphasized that this is not only an economic issue but also a matter of social justice: no citizen should face financial barriers to accessing essential medicines that ensure their health and well-being. I have stressed that this situation reflects a model that prioritizes corporate profit maximization over fairness and the protection of American lives.
Kennedy also criticized international price disparities, noting that the difference between what Americans pay and what citizens in allied countries like the United Kingdom, France, or Germany pay is unacceptable. “Often, the same medication, produced on the same production line, is sold for a fraction of the price in other markets,” he stated, emphasizing the urgency of implementing policies that ensure fair and equitable pricing for US citizens without relying on the discretion of corporations that place profit above saving lives.
This statement, delivered under the leadership of President Donald Trump, seeks to reduce the economic burden on Americans and ensure that health policies prioritize people over corporate interests. Kennedy stressed that this is not unnecessary about market intervention but about guaranteeing Americans access to reasonable and transparent prices, preventing the country from becoming a stage for international abuses that directly affect citizens' wallets.
Additionally, Secretary Kennedy highlighted the importance of competition and transparency in the pharmaceutical industry. He pointed out that large corporations, by manipulating prices unilaterally, create an unfair market that penalizes American consumers. This is a clear example of why strict oversight and intelligent regulation are necessary to protect citizens without compromising innovation and scientific research.
The speech also emphasized a symbolic and practical point of great significance: Americans deserve respect and justice. Kennedy stated that paying such high prices for essential products while other countries enjoy much lower rates is a clear example of inequity that cannot continue. This stance reinforces the narrative that the government must act to correct abuses by the private sector that directly impact the daily lives of citizens, without resorting to socialist solutions that discourage production or innovation.
In conclusion, Secretary Kennedy's statement reinforces the urgent need to address the drug pricing crisis in the United States from a Republican perspective: protecting citizens, ensuring economic justice, and demanding corporate accountability. As long as pharmaceutical companies continue to impose disproportionate prices, Americans will remain victims of a system that prioritizes profits over health and well-being. Kennedy's defense underscores that guaranteeing fair prices is not a luxury but a fundamental duty of the US government, aligned with President Donald Trump's philosophy of putting citizens first and ensuring that no one is exploited by major corporations.
Elizabeth Warren Loses Her Mind When Journalist Notes That Democrats Actually Do Want Healthcare for Illegals on the Taxpayers’ Dime (VIDEO)
by Mike LaChance
Oct. 2, 2025 9:40 pm
Elizabeth Warren loses her cool on CBS News – Screencap of Twitter/X video.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts lost her cool on CBS News this week, when reporter Tony Dokoupil noted that Democrats actually do kinda want to provide healthcare to illegals, funded by taxpayers.
She got really angry but then pretty much confirmed what Tony Dokoupil was saying, while giving a long, confusing explanation.
You know what’s very telling in this ongoing debate? The anger and frustration of Democrats. It’s a tell that indicates that they are losing this argument and they know it. You see the same thing with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.
Transcript via Curtis Houck on Twitter/X:
Dokoupil: “So, senator, you know, Republicans say what you’re really fighting for is taxpayer dollars for, as they put it, illegal aliens. I know that’s not strictly true but there is a provision –”
Warren: “Oh, excuse me not strictly true.”
Dokoupil: “It’s not directly true, but –”
Warren: “It is a flat-out lie. It is a flat-out lie.”
Dokoupil: “– the way that they frame it –”
Warren: “There is nothing in Medicaid, nothing in Medicare, that permits one undocumented immigrant to get one dollar of assistance. None.”
Dokoupil: “– Senator –”
Warren: “Zero.”
Dokoupil: “– if you let me finish the question –”
Warren: “Of course. I’m sorry.”
Dokoupil: “– sorry, in the Democratic counter offer the proposal for funding, there is a restoration of Medicaid benefits for certain noncitizens that had been taken away in the Big, Beautiful Bill as Republicans put it.”
Warren: “No!”
Dokoupil: “Republicans don’t think those people should be getting health care on the taxpayer dime. I’m not asking on the merits. Politically, putting that in there, exposes you to this talking point, this lie as you put it. Why put it in there? Why is it worth it?”
Warren: “No. What’s happened is that what we’re saying is that whenever hospitals give care, what is going to be the level of reimbursement? And the Republicans said it’s going to be a low level. The Democrats said we just want go back to the level it was before because you’re going to bankrupt hospitals. You’re going to put rural hospitals out of business. The Republicans and the Democrats’ plan, nothing changes the number of undocumented immigrants who still get care if they show up bleeding and unconscious at an emergency room. There is absolutely zero difference. The difference is whether or not hospitals who, under laws that date back to Ronald Reagan, may provide emergency care to anyone who’s unconscious, will actually get reimbursed at a very low level that will put the hospital ultimately out of business potentially or at a higher level. The Republicans – there is no change, no change in the number of undocumented migrants who get any help under what the Democrats want. Look, what we’re looking for is help for people who are going to get pushed out of nursing homes, help for people who are at home and relying on home health aides.”
See the video below:
WATCH: Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren explodes when ‘CBS Mornings’ co-host Tony Dokoupil points out Democrats do, in fact, want to provide health care to “noncitizens…on the taxpayer dime.”
Warren snapped back by declaring “it’s not strictly true” and “a flat-out lie”….… pic.twitter.com/fOSqgcSdUI
The founder of a Texas megachurch who resigned last year after a woman in Oklahoma accused the pastor of sexually abusing her in the 1980s pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of lewd and indecent acts with a child, authorities said.
By JAMIE STENGLE
Robert Preston Morris, 64, entered the pleas before a judge in Oklahoma’s Osage County as part of a plea agreement, according to the state attorney general’s office.
The abuse began in 1982 when the victim was 12 and Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma, with her family, according to the statement by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. The abuse continued over the next four years, the statement said.
Morris was the senior pastor of Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, where he led one of the nation’s largest megachurches until his resignation. He was indicted earlier this year by an Oklahoma grand jury. Under the plea agreement, Morris received a 10-year suspended sentence with the first six months to be served in the Osage County Jail.
Morris was handcuffed and wearing a suit as he was escorted out of court on Thursday by two sheriff’s deputies.
The victim, Cindy Clemishire, who is now 55, said in a statement that “justice has finally been served, and the man who manipulated, groomed and abused me as a 12-year-old innocent girl is finally going to be behind bars.” The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Clemishire has done.
“My hope is that many victims hear my story, and it can help lift their shame and allow them to speak up,” she said. “I hope that laws continue to change and new ones are written so children and victims’ rights are better protected. I hope that people understand the only way to stop child sexual abuse is to speak up when it happens or is suspected.”
Morris must register as a sex offender and will be supervised by Texas authorities via interstate compact. He also was ordered to pay his costs of incarceration, including any medical expenses, and restitution to the victim.
One of Morris’ attorneys, Bill Mateja, said Morris wanted to accept responsibility for his conduct, and wanted to bring the legal matter to an end for the sake of him and his family and Clemishire and her family.
“While he believes that he long since accepted responsibility in the eyes of God and that Gateway Church was a manifestation of that acceptance, he readily accepted responsibility in the eyes of the law,” Mateja said.
Mateja said Morris wanted to apologize to Clemishire and her family for his conduct and asked for forgiveness.
When asked about the allegations last year by The Christian Post, Morris said in a statement to the publication that when he was in his early 20s he was “involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.” He said it was “kissing and petting, not intercourse, but it was wrong.”
Gateway Church was founded by Morris in 2000. He has been politically active and formerly served on President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board. The church hosted Trump on its Dallas campus in 2020 for a discussion on race relations and the economy.
Gateway Church declined to comment Thursday.
The pleas were entered before Osage County District Special Judge Cindy Pickerill.
“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Drummond said. “This case is all the more despicable because the perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position of trust and authority. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for this day.”
A bronze painted sculpture depicting US President Donald Trump and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein returned to the National Mall on Thursday. It first went up in September and was quickly removed
On at least a dozen occasions when Joe Biden was president — including in speeches to military academy graduates and Medal of Honor winners, at Veterans Day observances and to rank-and-file servicemembers and lawmakers — he praised the U.S. military as the world’s best or strongest.
By Louis Jacobson
Addressing the nation’s top military generals and admirals, President Donald Trump criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, for not sufficiently communicating how powerful the U.S. military is.
"I said we have the strongest military anywhere in the world. I say it. You never heard Biden say that," Trump said.
Trump’s Sept. 30 statement came at an unusual in-person meeting of top military brass in Quantico, Virginia, and followed remarks by Pete Hegseth, secretary overseeing the Defense Department, which Trump has sought to rebrand as the Department of War.
Trump is wrong about Biden. The former president praised the U.S. military as the world’s best on at least a dozen occasions.
Here are some examples:
Speech to a joint session of Congress, April 28, 2021: "We have, without hyperbole, the greatest fighting force in the history of the world."
Speech to the 82nd Airborne Division at Rzeszow, Poland, March 25, 2022: "You're the finest fighting force in the history of the world."
Speech at the U.S. Naval Academy graduation and commissioning ceremony, May 27, 2022: "Today you stand ready to assume the title you’ve been working toward for so long: Ensign, the United States Navy. Second lieutenant, the United States Marine Corps. Members of the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And that’s no exaggeration. You have earned it. Congratulations."
Remarks on his nomination of Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, May 30, 2023: "The steps we've taken over the decades to harness the full diversity of our nation have grown our armed forces into the greatest fighting force … in the history of the world."
Speech at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, June 9, 2023: "Our military is the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And that’s because of warriors like you — and the service and sacrifice of your spouses, kids, and family members." (This was also shared on Twitter and Instagram.)
Speech in Tempe, Arizona, Sept. 28, 2023: "Our U.S. military — and this is not hyperbole; I’ve said it for the last two years — is the strongest military in the history of the world. Not just the strongest in the world –- in the history of the world."
Speech at the armed forces farewell tribute for retiring Gen. Mark A. Milley, Sept. 29, 2023: "Americans of every background and creed have stepped forward to be part of the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And that's not hyperbole. You're the greatest fighting force in the history of the world."
Commencement address to the U.S. Military Academy, May 29, 2024: "You’re about to become full-time members of the most honorable and the most consequential fighting force in the history of the world — that’s not hyperbole — of the world. That’s the truth."
Speech marking Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery, Nov. 11, 2024. "You are the greatest fighting force — and this is not hyperbole — the finest fighting force in the history of the world."
Presenting a Medal of Honor, Jan. 3: "It's been the greatest honor of my life to be entrusted with the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. They're the finest military in the history of the world."
White House fact sheet, Jan. 15: "Our military remains the strongest fighting force the world has known."
Farewell remarks to the Defense Department, Jan. 16: "You are simply the greatest fighting force in the history of the world — in the history of the world. That’s a fact. That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact."
Biden said something similar at least once as vice president, telling U.S. Military Academy graduates May 26, 2012, "America's unique role in the world requires that we maintain the world's finest fighting force. That's a non-negotiable issue. And that's exactly what this strategy does."
The statement is inaccurate and, given the number of times Biden’s statements contradict Trump’s claim, it’s also ridiculous. Pants on Fire!
Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are generally ineligible for federally funded health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and subsidized private insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Democrats’ funding proposal would restore access to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplace for legal immigrants who will lose access once certain provisions of the Republicans’ tax and spending law take effect.
By Maria Ramirez Uribe
Republicans repeatedly accused Democrats of forcing the closure because they want to give health care access to immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
"Democrats are threatening to shut down the entire government because they want to give hundreds of billions of dollars of healthcare benefits to illegal aliens," Vice President JD Vance said Sept. 28 on "Fox News Sunday."
President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican members of Congress have repeated this line.
It’s wrong.
Democrats have refused to vote for Republicans’ resolution to extend the federal spending deadline, and their position does, in part, hinge on health care spending. Democrats want to extend pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year and roll back Medicaid cuts in the tax and spending bill that Trump signed into law this summer.
Republicans falsely tie shutdown to Democrats wanting health care for immigrants illegally in the US
If Your Time is short
Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are generally ineligible for federally funded health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and subsidized private insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Democrats’ funding proposal would restore access to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplace for legal immigrants who will lose access once certain provisions of the Republicans’ tax and spending law take effect.
See the sources for this fact-check
As the U.S. headed for a government shutdown, Republicans repeatedly accused Democrats of forcing the closure because they want to give health care access to immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
"Democrats are threatening to shut down the entire government because they want to give hundreds of billions of dollars of healthcare benefits to illegal aliens," Vice President JD Vance said Sept. 28 on "Fox News Sunday."
President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican members of Congress have repeated this line.
It’s wrong.
Democrats have refused to vote for Republicans’ resolution to extend the federal spending deadline, and their position does, in part, hinge on health care spending. Democrats want to extend pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year and roll back Medicaid cuts in the tax and spending bill that Trump signed into law this summer.
Sign up for PolitiFact texts
The Democrats' proposal wouldn’t give health care to immigrants illegally in the U.S. — they are already largely ineligible for federally funded health care. Instead, the proposal would restore access to certain health care programs for legal immigrants who will lose access under the Republican law.
The White House did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment for this fact-check. Vance addressed criticism of his talking point in another interview by saying it was included in the Democrats’ spending proposal; it’s not.
A White House X account followed up with screenshots of the Democratic proposal repealing a section of the Republican law labeled "alien Medicaid eligibility." It’s important to know that these changes would not give Medicaid access to immigrants illegally in the U.S.
Vance defended his statement again in an Oct. 1 White House press conference, saying former President Joe Biden "waived away illegal immigration status" that helped migrants access federal assistance. It’s important to note that many people granted lawful status through humanitarian parole or Temporary Protected Status programs don’t automatically qualify for Medicaid; TPS recipients aren’t eligible, and many people who entered the U.S. on humanitarian parole are required to wait five years before accessing it.
The Trump administration has ended humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status for many people, rendering them ineligible for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
We did not find evidence that Democrats want to spend "hundreds of billions" in costs for insuring migrants with unlawful presence.
Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are ineligible for federally funded health care
The vast majority of federal health care dollars cannot be spent on health care for people in the U.S. illegally. They cannot enroll in Medicaid or Medicare, and they are ineligible to purchase health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. A small Medicaid program reimburses hospitals for uninsured emergency care, which can include immigrants in the country illegally but is not exclusive to them.
Some states including California and Illinois expanded Medicaid coverage for people regardless of their immigration status, and the states pay for that. Federal law already banned states from using federal money for these programs. An earlier version of the Republican spending law would have penalized such states by withholding funding, but that provision didn’t last.
People in the country illegally might receive some federally funded health care in emergency cases; in those situations, hospitals must provide care even if a person is uninsured or in the country illegally. Emergency Medicaid covers hospital care for immigrants who would be eligible for Medicaid if not for their immigration status. The Republican tax and spending law reduced the amount hospitals can receive for emergency immigrant care.
Most of the Emergency Medicaid spending is used on childbirth. In all, it represented less than 1% of total Medicaid spending in fiscal year 2023, according to KFF, a health think tank.
Republican law limited health care access for immigrants with legal status
The Republican tax and spending law made several changes to health care eligibility for immigrants in the country with legal permission. An estimated 1.4 million legal immigrants are expected to lose their health insurance, according to KFF’s analysis of Congressional Budget Office projections.
Starting October 2026, the law will restrict eligibility for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program to lawfully permanent residents, people from the Marshall Islands, Micronesia or Palau who lawfully reside in the U.S. under an international agreement, and certain Cubans and Haitians.
Previously, a broad group described as "qualified noncitizens" were eligible for Medicaid and CHIP, including refugees and people granted asylum.
Some immigrants who are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP, such as lawful permanent residents, are required to wait five years before accessing the benefits.
The law also limited Affordable Care Act marketplace eligibility to the same group eligible for Medicaid and CHIP beginning Jan. 1, 2027. Previously, people who were described as "lawfully present" were eligible. That group included the "qualified noncitizens" eligible for Medicaid and people with short-term statuses, such as Temporary Protected Status or international students.
Beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, for immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children were previously eligible for Affordable Care Act coverage and its subsidies. They are ineligible after an August Trump administration rule.
Democrats’ proposal would restore legal immigrants’ access to federally funded health care
The Democrats’ Sept. 17 budget proposal would, in part, permanently extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies and roll back billions in Republican cuts to Medicaid and other health programs.
The change would make Medicaid, CHIP and Affordable Care Act coverage available to all legal immigrants who were previously eligible for it, such as refugees and people granted asylum.
The Democratic proposal would not broaden eligibility to federally funded health care programs to immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.
Vance said the Democratic policies would "give hundreds of billions of dollars of health care benefits to illegal aliens," and the White House did not offer its source for that figure. When Johnson was pressed to support a similar talking point, he referenced the Congressional Budget Office. An August KFF analysis of CBO estimates found that the Republican law’s provisions related to legal immigrants would reduce federal spending by $131 billion; this projection did not include an estimate for people without legal status.
Vance said, "Democrats are threatening to shut down the entire government because they want to give hundreds of billions of dollars of health care benefits to illegal aliens."
Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are largely ineligible for federally funded health care programs Medicare and Medicaid, and they cannot seek coverage in the Affordable Care Act marketplace or apply for subsidies.
The Democrats' budget proposal would not change that.
The Democrats want to restore access to certain health care programs to legal immigrants who will lose access under the Republican tax and spending law — among other measures aimed at making Medicaid and Affordable Care Act insurance plans easier to keep.
Their proposal would not grant federally supported health care benefits to people in the U.S. illegally, because they did not have access to them in the first place. The small amount of funding designated for Emergency Medicaid reimburses hospitals that provide emergency care to immigrants who would be eligible for Medicaid if not for their immigration status. Finally, we did not find evidence for Vance’s assertion that Democrats want "hundreds of billions" in health benefits for migrants in the country illegally.
President Donald Trump’s boundary-pushing second administration is on full display in his approach to the shutdown.
By Zac Anderson
In the hours leading up to the government shutdown, the Department of Housing and Urban Development blared a message on its website declaring “the radical left are going to shut down the government.”
After the shutdown began, more agencies posted similar messages, and the White House website began featuring a clock counting the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds that “Democrats have shut down the government.”
President Donald Trump threatened mass layoffs, warning the cuts could be “irreversible," saying his administration would target "Democrat things” and is looking to cut "Democrat Agencies."
The president even skewered House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ approach to the shutdown by sharing a controversial deepfake video of him wearing a sombrero hat with mariachi music playing, which the New York Democrat blasted as “racist.”
Trump’s boundary-pushing second administration is on full display in his approach to the shutdown.
Large swaths of the federal government began grinding to a halt on Oct. 1 after funding ran out overnight and Congress failed to act.
It’s the fourth shutdown during Trump’s time as president, and he is signaling it could be much more disruptive than those during his first administration − or the ones in previous administrations. At the same time, he is marshaling the power of the federal government to blame Democrats for the fallout and take steps to punish them.
Shutdowns are inherently political, and every president who has gone through one has engaged in a version of shutdown politics, criticizing the other side and trying to gain leverage. Trump is threatening to go further than past administrations, though, raising the stakes and the partisan posture of federal agencies, said Elaine Kamarck, founding director of the Center for Effective Public Management at The Brookings Institution.
“The government itself has never taken sides in these things,” said Kamarck, who saw a shutdown up close when she worked in former President Bill Clinton’s administration. “This is totally new, this is totally unprecedented.”
Trump’s second term has been marked by an aggressive agenda that has tested the limits of executive power. A big part of that has been his push to overhaul the federal government, an effort initially led by the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk.
DOGE’s moves were among the most consequential aspects of the early part of Trump’s second term. They included mass layoffs of federal workers and the shuttering of whole agencies.
Now the government shutdown could dramatically boost such efforts, with Trump threatening to target programs he views as left-leaning.
"A lot of good can come down from shutdowns," Trump said Sept. 30. "We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want. They’d be Democrat things.”
Trump’s big shutdown plans
Trump and his allies are signaling that the impacts of this shutdown could be significant and long-lasting, describing it as an opportunity to slash government.
The White House Office of Management and Budget said in a recent email that workers whose activities are “not consistent with the President’s priorities” are a target for layoffs.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox Business on Oct. 1 that he has spoken with Trump about using the shutdown to cut the federal government.
“The president and I have talked about this at great length,” Johnson said, adding a shutdown can "provide an opportunity to downsize the scope and the scale of government, which is something that we’ve all always wanted to do.”
Trump said his administration would be “laying off a lot of people.”
"They're going to be Democrats," he added.
John Graham, an Indiana University professor who helped run the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush, questioned whether a shutdown can achieve the Trump administration’s goals.
“I don’t see the temporary shutdown as helpful in reducing the size of government,” Graham said, adding that it won't happen until Congress passes budget bills with spending reductions.
Shutdown continues Trump’s aggressive approach
Whether Trump and his team follow through remains to be seen, and the shutdown could end at any minute. Yet the posturing around the government funding showdown again shows how Trump is pushing the limits in his second administration.
“Trump has gone into his second term all guns blazing,” Kamarck said.
That has played out in everything from his mass deportation push to sending the military into American cities and urging the attorney general to prosecute his adversaries.
Dismantling federal agencies has long been a goal of many conservatives, who describe the federal bureaucracy as bloated and unaccountable.
Agencies such as the Department of Education – which Trump has cut significantly – and the Environmental Protection Agency have been conservative targets for years.
Russell Vought, Trump's Office of Management and Budget director and one of the key architects of Trump’s effort to cut government, said in a speech this year that the administration had “embarked on deconstructing this administrative state.”
Vought added that the goal is to “move quickly” and “be aggressive.”
Vought helped write Project 2025, a plan put out by the conservative Heritage Foundation that laid out a policy framework for Trump’s second term. Now he's helping to quarterback Trump’s response to the shutdown.
Federal employees respond
Federal employees are bracing for what comes next. Unions representing federal workers filed a lawsuit Sept. 30, arguing the layoff threat is illegal.
The American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley called it “not only illegal – it’s immoral and unconscionable.”
“Federal employees dedicate their careers to public service – more than a third are military veterans – and the contempt being shown them by this administration is appalling,” Kelley said in a statement after filing the lawsuit. The American Federation of Government Employees is the largest union representing federal employees.
Not only is Trump threatening a more painful shutdown, but he's upping the level of partisanship.
Partisan government websites, ‘racist’ videos
After HUD used its website to blame the "radical left" for the shutdown, the Agriculture and Treasury departments did the same on their websites
The State and Department of Justice websites also now have messages blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
Emails sent by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration and the Department of the Interior on Sept. 30, before the shutdown, that were reviewed by USA TODAY declare that Trump “opposes a government shutdown” but Democrats are “blocking” a government funding bill.
The 1939 Hatch Act limits the political activities of federal employees. Although not always strictly enforced, Democrats have pointed to the law to criticize the Trump administration for using official government channels to blast a highly partisan message.
"How can this not be a violation of the Hatch Act in some way?" Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said in discussing the websites on CNN.
Trump has proven willing to have such issues play out in the courts, Kamarck said. By the time courts weigh in, "Trump will be on to something else," she added.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said "the Trump Administration is simply sharing the truth with the American people.”
HUD Secretary Scott Turner told NewsNation on Oct. 1 that he's not "at all" worried about the legality of the shutdown messaging on his agency's website.
"I’ve heard all the cries and the outcry and people saying this is propaganda, that it’s a violation of the Hatch Act," Turner said, calling the criticism an effort by "Democrats and the far left" to distract from their "irresponsible actions."
Vice President JD Vance dismissed the idea that Trump is targeting Democrats in the shutdown during a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing on Oct. 1.
“We’re not targeting federal agencies based on politics,” he said.
Federal funding for blue states is the cross hairs, though, and Trump posted on social media Oct. 2 that he's meeting with Vought "to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut."
Vought posted on social media Oct. 1 that $18 billion in infrastructure money for New York City was “put on hold.” He followed up by saying $8 billion in funds to “fuel the left’s climate agenda” was being canceled in 16 states, all of which Trump lost in 2024.
"We're less than a day into this shutdown, and Trump & Vought are illegally punishing Democrat-led states," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said on social media, criticizing the "mafioso tactics."
Some Republicans have expressed concerns about the administration's approach to the shutdown.
“We, as Republicans, have never had so much moral high ground on a government funding bill in our lives. … I just don’t see why we would squander it, which I think is the risk of being aggressive with executive power in this moment," Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, told Semafor.
Asked if the administration was trying to pressure Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer by withholding funding from New York, his home state and also the home of Jeffries, Vance said he’s sure Vought is “heartbroken about the fact that he’s unable to give certain things to certain constituencies.”
“But when the Democrats shut down the government, we have to actually do a little triage,” Vance added.
Vance also addressed a controversial video Trump shared on social media that features Schumer and Jeffries. The apparently artificial intelligence-created deepfake video shows Jeffries with a Mexican sombrero hat, a mustache and mariachi music playing in the background.
"There's no way to sugarcoat it, nobody likes Democrats anymore,” Schumer's fake voice says, adding: "Not even Black people wanna vote for us anymore, even Latinos hate us.”
Jeffries called the video racist. Vance said Trump was just having fun. The White House leaned into the video, playing it on a loop in the press briefing room on Oct. 1.
"I think it's funny, the president's joking," Vance said, adding: "I'll tell Hakeem Jeffries right now. I make this solemn promise to you that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop."
The shutdown was less than a day old, with no end in sight.
Vance Calls Out Dems for ‘Sleight of Hand’ Trick on Illegal Alien Healthcare
Kyle Becker
Oct. 02, 2025
Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday accused Democrats of using “sleight of hand” tactics in budget negotiations, claiming their demands to reopen the government are centered on restoring taxpayer-funded health care benefits for illegal immigrants.
In a video message posted to X, Vance said Democrats were being dishonest when they insisted the current government shutdown had nothing to do with health care for noncitizens. He argued the legislative text proves otherwise.
“There are two very specific ways — and you can look at the legislative text — two specific ways in which the Democrats are asking us to give taxpayer-funded health care benefits for illegal aliens,” Vance said.
He pointed first to programs under the Biden administration that reimbursed hospitals for treating undocumented immigrants.
“That’s bad for American citizens who want to use those services. It’s also bad for American taxpayers, who don’t want to pay for illegal aliens to use those services,” he said. According to Vance, the Trump administration shut down that program in its “One Big Beautiful Bill,” but Democrats want it restored — at a projected cost of “hundreds of billions of dollars.”
The vice president also highlighted parole programs enacted under Biden, which he said granted mass entry to illegal immigrants by reclassifying them as parolees. Those parolees, he noted, became eligible for taxpayer-funded health benefits.
“We turned that off as well,” Vance said. “Democrats want to turn it back on.”
🚨NEW: @JDVance joins @benshapiro and DEBUNKS the Democrats' claim that the gov. shutdown is NOT about taxpayer healthcare benefits for illegal aliens:
"The Democrats play tricks with words...There are two very specific ways...in which the Democrats are asking us to give… pic.twitter.com/FnhsmY136z
Framing the dispute as a hostage situation, Vance argued that Democrats are conditioning government funding — including military paychecks — on Trump agreeing to reinstate benefits for illegal immigrants.
“It’s not just bad policy,” he said. “We are not going to negotiate while being held hostage.”
Vance called on Democrats to vote for the Republican-backed continuing resolution that would reopen the government without the added provisions.
“Turn the government back on, and then we can have a debate about health care policy,” he said.
The issue surfaced in sharper relief during an interview between House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and CNN’s Jake Tapper. When pressed on specific language in the Democratic proposal, Jeffries initially denied Republicans’ claims, calling them “a lie.”
But Tapper countered, pointing to provisions restoring emergency Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals treating undocumented immigrants and extending benefits to asylum seekers and individuals with “temporary protected status.”
“Why even include that?” Tapper asked. Jeffries did not directly answer.
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Hakeem Jeffries REGRETS going on CNN, Jake Tapper just embarrassed him. pic.twitter.com/KmdS9gMxJN
TAPPER: Here's a provision...it shows you want to give illegal aliens healthcare...
JEFFRIES: It's a lie!
TAPPER: It's a lie - BUT, what you support DOES bring back…
Republicans argue that funding for illegal aliens’ healthcare is undoubtedly in the Democrats’ funding bill.
“It’s in writing,” the vice president stressed. “It’s not a talking point. It is in the text of the bill that they initially gave to us to reopen the government.”
Critics argue Democrats are misrepresenting the stakes by tying the shutdown to health care provisions that do not expire until next year.
“That premium support program doesn’t even expire until next year,” Vance said. “So why are you shutting down the government on Oct. 1 because of a program that doesn’t even expire for another few months?”
The White House and GOP leaders have said they remain open to debating health care policy separately but insist Democrats must first pass a “clean” funding bill to reopen the government.
The standoff, now in its first week, has left federal agencies preparing for layoffs and forced ICE agents and other law enforcement officers to continue working without pay.
Some federal workers received suggested templates of out-of-office emails saying they were furloughed because "Democrat Senators are blocking passage" of a funding bill.
By Monica Alba, Laura Strickler, Dareh Gregorian and Amanda Terkel
WASHINGTON — A number of federal agencies are putting out messages blaming Democratic senators for the current government shutdown, in a sharp break from how departments have handled shutdowns in the past. Traditionally, agencies provide information on the status of the funding lapse and what services won’t be available, but stay away from partisan talking points.
Some civil servants, who are supposed to be nonpartisan, are being encouraged to push out the messages as well.
The Department of Labor sent a message to all employees Wednesday morning, suggesting a potential out-of-office notification. It said the "template language" was provided by the Office of Management and Budget:
Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.
The department offered a similar message about employees who must continue working throughout the shutdown. A civil servant at the Department of Health and Human Services said their boss suggested they put up an out-of-office message that had this line: “Unfortunately, Democratic Senators are blocking its passage in the Senate, which has led to a lapse in appropriations.”
Not all agencies are sending out this guidance. Employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, Justice Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development said they did not get suggestions like the one given to employees at the Department of Labor.
We’d like to hear from you about how you’re experiencing the government shutdown, whether you’re a federal employee who can’t work right now or someone who is feeling the effects of shuttered services in your everyday life. Please contact us at tips@nbcuni.com or reach out to us here.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services referred NBC News to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not return a request for comment. The Department of Labor also did not respond.
“What this administration is doing is unprecedented, illegal and flat-out wrong,” said Max Stier, CEO of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. “I’ve been deeply engaged in our federal government for over 30 years and there is nothing that has come close. Federal employees who are furloughed are still subject to the same legal and ethics rules, and there is no excuse for this behavior. The administration should not be using federal employees or federal resources to wage a political battle.”
Congress failed to reach a funding agreement late Tuesday night, leading to a shutdown that is expected to last at least through the week.
While Republicans have full control of the federal government, including the White House and majorities of both chambers of Congress, they don’t have the 60 votes needed to end debate on legislation in the Senate and move bills forward without Democratic votes. Democrats want to include provisions to extend health care funding, as well as assurances that President Donald Trump won’t keep unilaterally withholding spending directed by Congress.
Federal employees will not be paid during the shutdown — even if they’re deemed essential to operations and have to continue working. Approximately 750,000 employees will be furloughed, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Members of Congress and President Donald Trump will continue to receive paychecks.
The Trump administration’s messaging on the shutdown extends to federal government websites as well. Visitors to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s site are greeted with a large red banner that reads: “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.”
In case visitors missed the message, a large pop-up box then appears: “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.”
“Due to the Democrat-led shutdown, website updates will be limited until full operations resume,” reads the message on the State Department’s site.
The undersecretary for management at the State Department also sent a letter criticizing Democrats to all employees on Tuesday: “Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands. If Congressional Democrats maintain their current posture and refuse to pass a clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded before midnight on September 30, 2025, federal appropriated funding will lapse.”
Both the Forest Service and the Treasury Department also now have messages up on at the top of their websites blaming Democrats and the left for the shutdown.
And VetResources, which the Department of Veterans Affairs bills as “a weekly newsletter for Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors,” sent an email to subscribers Wednesday blaming Democrats for any gap in resources.
“President Trump opposes a lapse in appropriations, and on September 19, the House of Representatives passed, with the Trump Administration’s support, a clean continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21,” the newsletter reads. “Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands. During the current lapse in funding, the vast majority of VA benefits and services will continue uninterrupted, but the government shutdown is not without consequences to VA.”
The messages have already raised questions about their ethics and legality.
A former senior counsel at the Housing Department told NBC News that the agency’s message on its website likely violates the federal code of conduct for employees.
“There’s no universe where that is acceptable or advisable under the code of conduct,” said Donald Sherman, who’s now executive director of the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The code says “employees shall act impartially” and without preferential treatment, he said. “This agency is meant to service every American, whether they’re right or left or have no political views whatsoever,” and now the first thing people see on the site is about “political ideology.”
The group Public Citizen filed a complaint against HUD, saying the message on its website violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using their official capacities to affect or interfere with elections.
A HUD spokesperson defended the site on Tuesday, telling NBC News, “The Far Left is barreling our country toward a shut down, which will hurt all Americans. At HUD, we are working to keep critical services online and support our most vulnerable. Why is the media more focused on a banner than reporting on the impact of a shutdown on the American people?”
A HUD official also pushed back on Hatch Act questions, saying the message was carefully worded so as not to name a specific party or politician, but rather an ideology.
The watchdog group Democracy Defenders Fund on Wednesday sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office urging an investigation into HUD.
“The purpose of HUD’s website is to help Americans find affordable housing and protect their rights. It is not a campaign website or a tool to advance a political party’s agenda,” said Virginia Canter, the group’s ethics and anticorruption chief counsel and director. “The Trump administration, however, turned a government agency website into a partisan billboard. It’s an abuse of power, a waste of taxpayer money, and appears to be a flat-out violation of the law.”
There is a well-founded bit of conventional wisdom that government shutdowns never really work for the side making demands to keep things open. There are many such cases.
Analysis by Aaron Blake
“I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to remind Democrat colleagues that taking basic government functions hostage for partisan demands never pays,” Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Wednesday on X.
And McConnell has actually been pretty consistent on this point, even dating back to when his side was arguably forcing the shutdowns.
But there is growing evidence that the current shutdown is somewhat different from its predecessors.
Democrats might never get what they’re asking for. But they seem to have significantly more leverage than the side refusing to vote for government funding usually does.
A new poll Thursday from the Washington Post tells the tale.
Democrats are the ones who withheld their votes from a “clean” continuing resolution to keep the government funded this week. And history suggests that’s the side that usually gets the blame. Americans have overwhelmingly said that shutdown debates are no place to try to force extraneous policy changes.
But at least initially, voters are actually blaming Republicans more.
The poll conducted on Wednesday, the day the shutdown began, showed 47% of Americans believed President Donald Trump and the Republicans were “mainly responsible” for the shutdown, compared to 30% who blamed Democrats.
That’s highly unusual in the context of past shutdown polling. Republicans were very much on the short end of the blame game when they forced shutdowns over things like defunding Obamacare and building the border wall last decade, for example.
The polling also offers a big hint as to why that might be: Unlike past shutdowns, the policy Democrats are pushing for is actually very popular.
The Post’s poll shows Americans said 71%-29% that they want to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that Democrats are holding out for.
And perhaps more to the point: 47% of Americans say they want to extend the subsidies and Democrats should continue demanding that “even if it continues the government shutdown.”
That’s not quite a majority, but it’s a very sizeable number. Notably, the poll gave people who supported extending the subsidies a middle-ground option of compromising to end the shutdown. People generally like at least the broad concept of compromise; 24% who wanted the subsidies extended supported that. But nearly half of Americans still opted for the harder-line approach.
The 47% who say Democrats should allow the shutdown to continue is unusual, compared to past shutdowns.
When Republicans demanded defunding Obamacare in 2013 before a shutdown, a New York Times/CBS News poll showed 38% of Americans supported defunding Obamacare, but only about 2 in 10 said it was worth risking a shutdown over.
When Republicans did it again over the border wall in 2019, a CBS News poll showed fewer than 3 in 10 Americans said that was worth a shutdown.
The wording of the questions and the pollsters were different. But support for this shutdown gambit appears significantly higher than it was back then.
And this isn’t the first poll to suggest Democrats could sustain this demand. A Strength in Numbers/Verasight poll in mid-September showed that Americans said 52%-36% that Democrats should withhold their votes unless “Republicans agree to restore funding for some government health care programs.” It also found that, even if this faceoff led to a shutdown, Americans would still blame Republicans more than Democrats, 35%-24%.
So that’s two polls showing very similar things.
It’s also become clear that Democrats’ demand has at least cast a spotlight on an uneasy issue for Republicans.
That’s evidenced by the GOP’s skirting of the issue. Rather than reject Democrats’ policy demand out of hand, they’ve instead insisted they’re willing to negotiate, just not while the government is shut down.
Democrats counter that insurers need to plan for the hike in premiums that would result if the enhanced subsidies aren’t extended and warn that notices could go out soon, so the time for talking is now. And some Republicans who support the subsidies at least seem open to negotiating in the short term.
The GOP has also taken to falsely arguing that the subsidies would provide health care to undocumented immigrants.
And finally, the Trump administration is increasingly threatening to bring the hammer down by making cuts to government employees and spending that Democrats won’t like. They’ve repeatedly suggested these cuts would be politically targeted. But even some Republican lawmakers appear uncomfortable with all that, worrying that such cuts would blow back on them much like the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts earlier this year.
“There’s the political ramifications that could cause backlash,” GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota told CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesdsay, adding: “I just don’t like squandering that political capital.”
None of which means the Democrats are going to win this fight. As the shutdown drags on and the downsides of it come into focus, it’s quite possible Americans could lose patience with Democrats’ hard line – and revert to their skepticism of using shutdowns for leverage.
But it does appear Democrats have some leverage here. And that makes this fight unlike its predecessors.
White House Fact Checks CNN After Anchor’s Shutdown Spin to Protect Dems
CNN anchor Pamela Brown at the Paramount White House Correspondents' Dinner after party at Mary Kouw/CBS via Getty Images
Nick Gilbertson
2 Oct 202550
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took CNN to task Thursday over Situation Room anchor Pamela Brown’s government shutdown spin to protect Democrats.
CNN’s Situation Room cut away from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) press conference on Thursday morning, in which Johnson stated that Democrats are responsible for the government shutdown. While cutting from Johnson, Brown said Johnson is “trying to frame the shutdown as a Democratic shutdown” and has “falsely claimed that Democrats want to give healthcare, extend healthcare to illegal immigrants.”
CNN’s ratings are in the toilet because they’re a propaganda machine for Democrats.
Here are the actual FACTS:
Democrats shut down the federal government to try to give taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens.
Brown’s spin comes despite Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) confirming Tuesday that Democrats were seeking healthcare for illegal immigrants as part of their demands to keep the government open in the lead-up to the shutdown.
Maxine Waters admits Democrats are going to shutdown the government to try to secure healthcare for illegal immigrants.
Reporter: "Are Democrats demanding healthcare for illegal aliens?"
“CNN’s ratings are in the toilet because they’re a propaganda machine for Democrats,” she wrote before issuing a lentghy fact check:
Here are the actual FACTS:
Democrats shut down the federal government to try to give taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens.
The funding proposal put forward by the Democrats would result in nearly $200B in spending on illegal aliens and other non-citizens over the next decade.
The Democrats’ America Last proposal would repeal provisions in the Working Families Tax Cuts signed into law by President Trump that take on waste, fraud, and abuse and block illegals from receiving healthcare benefits.
The Democrats’ proposal intentionally allows for Medicaid to go to those improperly granted asylum and parole during Joe Biden’s illegal alien invasion.
She also wrote that under the Democrats’ proposal, Medicaid would be forced to pay more for illegal aliens’ emergency care than it “does for American patients who are disabled, elderly, or children.”
It would also “[a]llow California to continue a gimmick that funds its Medicaid for illegals program” and resurrect a subsidy for noncitizens that was established under Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, she added.
In a statement to Breitbart News, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson echoed Leavitt’s sentiment.
“Fake News CNN refuses to let the few viewers they have left hear the truth because they know it would contradict the left-wing narrative they spend all day parroting,” Jackson said. “Their repeated patterns of lies and deception are why Americans’ confidence in the media has hit a new low. But the Trump Administration will never shy away from sharing the truth with Americans, and here it is: the Democrats shut down the government because they want to give free health care to illegal aliens.”
On Thursday morning, as thousands of federal employees stayed home and faced potential layoffs because of the government shutdown, Trump got right to work on social media.
He started by sharing praise from supporters. Then he falsely claimed that “DEMOCRATS WANT TO GIVE YOUR HEALTHCARE MONEY TO ILLEGAL ALIENS.” And then he announced that he would meet with his top budget adviser to figure out where to make permanent cuts to federal programs that “are a political SCAM.”
All that was before 8 a.m., just one flurry in a blizzard of online commentary from the president. Like so many other times when he’s faced complex crises with no easy solutions, Trump seems determined to post his way through it.
The stream of invective and trolling has been remarkable even for a 79-year-old president who is as chronically online as any member of Gen Z. His style is mirrored by the rest of his administration, which so far seems more interested in mocking and pummeling Democrats than negotiating with them.
Government websites feature pop-up messages blaming “the Radical Left” for the shutdown, an unusually political message for ostensibly nonpartisan agencies. When reporters email the White House press office, they receive an automated reply blaming slow answers on “staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown.”
Trump’s White House is accustomed to take-no-prisoners political messaging, continuing its aggressive style from last year’s campaign that critics describe as callous and vindictive. The administration rarely misses an opportunity to get under the skin of its opponents.
The president took a similar online approach to the last government shutdown, which began in December 2018 and lasted until January 2019 during his first term in office. On the 30th day of that shutdown, Politico tallied 40 tweets from Trump, including a complaint that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was acting “so irrationally” and gratitude for federal employees for “working so hard for your Country and not getting paid.”
Back then, Trump took most of the blame, with an Associated Press-NORC poll showing about 7 in 10 Americans saying he had “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility. He ultimately backed down from his demand for border wall funding, signed legislation allowing the government to reopen.
It remains to be seen who will face the most blowback this time. Democrats say they won’t vote for any spending legislation unless it extends health care subsidies, used to purchase insurance through the Affordable Care Act, that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Republicans accuse them of being obstructionist, insisting that government operations should be funded while other policies are negotiated separately.
A recent New York Times/Siena poll, which was conducted before the shutdown began, found slightly more registered voters would blame Trump and Republicans in Congress than Democrats. About one-third said they’d blame both sides equally.
There was another red flag for Trump in a one-day text message poll conducted Oct. 1 by the Washington Post. The results showed 47% of Americans saying they thought the president and Republicans in Congress are mainly to blame, compared with 30% saying that of Democrats in Congress.
Trump appears determined to move the needle — or at least blow off some steam — with his account on Truth Social, a social media platform founded by Trump after he was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The presidential trolling began on Monday after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Trump and Republicans at the White House. Trump posted a deepfake video of the lawmakers, with Schumer saying, “nobody likes Democrats anymore.” Jeffries was depicted with a cartoon sombrero and mustache.
“It’s a disgusting video, and we’re going to continue to make clear that bigotry will get you nowhere,” Jeffries said on MSNBC this week.
Trump posted a clip of his appearance, but with a soundtrack of mariachi music. The sombrero and mustache were back, too.
“Every day Democrats keep the government shut down, the sombrero gets 10x bigger,” the White House wrote on social media.
Hours before the shutdown began on Tuesday night, the president posted photos from his meeting with Jeffries and Schumer. The pictures showed red “Trump 2028” hats on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, a nod to his talk of running for an unconstitutional third term.
Trump did not have any public appearances scheduled on Thursday. An event to commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month was postponed because of the shutdown.
The White House did not respond to questions about how he was working to resolve the situation. But for at least a few hours, Trump’s social media account went quiet.
Respondents cited Trump and Republicans' refusal to compromise.
By Ivan Pereira
Two days into the latest federal government shutdown, Americans are already focusing their frustrations at Capitol Hill over the disarray, with Trump and Republicans getting more of the blame, according to a new poll.
Roughly 47% of Americans say President Donald Trump and the GOP are responsible for the shutdown, according to a Washington Post poll released Thursday.
Poll respondents said the president and his party were responsible for the shutdown for refusing to compromise while having full control over Congress and also Trump's actions.
The survey, which was conducted Wednesday, found that 30% of Americans said Democrats were responsible for the shutdown while 23% said they weren't sure who was to blame.
People who blamed Democrats criticized the party for refusing to compromise or said that it always opposes Trump, according to the Post.
Some of those respondents repeated false claims made by Trump and Republicans that Democrats are pushing for health benefits for immigrants without legal status.
The majority of Americans, 66%, were either very concerned or somewhat concerned about the shutdown, the Post poll found.
The poll found that eight out of 10 Democrats and 7 out of 10 independents were concerned about the shutdown. By comparison, less than half of Republicans were concerned, according to the poll.
When it came to sticking points that led to the shutdown, the poll found that 47% of Americans want both an extension of health insurance updates and for Democrats to demand it.
The Post surveyed 1,010 people and the margin of error was +/- 3.5 percentage points.
The poll results were somewhat different from another conducted before the shutdown started.
A New York Times/Siena College poll published Tuesday found that around a third of registered voters would blame both parties equally if the government shut down.
Democrats Seek Healthcare Funds to Help Migrants Not Self-Deport
A woman walks past various screens displaying flight information at George Bush IntercontiRONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty
Neil Munro
2 Oct 2025
Democrats are fighting to restart a pipeline of $20 billion in government healthcare aid per year to help migrants who face rising economic pressure to self-deport homeward.
President Donald Trump’s economic pressure on the migrants has reportedly forced roughly 1.6 million to self-deport. The number is likely to grow as administration officials pressure more businesses to shed illegal workers, impose more fines against migrants’ hard-earned possessions, and change migrants’ calculations.
“There’s no work … We have just made the decision to leave on our own terms,” a self-deporting illegal migrant named Gerardo told CBS News on September 28:
Gerardo says that when he first arrived, he was making up to $1,400 a week working as a truck driver. Today, he makes less than half that. “There’s just not enough work and too many expenses,” he said. “I used to work up to seven days a week. Now, I only work two to three.”
The family says they’ve endured wage theft, eviction, and the loss of Gerardo’s driver’s license after being pulled over. He says language barriers made the encounter with the police even more difficult. “In reality, everything just got so complicated, and that’s why we’ve made the decision to leave back to Mexico,” he said.
Their 9-year-old daughter says she learned English in just two years and appreciates her time in Colorado, but she is happy to leave. “I’m not sad because I am going to see my family over there,” she said.
The migrants’ decisions to go home will help raise Americans’ productivity and living standards, and will provide their home countries with new skills and useful ambitions.
But Democrats want the migrants to stay — and they want the federal government to cover their ballooning healthcare costs.
“Democrats are demanding health care for everybody,” admitted Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), whose California district includes many illegals. “The amount of money that actually is going towards people who are undocumented is such a small portion,” said Rep. Ro Khanna.
Without the federal funding, state Democrats in California, Minnesota, and other states will be forced to go through a painful process of cutting funds from their myriad interest groups.
“Democrats care more about illegal aliens than American citizens,” said a post by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that names the programs which Democrats used to smuggle federal funding to healthcare for illegal migrants.
The Democrats care more about illegal aliens than American citizens.
The GOP blocked the healthcare funding in the President’s signature spending bill, signed on July 4. But Democrats are closing the government as they try to pressure Trump Republicans to reopen the hidden money flow.
The healthcare funding is smuggled to illegal migrants via multiple spending accounts and myriad legal classifications, all of which is hidden behind a law barring illegal migrants from Medicaid spending.
For example, President Joe Biden’s pro-migration border chief, Ali Mayorkas, granted a quasi-legal status to roughly 3 million illegals via the “humanitarian parole” and “Temporary Protected Status” programs. This legal maneuver allowed the illegal migrants to legally get federal healthcare aid.
Similarly, Biden’s deputies allowed California to get a legal waiver from federal rules, so allowing the state to be compensated with federal funds withen it spends state funds on healthcare for illegals.
Pro-migration lobbies want the healthcare funding for the millions of hard-working migrants imported by Democrats from poor countries with little healthcare.
“There is no California without Latinx Californians, and recent state and federal cuts put their health and well-being at serious risk,” the California Immigrant Policy Center claimed on September 4. “State leaders must take bold action to protect and restore access to food, housing, health care, and education for all Californians.”
They're losing the argument. 👇
FACT: Biden granted parole and asylum to millions of illegal aliens-- unlocking "legal status" and access to health care benefits. Including ACA tax credits.
Since the July bill-signing, “2.3 million ineligible enrollees have been kicked off of Medicaid … [and if the Democrats get their way,] American taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars would be paying for benefits for illegal aliens again,” Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN on October 1. “We’re not doing that.”
Congressional Democrats and the Mainstream Media are saying that Chuck Schumer’s $1.5 Trillion Dirty CR Counteroffer does not allow illegal aliens to get free healthcare.
"Very often, [a citizen] in the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien, very often it’s a person who can’t speak English,” Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday. “Why do those people get health care benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?”
It’s easy for illegals to get healthcare coverage in California.
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
John Carney
2 Oct 2025
Stocks edged up to new record highs on Thursday as the U.S. government shutdown appeared poised to stretch into its third day.
The S&P 500 moved up a slight 0.06 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 79 points, or 017 percent. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.4 percent.
Bond prices rose, pushing down yields. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 0.019 percent to 4.087 percent and the yield on 30-year Treasuries dipped 0.022 percent to 4.693 percent. Two years were flat.
Investors are increasingly convinced the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its next two meetings, in October and December. The odds of a third cut in December implied by the fed funds futures market stand near 90 percent, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool. A week ago it the odds of a third cut in December were just 60.5 percent.
The gains were concentrated in the materials, information technology, communications, and industrials sectors, according to Fidelity. The financial, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, real estate, health care, energy, and real estate all declined.
Hakeem Jeffries Contradicts Fellow Democrats, Claims Government Shutdown Is Not over Giving Healthcare to Illegal Aliens
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
By John Binder
2 Oct 2025
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is contradicting fellow Democrats on the government shutdown, claiming the party is not looking to provide healthcare benefits to illegal aliens.
“Federal law prohibits the use of Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act to provide health insurance in any way, shape, or form to undocumented immigrants. Period. Full stop. That’s the law. And Democrats aren’t trying to change that,” Jeffries told ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday.
The remark is a direct contradiction of what several House and Senate Democrats have said regarding the government shutdown.
For instance, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) suggested Thursday in an interview with CBS News that only a “small population” of “people that are legally in this country” — alluding to perhaps those migrants paroled into the United States by the Biden administration — would receive taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits under the Democrats’ plan.
“What I really care about is the [Affordable Care Act] … if they are so worried about the small population of people that are legally in this country, that they determined are somehow illegal, even they’re still illegal, are receiving, potentially, some of these credits, then give us the wording. I’m willing to work with them to cut them out,” Gallego said.
Likewise, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), when asked about Democrats seeking healthcare benefits for illegal aliens, said, “Democrats are demanding healthcare for everybody.”
Also, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) seemingly admitted that the government shutdown fight is, in fact, over healthcare benefits for illegal aliens during an interview with Fox Business.
“The amount of money that actually is going towards people who are undocumented is such a small portion of the Medicaid cuts or the Affordable Care Act, if at all,” Khanna said.
Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) told NewsNation that certain blue states have used loopholes to ensure that illegal aliens are rewarded with healthcare benefits.
“There are certain state programs, like California, that, if you’re undocumented and you go into the emergency room and you don’t have insurance, the emergency room, the hospital gets reimbursed through Medi-Cal,” Panetta said. “If you’re a child and you don’t have health insurance and you need to go and see a doctor, you can use Medicaid, and if you’re a pregnant mother, you can use Medicaid as well.”
Panetta then admitted that Democrats are interested in making it easier for “a certain very small percentage” of illegal aliens to secure taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits.
During a White House press briefing this week, Vice President JD Vance called out Democrats for shutting down the government over an issue like healthcare benefits for illegal aliens.
“To the American people who watching, the reason your government is shut down at this very minute is because, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of congressional Republicans and even a few moderate Democrats supported opening the government, the Chuck Schumer-AOC wing of the Democratic Party shut down the government because they said to us, ‘We will open the government, but only if you give billions of dollars of funding for healthcare for illegal aliens,'” Vance said. “That’s a ridiculous proposition.”
Census Data is Clear: Illegal Aliens Do Improperly Secure Welfare Benefits
Migrants from a caravan in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, march while heading to the US
Isaac Guzman/AFP via Getty Images
By John Binder
2 Oct 2025
Illegal aliens do sometimes improperly secure American taxpayer-funded welfare benefits, United States Census Bureau data makes clear.
As the federal government shutdown continues, the establishment media and elected Democrats are routinely claiming that illegal aliens cannot secure taxpayer-funded welfare.
“[House Speaker Mike Johnson] also falsely claimed that Democrats want to give healthcare, extend healthcare to illegal immigrants. That is not true. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for federal healthcare programs,” a CNN anchor said on Thursday.
That media talking point echoes House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: “Federal law prohibits the use of Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act to provide health insurance in any way, shape, or form to undocumented immigrants. Period. Full stop. That’s the law,” Jeffries told ABC News.
The claim is being made to counter Republicans, who affirm that Democrats have allowed the government to shut down because they want to repeal reforms that seek to prevent illegal aliens from gaining access to taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits.
Analysis of the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) tells a much different story — one in which, despite best efforts from the Trump administration, illegal aliens do sometimes secure welfare benefits.
CIS researchers reviewed SIPP data regarding illegal immigrant-headed households that use welfare programs, but more specifically, the exact applicants for such welfare, finding that illegal aliens themselves sometimes secure cash benefits, food stamps, Medicaid, and housing vouchers.
Center for Immigration Studies
“While 59 percent of households headed by an illegal immigrant receive welfare, just 20 percent of illegal immigrant heads personally receive welfare themselves,” CIS’s Jason Richwine wrote in March.
“Other members of their households, who are usually legal residents, make up the difference,” Richwine continues. “The head-household distinction is especially noticeable with Medicaid, as just 1 percent of illegal household heads receive Medicaid — typically in emergency situations — but receipt by other household members pushes the rate all the way up to 39 percent.”
As Richwine details, illegal aliens most often secure welfare benefits by having their U.S.-citizen children or relatives — with whom they reside — apply for the benefits.
A memo from the White House, issued this week, estimates that Democrats’ demands to reopen the government would ensure almost $200 billion in taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits for illegal aliens.
Diễn Đàn Người Việt Hải Ngoại. Tự do ngôn luận, an toàn và uy tín. Vì một tương lai tươi đẹp cho các thế hệ Việt Nam hãy ghé thăm chúng tôi, hãy tâm sự với chúng tôi mỗi ngày, mỗi giờ và mỗi giây phút có thể. VietBF.Com Xin cám ơn các bạn, chúc tất cả các bạn vui vẻ và gặp nhiều may mắn.
Welcome to Vietnamese American Community, Vietnamese European, Canadian, Australian Forum, Vietnamese Overseas Forum. Freedom of speech, safety and prestige. For a beautiful future for Vietnamese generations, please visit us, talk to us every day, every hour and every moment possible. VietBF.Com Thank you all and good luck.
