WASHINGTON — Longtime Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters acknowledged that her party forced the government into a shutdown on Wednesday in order to secure “health care for everybody” — including illegal immigrants.
Waters, 87, was questioned outside the US Capitol Tuesday about Democrats’ opposition to a stopgap funding bill in both chambers of Congress that would have kept the government’s lights on until Nov. 21.
“Are Democrats demanding health care for illegal aliens?” asked LindellTV reporter Alison Steinburg.
“Democrats are demanding health care for everybody,” Waters responded, hours before her Senate colleagues blocked the spending measure.
“We want to save lives,” she added. “We want to make sure that health care is available to those who would die not having the help of their government.”
“So you’re good with a government shutdown, even if it means giving health care to people who aren’t American citizens?” Steinburg followed up.
“That’s what you’re pushing on,” Waters shot back. “You’re standing here and you’re trying to make me say that somehow we’re going to put non-citizens over Americans.
“Quit it! Stop it!” she fumed. “This is the kind of journalism we don’t need. You’re divisive.”
Only three Democrats — Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada as well as Rep. Jared Golden of Maine — and independent Sen. Angus King, also of Maine, voted for the so-called “clean” continuing resolution.
A Republican majority was able to pass the legislation in the House, but it failed to clear the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) both whipped their caucuses against the spending bill, claiming it didn’t do enough to preserve Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of 2025.
The Trump White House and Republicans have also been needling Democrats for tucking a provision into their competing funding measure that would broaden non-citizens’ access to taxpayer-funded health care services.
“Maxine Waters admitted that she is demanding Healthcare for Illegal Aliens, and it’s going to be Top of the Line, taking American Taxpayers’ Healthcare away from them!” the president posted on his Truth Social Wednesday.
“The Chuck Schumer, [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] 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,’” Vice President J.D. Vance also said at a White House briefing Wednesday.
“In terms of healthcare, the reality is they are just not being honest,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) insisted to Fox Business Network. “The amount of money that actually is going towards people who are undocumented is such a small portion of the Medicaid cuts or the ACA, if at all.”
Jeffries, in a viral interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, also said it was a “lie” that Democrats want to give away health insurance benefits to illegal immigrants.
“But what you support does bring back funding for emergency Medicaid to hospitals, some of which does pay for undocumented immigrants,” Tapper pushed back.
Between fiscal years 2017 and 2023, “federal and state governments spent a total of $27 billion on emergency Medicaid services for people who were ineligible for full Medicaid coverage because of their immigration status,” the Congressional Budget Office found.
Provisions in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will eliminate non-citizens’ access to the services starting next year.
Some moderates in both parties have been discussing compromise legislation that could preserve some of the ACA subsidies to avoid a spike in health care premium costs.
At least five more Democrats must break with their party to move the clean CR through the Senate. The next vote on that measure is expected Friday.
