❓WHAT HAPPENED: Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) appeared to admit that her party was shutting down the government to prioritize healthcare for illegal immigrants.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Maxine Waters, President Donald J. Trump, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The government shutdown began at 12:01 AM on Wednesday.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Democrats are demanding healthcare for everybody. We want to save lives.” – Maxine Waters
🎯IMPACT: The shutdown has furloughed 750,000 federal employees, with Republicans signaling potentially permanent layoffs and Democrats holding firm on healthcare demands.
Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) appeared to admit in an interview earlier this week that her Democrat colleagues in the U.S. Senate forced a government shutdown over the lack of healthcare funding for illegal immigrants in the Republican stopgap funding bill. In an interview with Alison Steinberg of Lindell TV, Waters stated, “Democrats are demanding healthcare for everybody. We want to save lives. We want to make sure that healthcare is available to those who would die, but having the help of their government.”
The admission by the senior House Democrat lawmaker bolsters Republican claims that congressional Democrats are prioritizing illegal immigrants over American citizens and federal government workers. In a post on Truth Social, President Donald J. Trump slammed Democrat leaders on Capitol Hill, noting Waters’s comments, “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!”
Late Tuesday, Senate Democrats moved to block a Republican-backed short-term funding measure that would have averted the budget lapse, setting off the government shutdown at 12:01 AM on Wednesday. The Republican stopgap bill sought to maintain current funding levels through November 21, but Democrats demanded provisions addressing the extension of Obamacare subsidies.
Republican lawmakers contend the Democrat proposal to extend the subsidies contains language that would remove safeguards preventing illegal immigrants from receiving them. Waters dismissed accusations of prioritizing non-citizens over Americans as “divisive.”
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