Don’t buy Cline’s lie about the shutdown

Congressman Cline is propagating the Republican lie that Democrats are shutting down the federal government in order to demand “free health care for illegal aliens.”

As The New York Times explains:

The Democrats’ budget proposal seeks to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, and roll back Medicaid cuts in the tax cut and domestic policy law signed by President Trump in July. But the proposal does not provide free health care for unauthorized immigrants.

Unauthorized immigrants are largely barred from federally funded health care programs. They cannot buy health care plans on government exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act and therefore cannot receive any subsidies. They are also ineligible for Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The Democrats’ budget proposal does not make them eligible for these programs.

Thus Cline ignores the Democrats’ main demand: to maintain a tax credit that helps 22 million American citizens lower their health insurance costs.

Known as the enhanced premium tax credit, the subsidy has been used by millions of low- and middle-class households since it was authorized under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021. Since then, spurred by the tax credit, the number of people who have enrolled in ACA marketplace health insurance plans has almost doubled, according to health care publication KFF.

…..

The cost of premiums for people who buy their insurance through the ACA marketplaces could more than double, rising from an average of $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026, according to a Sept. 30 analysis by KFF. About 4 million people would likely drop their insurance coverage if the credit is allowed to expire because they wouldn’t be able to afford the costs, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated.

But it is set to expire at the end of 2025, and leading Democratic lawmakers are making a funding deal to keep the government open contingent on Republicans agreeing to extend the credit.

Congressman Cline: I think you are intelligent enough to know you are lying about this.

So please stop it.