Speaking in a White House press conference in the midst of the federal government shutdown, caused, many conservatives allege, by the radical and absurd spending demands of far-left Democrats like Sen. Schumer, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt brought the receipts to stump and torch a woke reporter who tried torpedoing her talking point with a gotcha question that backfired tremendously.
As background, the spat came over whether the increase in public, taxpayer-funded healthcare spending that Democrats are insistent upon will end up funneling tax dollars to illegal aliens, or if Republicans are just making that up, as Democrats claim. The Trump White House and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson have demonstrated conclusively how programs that the Democrats claim won’t end up aiding illegal aliens will, in reality, do so.
In any case, the reporter insisted that US law prohibits such benefits in a gotcha question trying to make Leavitt look foolish. She said, “It’s a 1996 law saying that they cannot give unauthorized immigrants any federally subsidized health care coverage through Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.”
Leavitt drolly asked, “Are you denying that Medicaid money has never gone to illegal aliens in the United States of America?” Continuing, she noted that Republicans were pushing a clean, reasonable bill, but that the Democrats refused to go along with it, snapping, “The Democrats’ proposal, their continuing resolution — let me just reiterate, the Republicans’ continuing resolution was a clean, continuing resolution.”
Further emphasizing that point before walloping the reporter with facts showing why the GOP argument is correct, Leavitt said, “There was no partisan politics injected into it. There were no conservative wish lists injected to it. What the Republicans want and still want to this very second is a clean, continuing resolution to fund the United States government.”
Getting to what the Democrats were insistent upon, Leavitt noted, “What did the Democrats want in their continuing resolution? They inserted a provision to undo a provision in the Working Families Tax Cut, the one big beautiful bill, that ended taxpayer-funded health care… benefits for illegal aliens.”
Adding to that, and citing the receipts to explain just how it would end up funneling money into taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens, she said, “Democrats’ proposal would require Medicaid to pay more for emergency care provided to illegal aliens than Medicaid does for American patients who are disabled, elderly, or children. And this bill would have also allowed California to continue a gimmick that funds its Medicaid for Illegals program.”
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Noting that the Trump Admin had demolished such spending and now the Democrats are trying to bring it back, she said, “Those are things that we ended, the Trump administration ended, with the passage and the signage of the One Big Beautiful Bill. And it is an undisputed fact, a fact that under the Biden administration, illegal aliens were absolutely receiving taxpayer-funded health care benefits.”
And, bringing yet more receipts to prove her point brilliantly, Leavitt noted, “In fact, in fiscal year 2024, Medicaid costs for emergency services for illegal immigrants skyrocketed by 142 percent from the previous year to $9.1 billion. That’s $9.1 billion taxpayer dollars that were going to emergency services for illegals.”
Still not done, she said, “Between President Trump’s last full fiscal year under his first administration and Joe Biden’s last full fiscal year, Medicaid spending on emergency services for illegal immigrants nearly tripled. There was an increase of 196 percent between 2020 and 2024. And I have a chart here for you, and I’m more than happy to email it to you.”
And, concluding by commenting on how what Democrats want has played out in real life, she said, “I’d also like to add, because some were asking dishonest questions yesterday about emergency rooms. In Southern California, according to healthcare professionals, in 2023, under the Biden administration, Southern California’s, quote, entire healthcare system was being bombarded with illegal immigrants and forcing American patients to endure longer wait times.”
Watch her here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video