Sullivan parrots GOP lie that Democrats want Medicaid for 'illegals'

Sen. Dan Sullivan is repeating the Republican lie that Senate Democrats want “Medicaid for illegals” in the United States.

“Look at what they want,” he said on Hugh Hewitt’s right-wing radio show, “A trillion dollars of spending in the next four weeks. Once again, Medicaid for illegals.”

Here is what the Associated Press says about the Medicaid for illegals claim that is being repeated by Sullivan, Trump and other Republicans.

“This is false. Democrats say they are pushing for the inclusion of key health care provisions in the next congressional spending package. In particular, they are seeking an extension of tax credits that millions of Americans use to buy insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchange and a reversal of Medicaid cuts made in the bill Trump signed into law in July. However, immigrants in the U.S. illegally are not eligible for any federal health care programs, including insurance provided through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. Hospitals do receive Medicaid reimbursements — which would be reduced under Trump’s bill — for emergency care that they are obligated to provide to people who meet other Medicaid eligibility requirements but do not have an eligible immigration status, according to KFF, a nonprofit health policy research, polling and news organization. This spending accounted for less than 1% of total Medicaid spending between fiscal years 2017 and 2023.”

Here is a New York Times account on the misleading claims about Medicaid.

On Bloomberg, Sullivan said the Democrats wanted “$1.4 trillion over the next four weeks,” a $400 billion increase over what he told Hewitt.

The Democratic plan to restore Medicaid funding would “completely gut one of the hallmarks of the budget reconciliation bill on the Republican side and for Democrats, which was the rural hospital transformation fund, $50 billion, that’s going to be huge for Alaska. I played a key role on that.”

“I think Schumer wanted a shutdown to atone for his left-wing sins in March,” said Sullivan, who said he hadn’t talked to Schumer.

While Bloomberg host Joe Mathieu said a lot of Democrats say that Trump wanted a shutdown so he could “unleash Russ Vought, (OMB director) lay off mass numbers of federal workers,” Sullivan said he does not believe that is the case.

The memo by Vought called for mass layoffs of federal workers.

“Well it was in the memo right? Was that a negotiating tactic?” he asked, referring to a memo by Vought calling for massive layoffs in the federal workforce.

Here is Vought’s memo calling for eliminating federal jobs, the writing of which and the leaking to the press of which was a negotiating tactic.

“I don’t know what that was, if that was a negotiating tactic or not,” Sullivan told Bloomberg.

“At a certain point, if a, a shutdown goes really really long, then the OMB director has to look at those hard choices. But look, in my discussions, I’ve had a lot of discussions with the administration. Nobody wants a shutdown. We don’t want a shutdown. Republicans are united in the House, in the Senate, in the White House.”

While Sullivan said he did not want to cut the federal workforce, Trump says the shutdown is an “unprecedented opportunity” to eliminate programs and slash the federal workforce.

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