NEW: GOP Brings Out Receipts, Confirms Dems Are Demanding Healthcare For Illegals

For days leading up to this week’s government shutdown, Democrats on Capitol Hill framed their demands in vague terms, declaring that healthcare for millions of Americans would be in jeopardy if GOP cuts to Obamacare subsidies were not rescinded.

Members of the U.S. House Democratic caucus like Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) fanned out across mainstream media, stating that Democrats were “fighting for the healthcare of the American people” while dismissing Republicans’ concerns that their true motive was to supply illegal immigrants with continued healthcare.

On Thursday, the Republican National Committee put to bed any doubt, releasing text of Democrats’ counterproposal for a continuing resolution which would have included a section titled “Alien Medicaid Eligibility.”

The lengthy amendment lays out how former refugees who are challenging their immigration status may still receive subsidized federal healthcare if the Democratic changes were accepted. Among them: any “alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence” qualifies, raising doubts about whether the Trump administration could strip healthcare from individuals who were legally allowed into the country under the Biden administration’s expanded asylum program.

Cuban and Haitian refugees would also be covered, both categories that were revoked by the Trump administration in June. Advocates for both groups are currently challenging the administration’s decision in court, allowing former refugees to argue that they are entitled to healthcare coverage until a final ruling that could still be years away.

On the morning of the shutdown, Vice President J.D. Vance echoed the GOP’s concerns that Democrats are seeking to extend healthcare services for illegal immigrants targeted by the Trump administration.

“They say, ‘We’re not actually trying to give healthcare benefits to illegal aliens,’” Vance said of the Democrats. “And here’s why it’s not true.”

Vance called out two Biden-era programs “that explicitly gave the taxpayer healthcare money to illegal aliens that we turned off when President Trump took over in January.”

One of those programs provided illegal immigrants access to emergency healthcare services at hospitals, Vance explained to Fox News.

“We turned off that funding because, of course, we want American citizens to benefit from those hospital services, not to be taxed, and then to have those hospital services go to illegal aliens,” Vance said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday, “They want to restore taxpayer-funded benefits, American taxpayer-funded benefits, to illegal aliens.”

“We’re not doing that,” Johnson added.

Longtime Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) didn’t shy away from the suggestion that illegal immigrants may receive new benefits if the Democratic plan materializes.

“Are Democrats demanding healthcare for illegal aliens?” a reporter asked the California Democrat on Wednesday.

Waters replied, “Democrats are demanding health care for everybody. We want to save lives. We want to make sure that health care is available to those who would die, but having the help of their government.”