JD Vance slams Dems for shutting down government to get benefits for illegal immigrants —Maxine Waters says she wants 'healthcare for everybody'

The US government has entered a partial shutdown after the deadline passed at midnight to pass legislation keeping the government funded. One of the sticking points for Democrats, most of whom did not vote to keep government running, is federal healthcare funding.

Vice President JD Vance called out Democrats for refusing to own their intention of providing healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants. Democrats have tried to obfuscate that, but Vance said that what they're saying is "not true."

"A Democrat talking point, they say 'we’re not actually trying to give healthcare benefits to illegal aliens,' and here’s why it’s not true," Vance told Fox News on Wednesday morning. "There are two Biden-era programs that explicitly gave the taxpayer healthcare money to illegal alients that we turned off when President Trump took over in January."

"The second of which is the Biden administration gave mass parole to millions upon millions of illegal aliens and then they simultaneously made those parolees eligible for health care benefits funded by taxpayers. In the One Big Beautiful Bill, President Trump and congressional Republicans turned off that money to health care funding for illegal aliens."

Vance continued, "Democrats want to turn it back on," saying that in their initial proposal, "the first thing that they put out to reopen the government, they actually turned that money for health care benefits for illegal aliens back on."

"So it’s not something that we made up. It’s not a talking point. It is in the text of the bill that they initially gave us to reopen the government. It’s preposterous for them to run away from it now."

Outside the Capitol, Rep Maxine Waters was confronted by LindellTV reporter Alison Steinberg, who asked about the Democrats’ push for health care for illegal immigrants. 

"Do Democrats want to prioritize the health care of illegal aliens over a government shutdown? Because if the government does shut down, Americans are going to be furloughed," Steinberg asked.

"Stop it right there," Waters interrupted. "We’re not prioritizing. What we’re doing is saying simply, we want to keep the government open, and we want to work with the Republicans and have a bipartisan agreement to keep this government open, and healthcare is at the top of our agenda."

Steinberg pressed, "Are Democrats demanding healthcare for illegal aliens?"

Waters replied, "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."

When Steinberg asked if Waters was okay with the government shutting down "even if it means giving healthcare to people who aren't American citizens?"

Waters accused her of being "divisive."

"Well, you keep—that's what you're pushing on. What you're trying to do is you're standing here and you're trying to make me say that somehow we're going to put non-citizens over Americans, quit it. Stop it. This is the kind of journalism we don't need," she said.

"You're being divisive," Waters went on. "No, please. You don't need to ask that question. You're just trying to get controversy here. You're not going to get it from me. We want to save healthcare for all people. Thank you."