President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to illegally revoke Americans’ health care benefits if Democrats in Congress don’t agree to do it themselves.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump floated pulling the plug on certain programs if Democratic lawmakers didn’t give up their funding fight to extend tax credits for the Affordable Care Act.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump said.
Trump threatened to direct his attack dog, White House budget director Russell Vought, to “trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way.”
“So they’re taking a risk by having a shutdown. Because of the shutdown, we can do things medically—and other ways, including benefits, we can cut large numbers of people out. We don’t want to do that, but we don’t want fraud, waste, and abuse,” Trump continued.
Trump didn’t get more specific about what programs he planned to cut, but “medically” implies he may strip health care benefits, the very thing Democrats have been battling to protect. An estimated 5.1 million Americans will lose their insurance by 2034 if ACA funding expires at the end of the year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Trump and other Republicans have claimed Democrats want to lavish undocumented immigrants with health care subsidies—but undocumented immigrants are not eligible for the tax credits Democrats hope to extend.
Trump isn’t the only one trying to outright intimidate lawmakers. The White House Office of Management and Budget wrote Congress last week urging them to pass a short-term measure to keep the government open through November. If lawmakers fail to agree on a deal, Vought’s office has warned federal agencies to prepare for another round of mass firings, with a focus on eliminating positions where funding has been discontinued or that do not align with Trump’s agenda.
If a deal cannot be reached, the government will shut down at midnight Tuesday.
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