Fox News hosts were quick to shut down the lone liberal voice on The Five after she debunked a misleading Republican claim about the government shutdown.
During a heated discussion about the first government shutdown since 2019, which took effect at midnight on Wednesday after a deadlocked Congress failed to reach a deal on a stopgap measure, Jesse Watters argued that President Donald Trump was unlikely to be the first to buckle in the standoff between Democrats and Republicans.
The impasse centers on a push by Democrats to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, as well as to undo massive Medicaid cuts embedded in Trump’s “big, beautiful” megabill.
“You think Trump is going to cave and say, ‘Okay, let’s give billions to illegal aliens?’” Watters asked co-host Jessica Tarlov, the token liberal on the panel.
Watters appeared to be echoing the misleading Republican talking point—peddled by no less than the White House and other top conservatives—that Democrats are refusing to work with Republicans and shutting down the government because they want unauthorized immigrants to get free healthcare.
But Tarlov correctly pointed out that this claim is false. Unauthorized immigrants are already barred from receiving federally funded healthcare coverage under a 1996 statute, and the Democrats’ budget proposals do not seek to make them eligible for programs like Medicaid and Medicare.
“Jesse said they’re doing this because they want to give illegals health care,” she said. “That is not true. It is prohibited.”
“Where?” co-host Greg Gutfeld chimed in. “Prohibited in New York, California?”
“States are allowed to do whatever they want,” Tarlov rebutted, prompting Gutfeld to ask sarcastically where states get their money.
“They get the money from the Feds, Jessica,” Watters said, appearing to forget about state taxes.
The Republican lie about funding healthcare for “illegals” likely stems from efforts by Democrats to restore the eligibility of certain “lawfully present” immigrants for Obamacare subsidies.
Tarlov notes that Democrats are seeking to restore the eligibility of lawfully present immigrants, including refugees, domestic violence survivors, and human trafficking victims, but her conservative co-hosts did not appear sold on the idea.
“If you show up at the border and say you were trafficked, you got in and you got free healthcare,” Watters quipped.
“The ACA tax credits are the crux of all of this, and 21 million of the 24 people that benefit from those subsidies are in Trump states,” Tarlov countered. “So he should want to keep them happy.”
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