Russ Vought

Buckle up for this one. Based on our initial set of audits, more than $1B of federal taxpayer dollars were being spent on funding Medicaid for illegal immigrants. And my team is getting it back. Some want to deny that illegal immigrants are receiving Medicaid. Others insist it’s illegal for Medicaid to cover illegal immigrants. And others accurately point out that hospitals can provide emergency services to illegal immigrants under the program. We can all agree on this: rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse is essential to protecting this program for the most vulnerable. It’s also one of the Trump Administration’s top priorities. Let me lay down the facts: The truth is that federal law is supposed to prohibit federal Medicaid dollars broadly from being used to cover illegal immigrants. It does permit states to use Medicaid dollars for emergency treatment, regardless of patients’ citizenship or immigration status. States can also legally build Medicaid programs for illegal immigrants using their own state tax dollars, so long as no federal tax dollars are used. But that didn’t stop Democrats from going even further by breaking federal law to give illegal immigrants federal Medicaid dollars meant for American citizens. Earlier this year, the CMS team began auditing state Medicaid programs to ensure they were following the law and not spending any federal tax dollars on illegal immigrants outside of emergency Medicaid. What we found was shocking. In a preliminary review of 6 states, we found those states improperly using federal tax dollars for their allegedly state-funded program and providing coverage to individuals, including some with criminal records of murder and assault. Those states are: CA - $1,310,032,549 DC - $2,114,628 IL - $29,778,645 WA - $2,367,194 CO - $1,506,743 OR - $5,404,368 We notified the states, and many have begun refunding the money. But what if we had never asked? Whether willful or not, the states’ conduct highlights a terrifying reality: American taxpayers have been footing the bill for illegal immigrants’ Medicaid coverage, despite many Democrats and the media insisting otherwise. Democrats are demanding the repeal of the President’s Working Families Tax Cuts legislation in order for their votes to reopen the government. This law wisely strengthened our ability to limit federal dollars from being spent on health care for illegal immigrants. Until Democrats explicitly drop that demand, they’re blatantly holding the government hostage over giving Medicaid to illegal immigrants.

The Trump Admin wants to turn the clock back to 2008 and let Wall Street run wild. We all know how that ended – with taxpayers bailing out Wall Street while millions lost their homes and got fired from their jobs. Donald Trump could be setting the stage for the next crash.