The Associated Press:

President Donald Trump and other high-ranking Republicans claim Democrats forced the government shutdown fight because they want to give free health care to immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

Democrats are trying to extend tax credits that make health insurance premiums more affordable on marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, and reverse Medicaid cuts in Trump’s big bill passed this summer. But immigrants who entered the country illegally are not eligible for either program.

A big part of conservative political philosophy is small government. They believe that government should not be responsible for so many things, and instead should be left up to the free market and the private sector. As a result, many of their goals are about shrinking government wherever possible. We saw it earlier this year with DOGE enacting mass layoffs, and the Big Beautiful Bill cutting funding for Medicaid and SNAP. For conservatives, the effectiveness of these agencies and programs is irrelevant because philosophically they believe that it’s not the government’s job.

But normal people don’t have this weird philosophy. Most people don’t really care where this kind of assistance comes from, they just want it to work. The problem for Republicans is that many of these programs are actually effective, and it’s very difficult to advocate for getting rid of things that help people. So they turn to a classic strategy that has worked over and over again: they lie.

They say it’s just about cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse” (even though there are already government offices who do this job). They say it’s just about cutting off people who are abusing the system (the overwhelming majority of Medicaid fraud is committed by providers, not beneficiaries). And now they’re saying that the shutdown is because Democrats want to give free healthcare to undocumented immigrants (again, it’s about tax credits).

Republicans have to lie to enact their agenda because if they were actually honest about what they believe, most people wouldn’t support it. And if people knew the actual consequences of the agenda, they would be furious.