11/10/2025
I was sent the photo below when I said I do not support tax dollars being used to fly Trump over a football game. So let’s dissect it. (Summary at the bottom)
***“Democrats want $1.5 trillion tax dollars and it’s why they will not pass the CR and are keeping the government shut down.”***
First a CR is a Continuing Resolution. Continuing Resolutions are “temporary spending bills that allow federal government operations to continue when final appropriations have not been approved by Congress and the President.”
What the Democrats want to mainly do with the $1.5 trillion dollars: Health Subsidy Reversals (Government aid for healthcare) and Medicaid restorations.
$349.8 Billion of that money will be going to permanently extending enhanced ACA premium subsidies, while $1 Trillion is going to go to reversing cuts to Medicaid. People who are undocumented generally cannot access Medicaid or ACA help. This very large amount of money is being used for documented citizens, any claims that it is going to undocumented people is false and is meant to cause inflammatory responses.
Democrats are refusing to move forward without protections and extensions for The Affordable Care Act credits (Obamacare) and stronger “guardrails on executive use of funds”. They are not moving forward because they are protecting your healthcare, health insurance, and making sure the money you pay in taxes is used appropriately and productively.
***“Healthcare for illegal aliens ($200 billion)”***
The proposal made by the Democrats would not give healthcare to undocumented immigrants. Documented immigrants cannot access federal healthcare. DOCUMENTED immigrants who are here completely LEGALLY would be getting to keep their healthcare programs in the Democrats proposal instead of losing access under the Republican law that is being proposed. No money in the Democrat proposal is going to be used to aid undocumented immigrants. (Side Note: I do not agree with not helping every person in this country. Everyone deserves healthcare and to deprive them of that is inhumane and deadly.)
***“Remove work requirement for able bodied single people with no dependents to receive Medicaid.”***
I was unable to find anything current on this. When I searched the topic, all that came up was Michigan repealing the work requirements in 2024. I am unable to conclude if this claim is true or not.
***“Permanent covid era Obama care subsidies without any income caps or any other reforms at all. ($358 billion)”***
This is untrue. What this is about is extending subsidies for the ACA (Obamacare) and receiving $349.8 billion over the course of ten years for this.
A poll conducted by the KFF found that more than 75% of people across the political spectrum are for extending the enhanced ACA tax credits. Other polls have had very similar outcomes.
"What we found is 78% of the public — including majorities of Democrats, independents, Republicans and [Make America Great Again] supporters — all think Congress should extend the premium tax credits beyond 2025," says Ashley Kirzinger, KFF's director of survey methodology.”
*** “Repeal $50 billion to support rural hospitals”***
“Reductions in insurance coverage among rural residents because of the OBBBA would mean a reduction in Medicaid dollars flowing to rural health care providers, such as hospitals.”
“As we said, KFF estimated that the OBBBA would reduce federal Medicaid spending in rural areas by $137 billion over 10 years. That’s $87 billion more than the five-year rural health fund that Kennedy has promoted.”
These cuts are in the “Big, Beautiful Bill” and will cause even more layoffs of staff, more rural hospital closures, etc. This is a problem caused by the Republicans. The $50 billion fund will not cover the destruction of health services.
I have not found anything stating that Democrats are repealing the fund. I did find that they called this plan a “slush fund”.
A slush fund is a “fund or account used for miscellaneous income and expenses, particularly when these are corrupt or illegal. Such funds may be kept hidden and maintained separately from money that is used for legitimate purposes. Slush funds may be employed by government or corporate officials in effort to pay influential people discreetly in returns for preferential treatment, advance information (such as non-public information in financial transactions), and other services. The funds themselves may not be kept secret but the source of the funds or how they were acquired or for what purposes they are used may be hidden.”
*** “NPR, PBS ($500 million) ***
House Speaker Mike Johnson made a misleading statement about these funds. He said, "Democrats are demanding $500 million for liberal news outlets.”
Democrats do want this money to restore allocations to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB supports NPR and PBS which are public media outlets, not partisan outlets.
*** “Examples of International Projects: ($5 billion):
- Climate resilience in Honduras ($24.6 million)
- Civic engagement in Zimbabwe ($13.4 million)
- LGBTQI+ Democracy Grants in the Western Balkan’s ($3.9 million)
- Desert locust risk reduction in the Horn of Africa)
- Organizing for Democratic Principles in Africa ($2 million) *** (that is where the list ends but i suspect there was more and it wasn’t sent since the claim is spending of $5 billion dollars)
First, the proposal from the Democrats is to restore the $5 billion in International Aid that Donald Trump let expire on September thirtieth. It seems that the proposal did not specify which International Projects would be funded with said aid.
This began when House Speaker, Mike Johnson, claimed that Democrats were demanding “Up to $5 billion… for wasteful spending for international projects,” and then began to list things such as “LGBTQI+ democracy grants.”.
When House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, was asked about this by a reporter he replied that he had “No idea what you’re talking about.”.
Full quote: “Jeffries responded dismissively: “We have no idea what you’re talking about, or what Republican extremist fed you those talking points. But the reality is, what we are doing is defending the health care of the American people.””
“Democratic lawmakers’ temporary funding bill, which amounts to $1.5 trillion over 10 years, did call for restoring about $5 billion approved by Congress for foreign assistance that the Trump administration allowed to expire. However, the Democrats’ proposal didn’t request that the funding be spent on specific projects.”
***********Summary: I was sent a list of things the Democrats are supposedly demanding $1.5 trillion dollars of taxpayer money for. I fact checked and found that none of them were true and that one did not come up despite multiple search attempts. The items on the list were obviously meant to be inflammatory and to make it seem like Republicans are just trying to save people by causing extreme damage. What is actually happening is Democrats refusing to let people further lose healthcare while also trying to make a ten-year plan to aid in solving problems with the healthcare system. It is far from a great plan but the claims in the attached picture are not true and the people insisting it is are only spreading and believing misinformation.
***Feel free to correct me with your own sources if what I have found is incorrect
Sources:
https://www.gao.gov/blog/what-continuing-resolution-and-how-does-it-impact-government-operations
https://faq.healthsherpa.com/en/articles/12714699-what-is-a-subsidy
https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/what-is-in-the-1.5-billion-democrats-asking-for-91fb79
https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/why-democrats-refusing-approve-budget-67ba5d
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/oct/01/jd-vance/government-shutdown-Democrats-immigrant-healthcare/
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/12/nx-s1-5570849/shutdown-aca-health-care-tax-credits
https://www.factcheck.org/2025/09/rural-health-fund-falls-short-of-estimated-medicaid-cuts/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slush_fund
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fact-check-are-democrats-demanding-500-million-for-liberal-news-outlets/
https://www.factcheck.org/2025/11/explaining-democrats-request-to-restore-foreign-aid/
