REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE CRISIS

● Myth: Action can wait because the health care tax credits don’t expire until Dec. 31.

○ Fact: Notices will go out in the next few days that premiums have more than doubled.  Millions will lose coverage or face skyrocketing costs starting in October.

● Myth: Democrats want over $1 trillion of new spending on health care for illegal aliens.

○ Fact: Undocumented individuals cannot purchase coverage through the Affordable Care Act or receive comprehensive Medicare or Medicaid coverage. No one is proposing to change that.

● Myth: Democrats are taking $50 billion from rural hospitals.

○ Fact: The Big, Ugly Bill cut Medicaid by $1 trillion and made up 5 percent of those cuts with a slush fund controlled by Republican politicians.   Unless Congress acts, 338 hospitals across the country are at risk of closing.

● Myth: Health care tax credits are too expensive.

○ Fact: If you use the same baseline that Republicans used with the Big, Ugly Bill, they wouldn’t cost anything.  Republicans raced to give tax breaks for the rich by July 4 for things expiring at the end of December, but have no urgency when it comes to lowering middle class families’ health care costs.

● Myth: Health care tax credits are benefiting rich people, even those making $600,000.

○ Fact: Unlike the Big, Ugly Bill’s tax cuts for the rich, health care tax credits help middle- and low-income families. More than 90 percent of enrollees make less than $63,000 per year.  No one making $600,000 is getting a tax credit.

REPUBLICAN SHUTDOWN

● Myth: Democrats will shut down WIC.

○ Fact: Democrats want to increase funding for WIC. There has never been a disruption in WIC funding during a shutdown, and cutting off WIC is a choice by the Trump White House.

● Myth: The shutdown harms veterans.

○ Fact: Republicans have chosen to use veterans as a bargaining chip. New estimates show that 600,000 veterans will see health care premiums skyrocket if we do not extend the health care tax credits.  

● Myth: Democrats want $500 million for left-wing media.

○ Fact: Democrats support reversing cuts that left local radio and TV stations unable to provide critical services, like emergency alerts, in rural areas. Many Republicans also support funding these lifesaving tools.

● Myth: Democrats do not care about law enforcement.

○ Fact: Donald Trump has fired law enforcement officers, proposed massive cuts to federal law enforcement agencies and unilaterally terminated law enforcement and public safety grants across the country.  

○ This included $800 million in grants for things like community violence prevention, services for victims of crime, juvenile justice programs and support for rural law enforcement agencies.  

● Myth: Democrats are forcing thousands of civil service employees to be fired.

○ Fact: This administration has already attempted to illegally fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers this year, many of whom they have had to hire back because they served critical government functions. The OMB Director has also said he wants to demoralize the hardworking people who serve in our federal workforce. These threats are more of the same, with or without a shutdown.