Caller Blames Biden for Government Shutdown

During a recent C-SPAN call, a Republican caller accused former President Joe Biden of prolonging the government shutdown by permitting millions of undocumented immigrants to enter the U.S. The caller claimed that, without Biden’s border policies, the funding issues related to healthcare for these immigrants wouldn’t be as severe.

“President Biden is the one who caused the government shutdown,” the caller stated. “If we didn’t have 20 million invaders coming into this country, we wouldn’t be facing this problem about funding their health care. So Biden is responsible for letting all these illegal aliens into the country,” he continued.

He argued further, saying, “If Biden hadn’t allowed these illegal aliens to cross the border, we wouldn’t be discussing funding their needs, from emergency rooms to everything else.”

On Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson responded to a whistleblower on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal who claimed he was misrepresenting the issue of illegal immigrants receiving Medicaid. Johnson referenced an opinion from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) which noted that approximately 1.4 million people would be ineligible for Medicaid under a reconciliation bill signed by President Donald Trump. This group consists of individuals who don’t meet citizenship or immigration requirements but qualify for state-funded programs under existing laws.

Johnson also mentioned that the Republican-supported Continuing Resolution (CR) would “overturn” parts of the July settlement bill that restricted Medicaid access for undocumented immigrants.

A report from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) indicated there were around 11 million encounters at the border between February 2021 and December 2024.

A December analysis from the New York Times pointed out that Biden oversaw the largest surge of net immigration in U.S. history, with a significant proportion of those immigrants being undocumented.