00:00You want to know why the government is shut down?
00:03Well, to get to the facts, you've got to filter out the noise and the narratives.
00:07We're going to peel back the talking points today and expose the media's spin to this major story.
00:14There's a lot of facts to talk about to get to the whole truth,
00:17while the partisan media is only providing you with half.
00:21Welcome to Bias Breakdown.
00:23He's trying to frame the shutdown as a Democratic shutdown.
00:25He also falsely claimed that Democrats want to give health care, extend health care to illegal immigrants.
00:31That is not true.
00:33It can go to illegals in emergency hospitals and things like that.
00:36But Democrats are saying that's not true.
00:38But when you actually dive in the numbers there, that is a sticking point.
00:43And it is true, right?
00:45Let's quickly get through some of the logistics,
00:47so then we can talk about this health care sticking point that is creating these opposing narratives.
00:52The government shut down last Wednesday after a vote on a continuing resolution failed to pass.
00:58The continuing resolution would have kept the government open at current spending levels.
01:03On this vote, the yeas are 55 and the nays are 45.
01:07Three-fifths of the Senate duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmation.
01:12The motion is not agreed to.
01:14It had already passed one chamber of Congress in the House.
01:17But in the Senate, it needed 60 votes to pass.
01:20Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, Democrats 45.
01:26While Republicans have the majority, they don't have a large enough majority to do this on their own.
01:31They need some Democratic support.
01:33And they didn't get enough of it.
01:36The resolution received 55 votes.
01:39One Republican voted against it.
01:41Three who caucused with Democrats voted for it.
01:44Several votes have been held since the initial one, but the numbers are still not there.
01:48Democrats do hold leverage, knowing that Republicans need seven or eight of them to keep the government open.
01:56So Senate Democrats want a health care provision passed in exchange for their votes to keep the government open.
02:03And this is where we get to the meat of the story.
02:06Right-leaning media are echoing Republican concerns over a Democrat demand, which involves repealing a provision of the Big Beautiful Bill,
02:15which limited Medicaid reimbursement funding to states for immigrants here illegally and for non-citizens.
02:22Still a big problemo, spending billions of dollars on health care for illegals.
02:26A couple of Democrats admitted that's what they're doing.
02:30The others keep claiming it's a lie.
02:32Illegals are, in fact, receiving health care paid for by the American people.
02:36Fact.
02:37Some states are more open about it than others, but it's happening.
02:41They're telling you that they don't want taxpayer-funded health care for illegals.
02:45When you hear this, understand you are being lied to at a very high level.
02:50I don't like being lied to.
02:52But the big three networks, left-leaning CBS, NBC, and ABC, highlight immigrants in the country illegally would not receive Medicaid benefits under the Democrats' proposal.
03:05But the bottom line is that people who are here illegally, if they have not been granted any sort of legal status by the U.S., cannot be eligible for Medicaid.
03:13Undocumented immigrants who come across the border, who've been flagged for deportation, they cannot get Medicaid.
03:18They cannot get Obamacare.
03:20They can't get on the Affordable Care Act.
03:21That is not legal.
03:23Democrats are not trying to change that.
03:24Here are the facts.
03:25The proposal does not provide health care for illegal immigrants.
03:28Illegal immigrants cannot buy health care under the Affordable Care Act.
03:32They cannot receive health care subsidies.
03:34If left and right-leaning media are telling you two completely different things, and sometimes so passionately making their case, then you're left wondering, what is the truth?
03:44Are illegal immigrants getting free health care?
03:47It's a major flashpoint between Republicans and Democrats right now.
03:51And that same discourse and divide is showing up in news coverage that is supposed to help us make sense of it all.
03:59And I'll tell you, before researching this story, this back and forth from the television had me confused.
04:04I asked myself, how can media outlets state so matter-of-factly two opposite truths about the same issue?
04:12I found out the media is slanting the story, which is a form of media bias.
04:16Slant is when journalists play up one particular angle or piece of information.
04:22Through cherry-picking information, slant prevents readers from getting the full story.
04:26This form of bias is closely linked to bias by omission.
04:31In this case here, both sides largely downplayed the facts that would challenge their claims, which is what fuels these two opposing narratives.
04:39We're going to cut through the noise with the full facts.
04:43What exactly are Democrats demanding in their provision?
04:46The one that they say must pass before they'll agree to reopen the government.
04:51On page 56 of Democrat Senate Bill, under Section 2141, the Democrats referenced Public Law 119-21.
05:02When you look that up, that's the text to what is also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,
05:08which was passed by Republicans and signed into law on July 4th this year.
05:13Democrat Senate Bill looks to repeal Subtitle B of Title VII of the Big Beautiful Bill
05:20and make it as if this portion was never enacted or passed and signed into law.
05:26So what is that portion of the Big Beautiful Bill?
05:29Here is Title VII, Finance.
05:31And Subtitle B of this section is Health Medicaid.
05:36This is a large portion, but the part of it relevant for this is Alien Medicaid Eligibility,
05:41which outlines payment will not be made to a state to cover medical assistance for individuals
05:48unless the individual meets a list of criteria of being a citizen or lawfully residing in the U.S.
05:56under these listed exemptions.
05:58The Big Beautiful Bill also limited emergency Medicaid using the same legal status definition as above,
06:05meaning this portion of Medicaid funding for states under the new Big Beautiful Bill will be smaller.
06:12Democrats want this repealed.
06:14I know there was a lot of legal jargon there, but going straight to the original sources
06:19is where you can see these political and media narratives originate from.
06:25The fact is the Big Beautiful Bill closed opportunities for federal dollars to cover certain state medical expenses
06:33for immigrants here illegally.
06:36Repealing that would open the door back up for states to receive federal Medicaid funding
06:41to cover certain medical expenses for illegal immigrants.
06:46Some important context here.
06:48A law was signed by President Reagan in 1986 that states emergency hospitals are not allowed to turn away patients
06:56based on their insurance status or ability to pay.
07:01That also means no matter your legal status in the country, medical emergencies must be tended to.
07:07And under emergency Medicaid, states must reimburse their local hospitals for anyone who would be eligible for Medicaid.
07:16And now the federal government's reimbursement percentage is lower under the Big Beautiful Bill
07:21because it requires the hospitals to consider legal status of the patient.
07:27So does any of this mean illegal immigrants will directly receive money in hand
07:32or qualify for federal health care programs?
07:36No, there are federal statutes that make it illegal for illegal immigrants to qualify for federal health insurance.
07:43That is not changing.
07:45The two political sides of the media aren't making these things clear
07:49because they'd rather slant the story in a way that supports their political side during this government shutdown.
07:56This exchange between CNN's anchor Caitlin Collins and the network's conservative political commentator Scott Jennings
08:03is a great example of how the left and right, even in the media,
08:08are selectively choosing their talking point and offering partial truths.
08:13Can I say one thing, which is that people who are in the country illegally cannot get these subsidies that we're talking about.
08:19Sure they can't.
08:19No, they can't.
08:20No, they can't.
08:21It's federal law, Scott.
08:22Who do you think pays when they go to the emergency room?
08:25It's the Medicaid emergency program.
08:27Scott, going to the emergency room is not getting an Obamacare subsidy.
08:30You guys are conflating.
08:31You guys are conflating these issues.
08:33You're conflating these issues.
08:35People who are in the country illegally also can't get Medicaid.
08:37That's federal law.
08:38Sure they can.
08:39You can run cover for it if you want, but they do get federal tax money.
08:43It's just the facts.
08:44They get federal tax money.
08:45It is true that unauthorized immigrants are not getting on Medicaid.
08:50It is also true that states can be reimbursed more federal tax dollars to cover emergency medical care for immigrants here illegally
08:59if Democrats successfully repeal this big, beautiful bill provision.
09:04We already talked about how this rhetoric is an example of media slant, but it also qualifies as bias by spin
09:11because journalists are selectively choosing which facts to present to support their particular narrative.
09:19Stay with me here.
09:20I know this is a lot.
09:21What we've been discussing is the media's framing of health care for immigrants in the country illegally
09:27because that's where most of the media focus has been.
09:31However, there's another caveat to this story's coverage that is worth pointing out.
09:35The big, beautiful bill also tightened down which immigrants here on some sort of protected status can be eligible for Medicaid.
09:44Democrats want to restore coverage eligibility to the groups of non-citizens here under certain protections,
09:52such as refugees, those granted asylum, or DACA recipients.
09:57What they are trying to do is reverse a piece of President Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill
10:02that would take away health care eligibility for those 1.4 million people who are, again, lawfully present in the country.
10:10Right-leaning outlets at times did not make the distinguisher between illegal immigrants and other non-citizens.
10:16They're asking Donald Trump, who ran and won on fighting illegal immigration,
10:22to give $200 billion of free health care to illegal immigrants.
10:25That $200 billion figure comes from this chart, which shows America would save nearly $200 billion over the next 10 years,
10:34not just by removing state funds for illegal immigrant care,
10:39but the majority of those savings are from medical benefit cuts for these subset groups of immigrants
10:45who are non-citizens, but in the U.S. under certain programs, protecting them from deportation.
10:51So Fox's coverage there was misleading by not including the caveat that this number includes nixing certain non-citizen coverage, too.
11:01Something even this White House press release does differentiate.
11:05All in all, there's been a lot of confusion surrounding this topic.
11:09We didn't even get into the other parts of the Democrat Senate bill,
11:13like the other Medicaid subsidies they want repealed,
11:16or their push to extend Obamacare subsidies.
11:19There's just been so much noise around illegal immigrant health care, and not a lot of clarity.
11:26Left and right-leaning media each lean on facts that support their side.
11:30It's true illegal immigrants don't qualify for Medicaid benefits,
11:35but it's also true that the big, beautiful bill included language limiting federal reimbursements to states
11:42for illegal immigrants' medical expenses.
11:45Instead of laying out that full picture, each media aligning with either side of the partisan divide went on the attack,
11:56calling the other liars like how you heard off the top of the story.
12:00But when you poke holes in both narratives, you see each one leaves out key facts to fit a political agenda.
12:07That's the power of spotting media slant.
12:11You realize there's more to a story than what you're being told.
12:15And that's your bias breakdown.
12:17Thank you for watching this week's episode.
12:20I feel like this was a little bit of information overload in this week's story,
12:24but I really hope that at least some of it was digestible.
12:27It's a big topic, and I really see this as the beginning of a major health care debate.
12:32I do see us potentially covering this topic more in depth on a broader scale outside of this Democratic proposal,
12:39because there are some major changes on the horizon if Congress doesn't act on the health care front.
12:45So make sure that you are following us on your preferred podcast platform so you never miss an episode.
12:51Join in on the conversation in our comments on Spotify or on YouTube.
12:55I'm usually bouncing around in both comment sections trying to respond to some of you.
13:00So if you have questions or feedback, I'm all ears.
13:03And for those of you leaving positive notes for me and the team, it really does make my day reading those.
13:08I love what I do.
13:09I love getting to be here with you in this space.
13:12I also have the best support system behind me with Ian Kennedy and Allie Caldwell working on the video edits and graphics for us here each and every week.
13:21So big thank you to them and to you for listening and watching and tuning in.
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