WASHINGTON – On the ninth day of the federal government shutdown, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, took aim at Minnesota’s Democratic senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith.
At a GOP leadership press conference, which House Republicans decided this week to hold every morning, Emmer, the Majority Whip, said Klobuchar and Smith have voted six times “to shut the government down, or keep it shut down.”
With House Speaker Mike Johnson nodding soberly at his side, Emmer said the Democratic senators “have voted six times against paying our troops, six times against paying the 13,000 National Guardsmen who are showing up to work without receiving a paycheck.”
The U.S. Senate has rejected a House GOP short-term spending bill that would fund the federal government until Nov. 21. Although the GOP has a majority in the U.S. Senate, it lacks the 60 votes needed to overcome Democratic opposition to the bill, which does not contain the restoration of Medicaid cuts and extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies Democrats are seeking.
“Tina Smith claims she shut the government down so she could — quote — protect Minnesotans’ health care — unquote,” Emmer said. “But Tina, if that really was the case, why do you support a $1.35 trillion spending proposal while providing health care to illegal aliens while cutting $50 from rural health care. She’s just not being honest.”
Emmer did not mention that Senate Republicans have repeatedly rejected a Democratic alternative that would reopen the shuttered federal government. And, when it comes to honesty, Emmer’s comments should be scrutinized more closely.
Democrats want to repeal the entire section of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that implements cuts to Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor. The OBBBA cut Medicaid benefits for certain “non-citizens.” That does not mean that benefits had been available for those immigrants without permission to live in the United States, federal law has always prohibited that, and that Democrats want to provide free health care to “illegal aliens.”
What the repeal of the entire Medicaid section would do is restore the OBBBA’s elimination of benefits for those who are not U.S. citizens but do have legal permission to live and work in the United States. Those include legal residents (green card holders), Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients and those with temporary protected status (TPS).
As far as the $50 billion fund for rural hospitals, that is also in the Medicaid section of the OBBBA, put in at the last second in the U.S. Senate after an outcry from rural hospitals over the bill’s cuts to Medicaid. And many rural hospitals say the money won’t be enough to cover the losses they expect to incur because of the OBBBA.
Nevertheless, Emmer insisted Democratic demands to restore Medicaid cuts “was never about health care, but rather “about picking a fight with Donald Trump so they could try to score points with the terrorist wing of their party.”
Smith reacted on X to Emmer’s attacks, which include posts on social media.
“You’re spending a lot of time tweeting at me and not a lot of time negotiating how to get out of a shutdown,” Smith said. “By the way, why isn’t the rest of your team in Washington?”
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