The White House and congressional Republicans say that Democratic lawmakers caused the federal government shutdown as part of an effort to extend health care benefits to undocumented immigrants. However, as several independent experts interviewed by NPR note, that claim is false.

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Democrats say it amounts to tax breaks for billionaires and pays for them with deep Medicaid cuts. The White House insists the law protects taxpayers by preventing undocumented immigrants from getting government health benefits — but such individuals were already barred from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, exchanges.

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Republicans have accused the Democrats of holding the government hostage to a "far-left wish list," including funding the health care of "illegal aliens." The White House has said the Republicans' legislation ensures "that taxpayer dollars are focused on American citizens and do not subsidize healthcare for illegal immigrants."

Jonathan Gruber, the chairman of the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says the Republican claim is false. People living in the U.S. who are undocumented "do not qualify for Medicaid. They do not qualify for tax credits on the [ACA health care] exchanges," he says.