Good evening. Once again, I am Stephanie Ruhl, and welcome to the midweek nightcap. It is day 255. We are counting, so you do not have to, of the second Trump administration. And we are about to enter day two of the first government shutdown in almost seven years.

Today, the Senate once again

failed to pass a spending bill that would reopen the government, which means thousands of federal

workers have been furloughed while the Trump White House threatens widespread layoffs. Watch this.

We are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues. We don't like that. We don't

necessarily want to do it, but we're going to do what we have to to keep the American people's

essential services continuing to run. The reason your government is shut down at this very minute

is because, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of congressional Republicans and

even a few moderate Democrats supported opening the government,

the Chuck Schumer AOC wing of the Democratic Party shut down the government because they said to us,

we will open the government, but only if you give billions of dollars of funding for health care for illegal aliens.

That is not true. I said it last night and I'm going to say it again.

For fact's sake, that's false.

Undocumented immigrants cannot sign up for the Affordable Care Act coverage.

And they are not eligible for Medicaid coverage.

Now, there are a small number of legal immigrants, people who are in this country legally,

and they do qualify. But the Republican cuts would also threaten coverage for millions of American citizens. Democrats want

those cuts rolled back. That is the sticking point in negotiations. Here's House Minority Leader

Hakeem Jeffries on this topic earlier today. Tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatically increased premium,

co-pays, and deductibles because of the Republican unwillingness to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health clinics are closing all across the

country, including in rural America because of what Republicans have done. House Democrats and Senate

...