By Gregory Lyakhov, Patriot Post - While Democrats try to deny it, the reason Washington is shut down comes down to a single question: Should Medicaid, a program meant for low-income Americans, be used to subsidize healthcare for people who entered the country illegally?... The fight began with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this year. One of its key reforms ended a Medicaid loophole that allowed states to pass the cost of covering illegal immigrants on to federal taxpayers. The law required states to pay those costs themselves, cutting off a practice that blurred eligibility lines and drained billions.