American taxpayers are sick of blowing trillions of dollars financing the reckless spending of the federal government.
If you want to know why America has an “affordability crisis,” we need to start there.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has a fairly simple idea for cutting at least some of the bill: Stop handing federal welfare benefits to people who aren't American citizens.
The Kentucky Republican is pushing the End Welfare for Noncitizens Act, legislation that would bar federal funds from providing TANF, Medicaid, SNAP and other federal benefits to illegal immigrants, refugees and asylees.
“American families are struggling to make ends meet while Washington funds welfare for people who broke our immigration laws to get here,” Paul wrote.
“My End Welfare for Non-Citizens Act ends that by cutting off TANF, Medicaid, and SNAP for illegal immigrants, refugees, and asylees.”
American families are struggling to make ends meet while Washington funds welfare for people who broke our immigration laws to get here.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 30, 2026
My End Welfare for Non-Citizens Act ends that by cutting off TANF, Medicaid, and SNAP for illegal immigrants, refugees, and asylees.
The bill, S. 3670, was introduced in January by Paul along with Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).
And unlike the labyrinthine legislation that normally emerges from Washington, Paul's proposal makes its point in essentially one paragraph:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds shall be appropriated or otherwise made available to provide benefits under the temporary assistance for needy families program established under part A of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 601 et seq.), the Medicaid program under title XIX of that Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.), or the supplemental nutrition assistance program established under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2077 et seq.), or to provide any other Federal benefit (including cash and tax benefits), subsidy, or service, to any refugee or asylee or any alien who is present in the United States without legal status.
That would significantly strengthen current law. Illegal immigrants are already generally prohibited from directly receiving major federal means-tested benefits such as regular Medicaid, SNAP and TANF. But there are exceptions, and mixed-status households can receive substantial taxpayer assistance through eligible family members, including U.S.-citizen children.
Refugees and asylees are in a different category. They are legally present and generally considered “qualified aliens” under federal welfare law, allowing them access to welfare programs including Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF.
The Democrat Party, after trying to mislead Americans that illegal aliens and non-citizens don't get public welfare, sued the Trump administration to stop it from getting state-level data that would help stop it.
As RedState's RC Maxwell reported in August:
A coalition of 24 Democratic attorneys general and the District of Columbia filed suit Monday to stop the Trump administration from sharing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) data with the Department of Homeland Security. The White House says the data is essential to keep illegal immigrants from accessing taxpayer-funded aid reserved for U.S. citizens and legal residents.
Paul wants to shut it all down. The underlying principle is easy to grasp: The United States should not operate a welfare system for the world.
And the numbers back up that American taxpayers are getting fleeced. Research from the Center for Immigration Studies using Census Bureau data found that 59 percent of households headed by noncitizens used at least one major means-tested program, compared with 37 percent of U.S.-born-headed households.
CIS estimated the figure at approximately 61 percent for illegal-immigrant-headed households, compared with roughly 51 percent for households headed by legal immigrants.
A separate CIS analysis pooling Census data from 2021 through 2025 found that 47 percent of noncitizen-headed households used traditional welfare programs — Medicaid, food assistance, cash welfare or housing assistance — compared with 28 percent of U.S.-born-headed households.
When eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit was included, the numbers climbed to 57 percent and 34 percent, respectively.
For illegal immigrants, the case for cutting benefits is particularly obvious. Someone who has no legal right to remain in the United States should not become the basis for additional federal welfare spending.
Paul goes further by applying the same principle to refugees and asylees. They may have lawful immigration status, but lawful presence does not create some immutable right to SNAP, Medicaid, or cash assistance. Congress created those benefits. Congress can restrict them.
Washington is running enormous deficits, and American families are being squeezed by housing, food, healthcare, and other basic expenses. So, not only does spending less on welfare make sense to ease the tax burden on those who work, but people who aren't here to actually pursue the American Dream, but who are here to get public handouts, would self-deport. That ultimately means lower local demand that can ease everything from rent prices to grocery bills.
D.C. politicians cannot simultaneously claim our finances are "unsustainable" while treating access to taxpayer-funded welfare as an automatic entitlement for people who aren't even Americans.
The welfare state is now consuming over half of the federal budget, and servicing the interest on the massive $40 trillion national debt is now running another trillion dollars a year.
It is time to stop the ruinous combination of open borders with a welfare state. It is a red line that Congress should have drawn a long time ago.