The National Republican Congressional Committee launched a paid advertising campaign hitting Democrats over the government shutdown in 42 competitive House seats on Wednesday. 

In the 30-second spot, Republicans accuse Democrats of “grinding America to a halt in order to give illegal immigrants free health care.” 

“Democrats refused to fund the government. So now military troops, police and Border Patrol lose their paychecks. Because of Democrats, veterans, farmers, small businesses lose critical funding. Disaster relief, cut off,” a narrator says in the ad. 

The ad buy comes hours after the federal government shutdown overnight Wednesday. Republicans and Democrats failed to reach an agreement on a stopgap funding bill by the Tuesday night deadline. 

Democrats had demanded that subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) be extended and cuts to Medicaid be rolled back in President Trump’s massive reconciliation bill earlier this year. Republicans, on the other hand, have argued ACA subsidies must get back to pre-coronavirus pandemic and demanded that bans on health care for immigrants living in the country illegally be put into effect. Democrats argue that federal law already bans illegal immigrants from receiving health care in the U.S. 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) cast blame on Republicans in a statement on Wednesday. 

“Republicans barrelled the nation towards a shutdown because they decided that averting skyrocketing health care costs for millions of Americans wasn’t worth their time. Make no mistake, Republicans own this shutdown, and they own the harm and higher costs working people across the country will face,” DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton said. 

A New York Times/Siena College poll released on Tuesday found that “Democrats should not shut down the government, even if their demands are not met.” However, that same poll found that Independent voters said they were twice as likely to lay blame on Trump and Republicans. 

A separate NPR/PBS News/Marist poll also released on Tuesday found that 38 percent of respondents would blame Republicans for a shutdown, while 27 percent would blame Democrats. Thirty-one percent said both sides are at fault.