There’s no shortage of controversial elements of the Republican Party’s far-right megabill — the inaptly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — but the proposed Medicaid cuts aren’t just dangerous for low-income families. They’re also proving to be the most politically dangerous for GOP officials and candidates.
Party strategists have advised Republicans on how best to talk about the legislation, but I have a hunch the party’s consultants and spin doctors didn’t recommend the phrasing that Sen. Joni Ernst used during a town hall meeting with her Iowa constituents on Friday morning. The New York Times reported:
Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, had a gloomy message for constituents at a town hall in Butler County, Iowa, on Friday morning: ‘We all are going to die.’ Ms. Ernst was fielding questions about cuts to Medicaid that were included in the domestic policy bill working its way through Congress, when someone in the audience yelled out that the effect would be that ‘people are going to die.’ ‘Well, we all are going to die,’ Ms. Ernst responded, drawing jeers from the crowd.
And while it’s certainly true that everyone’s life will, eventually, come to an end, policymakers tend not to comment on that fact when talking to the public about the effects of their health care proposals.
Indeed, it didn’t take long for Democratic opponents of the Republican bill to seize on Ernst’s comments. “I thought my job as Senator was to try to keep my constituents alive,” Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota said via Bluesky. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee similarly called Ernst’s morbid remark “stunningly callous.”
As is always the case, context is everything, and some of the clips that have circulated online were a little too brief. (C-SPAN posted a video of the entire hourlong event.)
Told that people would die as a result of her party’s health care cuts, the Iowa Republican really did say, “Well, we all are going to die.” Ernst went on to tell the audience, however, “What you don’t want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable. Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. We will protect them.”
The problem with that, however, is that her assurances aren’t altogether true. According to the Congressional Budget Office, many struggling Americans who currently meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid would likely lose their health security as a direct result of the Republican’s reconciliation package.
“We’re not going to cut those benefits, what we are doing is making sure that those who are not Medicaid eligible are not receiving benefits,” Ernst said at her event. But as a HuffPost report explained, “Experts … consider tightening Medicaid eligibility and thereby reducing its expenditures to be the same as cutting the program.”
What’s more, offered an opportunity to walk back the senator’s comments, Ernst’s office did largely the opposite. A spokesperson for Ernst said in a statement, “There’s only two certainties in life: death and taxes, and she’s working to ease the burden of both by fighting to keep more of Iowans’ hard-earned tax dollars in their own pockets and ensuring their benefits are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse.”
The Iowa Republican is up for re-election next year. It’s a safe bet locals haven’t heard the last of this one.
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