Constituent: “People will die.”
Sen. Joni Ernst: “Well, we’re all going to die.”
Yesterday, at a town hall hosted by Sen. Joni Ernst, and just a week after House Republicans passed a bill estimated to strip Medicaid from nearly 700,000 Iowans and 9 million Americans overall, constituents concerned about these cuts were told “well, we’re all going to die” by the senator from the Hawkeye State.
In response, Defend America Action Senior Spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite released the following statement:
“Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill has his enablers in Congress like Sen. Joni Ernst reaching uglier and more callous lows than previously thought possible. In saying the quiet part out loud, her constituents and Americans across the country now know the truth. This sham of a bill is a naked grab to ransack Medicaid, which allows millions to access healthcare in order to fund yet another tax break for the wealthy, certifiably lethal outcomes be damned.”
Background
- 9 MILLION PEOPLE KICKED OFF MEDICAID: Ahead of House Republicans ramming an unpopular, unaffordable tax break through the chamber in the dead of night for the wealthiest people in the country, a nonpartisan CBO analysis confirmed the plan would raise health care costs for working families and take away Medicaid from nearly 9 million people.
- KICKING NEARLY 100,000 IOWANS OFF HEALTH CARE: Around 94,000 Iowans on Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage are estimated to lose their health insurance in order to pay for tax breaks for billionaires thanks to Trump’s tax bill – even though 91 percent of Iowa voters oppose cuts to Medicaid.
- THOUSANDS OF JOBS LOST: Republican cuts to Medicaid in Iowa will result in 9,000 state jobs lost alongside a $865 million loss in state economic output as well as a $1.48 billion state GDP loss. Republicans will create at least a $712.7 million hole in the Iowa state budget to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.
- Virtually all Medicaid recipients work, are caregivers, are elderly or have disabilities. Medicaid disproportionately serves children, older people, and people with disabilities, and in Iowa, this includes:
- FOOD ASSISTANCE GUTTED: Additionally, the bill cuts free and reduced-cost school meals, Meals on Wheels and the nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children, amounting to the largest cuts to food assistance in history, while freezing future benefit increases that help households adjust to rising food costs.
Last week, Defend America Action hosted a press call with Former CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and Iowa State Senator Zach Wahls urging Sen. Ernst to vote no on the bill in the Senate.