Sen. Joni Ernst, after an audience member yells, “People will die,” during her discussion on Medicaid cuts at her town hall:
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) May 30, 2025 at 9:18 AM
I wrote that her wry smile after it suggested she thought she was really cooking there, and she released another video which confirms that yes, she does have her head pretty far up her own ass right now.
Against all odds, Joni Ernst has made it worse
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— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards.bsky.social) May 31, 2025 at 2:53 PM
This is what children do when they’ve been intellectually stumped by a superior. They retort to literal defenses to try to win the argument on some invented technicality, except this argument is with a sitting Senator over whether taking health care away from poor people will kill some of them, and instead of trying to win an argument she’s trying to run out the clock by trolling her constituents. This snide indifference to her most vulnerable neighbors is an avatar for all of Beltway politics, but especially Republican politics.
This party is simply a vehicle for the ultra-rich to steal from the rest of us, and this “big, beautiful bill” is proof, as it is a massive wealth transfer from the lower classes to the most wealthy and elite Americans, if they even consider themselves that anymore. This bill targets the most vulnerable and historically oppressed and marginalized members of American society, as Medicaid and SNAP cuts disproportionately affect Black Americans. Cuts to long-term healthcare will fall harder on women too. All so they can fund a giant infrastructure for ICE and give the top five percentile by income a giant tax cut that blows out the deficit to such an alarming degree it got America’s credit downgraded. And it hasn’t even passed yet! This disorganized yet focused bill is the most honest description of GOP politics I have seen in 38 years of having terminal political brain poisoning.
And this stunt by Sen. Ernst is up there for most openly shameless I’ve seen. She’s disengaging from the intellectual debate she claims to want to have and snidely joking about whether people will live or die. This is a monstrous person up for reelection in Iowa next year that is filming attack ads for her opponent. I don’t know exactly what this says about American politics at this point, but it’s nothing good.
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The Truth Hurts
