Republican Senator on Medicaid Cuts: ‘Well, We All Are Going to Die’

By Jacob Weindling  |  May 30, 2025 | 12:18pm
Photo via Iowa's News Now
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Republican Senator on Medicaid Cuts: ‘Well, We All Are Going to Die’

Back in March, the House GOP’s campaign arm advised Republicans to stop holding in-person town halls, and every video of them demonstrates why. They have been yelled at by their constituents over the Republican Party’s agenda that amounts to cutting essential government services that will kill people, and Republican responses have been so smart and effective that their campaign advisors are begging them all to stop showing up in public.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst, who is running for reelection in Iowa next year, filmed a campaign commercial for her future opponent last night. After another round of constituents yelled at her over her support for an agenda in Trump and the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” that will kill people, she responded with one of the most honest descriptions of Republican politics you will see, essentially saying ‘who cares?’

Sen. Joni Ernst, after an audience member yells, “People will die,” during her discussion on Medicaid cuts at her town hall:

“Well, we all are going to die.”

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— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) May 30, 2025 at 9:18 AM

The GOP’s cuts to Medicaid are so ghoulish that it even disturbs Josh Hawley, and they are trying to force through this wildly unpopular program that even Sen. Ernst seems to accept will kill people by lying about undocumented immigrants receiving Medicaid benefits. As KFF, an independent source for health policy and polling notes, “Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in federally funded coverage including Medicaid, CHIP, or Medicare or to purchase coverage through the ACA Marketplaces.” This is a bald-faced lie the GOP is pushing because they want to pass policies that will kill poor people to partially pay for their billionaire tax cuts that got America’s credit downgraded because it will blow out the deficit.

And the smile that Sen. Ernst made at the end of her quip that we all will die suggests they are gleeful at the thought of throwing people off Medicaid. Further immiserating the poor is a joke to Republicans because they are a bunch of puppets with no agency who are entirely dedicated to serving the whims of America’s deranged billionaire class. There is no shame here, just being very explicit that the GOP platform is designed to kill everyone with a net worth under ten figures and that’s okay because hey, “we are all going to die” anyway.

 
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