Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, was repeatedly pressed on cuts to Medicaid in the House’s budget bill at a town hall in her home state on Friday, and pushed back on an attendee who said the cuts would lead to deaths.
“People are not — well, we all are going to die, so, for heaven’s sakes,” she said, prompting resounding jeers.
The exchange began with an attendee complaining to Ernst that the bill would give significant tax breaks to the ultrawealthy while kicking some people off Medicaid and food assistance programs.
Ernst said the only people who face getting booted are those who should not be on Medicaid in the first place.
“They’re not currently eligible by the original definition of Medicaid, and they will be moved off of those Medicaid rolls, again still allowing those that are truly eligible for Medicaid to remain on those rolls,” the senator said.
She later claimed that 1.4 million undocumented immigrants are receiving Medicaid benefits. That figure, which the White House and other top Republicans have also cited, is based on a Congressional Budget Office analysis that said that one provision of the bill would cause 1.4 million people to lose coverage (including but not limited to those without verified immigration status).
“They are not eligible, so they will be coming off,” Ernst said, which is when she was interrupted by the attendee who yelled, “People are going to die!”
After Ernst gave her fatalistic response, she complained to the attendee, “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.”
Democrats pounced on Ernst’s “going to die” line, with Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin saying she “said the quiet part out loud.”
Martin said the remark shows Republicans don’t care about “whether their own constituents live or die as long as the richest few get richer, and that’s precisely why they’re ramming through a budget bill that would rip away health care and food from millions of Americans, including kids and seniors.”
Democrat JD Scholten, who’s considering running against Ernst, called her remark “so crazy.” “We all don’t have to die so billionaires can have a bigger tax break,” he said in a video on Instagram.
An Ernst spokesperson said, “While Democrats fearmonger against strengthening the integrity of Medicaid, Senator Ernst is focused on improving the lives of all Iowans. 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.”
Ernst also got into testy exchanges about DOGE cuts and her support for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Butler County town hall, but was asked repeatedly about the proposed Medicaid changes.
“Everyone says that Medicaid is being cut. People are going to see their benefits cut. That’s not true,” she said earlier in the town hall, to shouts from the crowd.
Ernst predicted the changes would strengthen Medicaid in the long run.
“What we do need to do is make sure that those that are part of a vulnerable population have access to Medicaid and receive those full benefits. So, what we’re trying to do is strengthen Medicaid by directing the dollars to the people that actually meet the requirements of the program,” she said. “We will do much better.”
Kate Santaliz contributed.
