Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) seems to be in that group:
Appearing at a town hall on Friday, Ernst was pressed on cuts to Medicaid – the health care program for low-income Americans – in House Republicans’ budget plan. One audience member shouted that “people will die.”
The usual politician thing would have been to take issue with that premise – or to, as other Republicans have strained to do, cast the Medicaid cuts as merely cutting waste and abuse. (That’s not the full story, of course; the Congressional Budget Office recently projected that House Republicans’ changes to Medicaid, including work requirements for some recipients, would leave 7.6 million Americans uninsured by 2034.)
But Ernst decided to go in a different direction.
“Well, we all are going to die,” said Ernst, who’s facing reelection in 2026.
When hostile portions of the crowd balked at the response, she said: “For heaven’s sakes, folks.” [CNN/Politics]
Too bad the Democrats continue to stagger along in autocrat dress.
