Friend,

Last week, Republican Senator Joni Ernst faced some tough questions from her constituents. At a town hall, voters wanted to know why she supported President Trump’s dangerous cuts to Medicaid. Someone in the crowd shouted, “People are going to die!”

“We’re all going to die,” Senator Ernst responded.

Can you imagine a more callous comment from an elected official? Her constituent is right – the Republican cuts to Medicaid will cause people to die. And the Republican Party doesn’t seem to care if those deaths occur years or decades before they otherwise would. 

By that logic, we should do away with seatbelts, gun laws, national defense protections, and healthcare in general. We’re all going to die anyway, right? Who cares if it’s tomorrow or decades from now?

Here’s the truth: Senator Ernst and her party aren’t actually agnostic about people dying. They just don’t care about certain people dying. Medicaid provides life-saving services to the poorest Americans. Specifically, 8.6 million people (more than twice the number of people who live in Connecticut) could lose health insurance coverage if Trump’s budget is passed by the Senate. 

People really are going to die. But my Republican colleagues are so determined to provide tax breaks for the wealthy, they are willing to pay for it by denying people the treatments they need to stay alive.

— Jim