Mariame Kaba is soliciting submissions for a zine she’s creating (deadline extended to July 15!) which will be a collection of ransom notes from the GOP, and I highly recommend you check it out. I just finished creating my ransom note and had so much fun!
That last line is a tribute to stone-hearted Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) who, during a town hall meeting with constituents at the end of May, didn’t even pretend to care.
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.”
In researching this to provide links, I just found out that Ernst doubled down on her lack of compassion in that town hall by making a follow-up “apology” video in a cemetery and saying this [emphasis mine]:
“… I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” Ernst said. “So I apologize. And I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”
The condescension is grotesque. I don’t know how much money Ernst has, but I do know she’s paid a whopping $174,000 per year to represent her constituents in the Senate and is much more likely to weather a medical emergency than the typical U.S. citizen. Many of her constituents are rightfully worried about the proposed massive cuts to the social safety net, including Medicaid, that would hit them hard. The good news is that Ernst is up for reelection and is now more vulnerable as a result of that open contempt for her constituents. NOTE: If you’re in Iowa or have friends or family in Iowa, please know it’s very worth time and effort to push Ernst on the massive bill the Republicans are trying to ram through. Vulnerable Republicans like Ernst are more likely to peel off and cause further discord in the negotiations. Let Ernst know what you think of those proposed cuts and how they’d affect you.
Again, I hope you’ll check out Kaba’s call for submissions and have some fun cutting up old magazines! I found it to be cathartic and the perfect use of my time on a rainy Saturday. If you do make a ransom note, please share yours here!
Tracy Abell 