‘Well, we all are going to die’: Sen. Joni Ernst met with backlash over comment on Medicaid cuts

PARKERSBURG — Tensions were high at a town hall hosted by Republican Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst as attendees criticized proposed spending cuts to Medicaid and SNAP and questioned the strength of the country’s system of checks and balances on the Trump administration.

In the auditorium at Aplington-Parkersburg High School early Friday morning, Ernst received both applause and heckling from a crowd of roughly 100 attendees during her first public town hall meeting of 2025.

Ernst answered questions for an hour, but one particular comment drew outrage from the crowd.

While Ernst was responding to a question about the impact of President Donald Trump’s budget priorities recently passed by the U.S. House — dubbed by the president as “one big beautiful bill” — which includes reductions to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program spending, attendees shouted over her. One person said “people will die” as a result of the cuts.

“Well, we all are going to die,” Ernst responded. Her answer was met with jeering from the crowd.

Ernst quickly followed up, adding that Medicaid spending will focus on the most vulnerable who meet the eligibility requirements for the program.

“We will protect them, Medicaid is extremely important here in the state of Iowa,” Ernst said. “If you don't want to listen, that's fine, but what I'm doing is going through and telling you that those that are not eligible, those that are working and have opportunity for benefits elsewhere, then they should receive those benefits elsewhere, and leave those dollars for those that are eligible."

  Buy Photo

At an event in Cedar Rapids Friday afternoon, Ernst called the response to her comment “hysteria.”

“We know two things are true: death and taxes. And what I'm trying to do is make sure that we are extending tax benefits for hardworking Iowans and that we are preserving Medicaid for those that meet eligibility requirements," Ernst told reporters. "We don't need to see illegal immigrants receiving benefits that should be going to Iowans.”

A provision of the GOP-backed federal budget includes a $625 billion cut to Medicaid, a joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for some with limited income and resources.

These changes include imposing Medicaid work requirements on benefit recipients, meaning able-bodied adults aged 19-64 without dependents would need to work, volunteer or attend school for at least 80 hours a month in order to maintain coverage. Democrats argue this will lead to many people losing their Medicaid coverage.

The current bill is expected to decrease Medicaid enrollment by 10.3 million, according to estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. That number includes 58,084 Medicaid recipients in Iowa, according to the CBO.

While Ernst said only able-bodied individuals who can join the workforce will be taken off the Medicaid rolls, Karen Franczyk, a retired health care provider from Cedar Falls, said she’s concerned about the impact the cuts will have on Iowa’s health care landscape.

“Iowa already suffers a shortage of health care providers and, as mentioned, has the second highest rate of new cancer diagnoses,” Franczyk said. “President Trump's big, beautiful bill will cut billions from Medicaid, which is the main source of revenue for rural hospitals and community health centers that serve the most vulnerable Iowans.”

Response to Ernst’s comment

Shortly after the town hall, Ernst’s “Well, we all are going to die” comment drew national attention and criticism from Democrats.

“Ernst and the Republican Party are putting American lives at risk to give a massive tax handout to billionaires while working families struggle to put food on the table and get basic medical care,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement. “This isn’t just what Joni Ernst believes — it’s what the entire Republican Party stands for.”

Democratic Iowa state Sen. Zach Wahls of Coralville — who is considering a run for Ernst’s seat in 2026, the Des Moines Register reported — said Iowa should have leaders who will not “gut health care funding that over 700,000 Iowans rely on.”

“Iowa is 44th in physicians per capita. Health care leaders are publicly warning rural hospitals will close,” Wahls said in a statement. “It is of course true that we are all going to die, but our Senators shouldn’t be the ones killing us.”

Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann defended Ernst, saying the response to her comment is “fearmongering.”

“Anyone who knows Joni — especially the folks who heard her answer tough questions for over an hour — knows Dems and the Main Stream Media are purposefully replacing her core message because it helps their fearmongering,” Kaufmann said in a statement. “But the fact is, without Senator Ernst taking a strong stand to protect the integrity of programs like Medicaid, Iowans would be worse off.”

Concern over provisions in the budget reconciliation bill

Attendees of Friday’s town hall meeting shared other concerns about other provisions of the federal spending bill, including one that would weaken the power of U.S. judges to hold the government in contempt when it defies court orders, according to Reuters.

“Nestled within the 1,000 pages of this bill was a small clause, which, for the first time in our nation's history … effectively prohibits the federal courts from enforcing contempt orders,” Randall Harlow, of Cedar Falls, said. “A provision which lawmakers have stated would represent a catastrophic unravel of the checks and balances and balance of powers.”

  Buy Photo

Another attendee expressed concern about a provision in the bill that would use the federal tax code to offer vouchers for students to attend private schools.

Ernst said while she supports school vouchers, both provisions likely would be taken out of the bill due to the “Byrd Rule,” which is a Senate procedural rule that ensures budget reconciliation bills only include mandatory spending provisions and not pieces of policy.

“A lot of what has been wrapped up into the House bill will be flushed out in what we call the 'Byrd bath' in the Senate,” Ernst said. “I don't see any argument that could ever be made that this affects mandatory spending or revenues.”

Checks and balances

Other people at the event said they are worried about the weakening of checks and balances on the Executive Branch.

Waterloo resident Harrison Cass Jr., a former naval line officer and retired superintendent who taught political science and history, asked Ernst for her thoughts on Trump’s firing of federal officials.

“The main thing that disturbs me is this, and it affects all the other things we've talked about so far, the destruction of the checks and balances that the President has already put place,” Cass said. “Are you afraid of Trump? … Or are you just to the point you don't care anymore?”

Ernst said the federal layoffs and spending cuts rolled out by the Trump administration are in response to expansions of the government that the country’s founders didn’t intend for.

“What we are seeing in federal government is the rightsizing of the federal government and allowing the states to take up the role that our forefathers intended,” Ernst said. “That's why the federal government was established. Did it mean planting wildflowers along the interstate? No.”

“It's chaos,” an audience member shouted.

“It may be chaos to you, but we do have to get back to a semblance of what our country was founded for,” Ernst replied.

Eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines

One attendee said he supported Ernst’s work backing DOGE's efforts, but said her support of carbon capture pipelines concerned him.

Ernst said she is supportive of conservation efforts and tax credits at the federal level, adding that she will support the decision Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds makes on a bill regarding eminent domain use for carbon capture pipelines.

“I have not taken a position on the pipeline here because I always said that that is a state and local decision. And what I would hope would happen is that any time the projects are proposed, is that those that are working on these projects are working very closely with the landowners to meet their needs and expectations,” Ernst said.

During the recently-concluded session of the Iowa Legislature, the Iowa House and Senate advanced House File 639, which would regulate hazardous liquid pipelines and other energy infrastructure projects and would restrict government land seizures for infrastructure projects.

This legislation was introduced in response to concerns raised by Iowa landowners after state regulators approved a permit for a section of a 2,500-mile CO2 pipeline that would be built through Iowa. The pipeline was proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions to capture the greenhouse gas from ethanol plants and bury it in North Dakota.

Reynolds has yet to take action on the bill, saying most recently on PBS’s Iowa Press May 23, that she is talking to stakeholders on both sides of the issue.

‘People are just tired of chaos’

One town hall attendee was Nathan Sage, a Democrat from Indianola who is running for Ernst’s Senate seat in 2026.

Sage said he wasn’t surprised by some attendees’ anger.

“The crowd was just a product of the times we're in, the anger that everybody's feeling across the country,” Sage told the Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau after the town hall. “People are just tired of the chaos and want civility, and they want somebody that is going to actually speak on the issues that they're dealing with and represent them the way they want be represented.”

Although she has not officially announced a re-election campaign, Ernst has suggested that she will run again next year.

Ernst’s town hall is the most recent of a handful hosted by Iowa’s GOP congressional delegation months after party leaders instructed members not to hold them following a string of angry confrontations with voters earlier this year.

Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson held two town halls in her district Wednesday in Elkader and Decorah, where she received mixed reactions to her support for Trump’s budget priorities

Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley was the first of Iowa’s congressional delegation to hold a town hall, in March, and has since held others.

Tom Barton and Erin Murphy of The Gazette contributed to this report.