Iowa Senator Joni Ernst
illustrated her shortsighted myopia at a town
hall meeting in Parkersburg, Iowa. Not only
did she defend cuts that would remove,
according to the Congressional Budget, around
10 million people from the program. Trump
Republicans claim that these cuts will help
eliminate “fraud, waste, and abuse,” but a
woman who attended the May 30 town hall
shouted, “people will die”, to applause.
Myopically ignorant Ernst cavalierly and
insensitively stated that “we are all going to
die”. She clearly enjoys the taste of show
leather, because she put her entire foot in
her mouth. Then she turned around and posted a
sarcastic “apology” video, strolling through
what looks like a graveyard, making arrogant,
offensive, and crude comments.
Here’s what she said: “I made
and incorrect assumption that everyone is the
auditorium understood that, yes, we are all
going to perish from this earth. 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. For those who would like
to see eternal and everlasting life, I
encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior
Jesus Christ.” I am among the many cringing at
Ernst’s gross insensitivity. Maybe she found
herself amusing, but many Iowans found her
“apology” video callous and crass, consistent
with the callousness that emanates from our
Republican near-dictatorship.
Ernst is correct that we all
will die, but the issue is how we will die and
if lack of health care can hasten our deaths.
In cutting Medicare, the so-called “Big
Beautiful Bill” (let’s call it the Ugly Farce
Bill), threatens the lives of between 35,000
and 44,000 people, according to the American
Journal of Public Health. Every twelve minutes
someone will die because they didn’t have
health insurance. Someone without health
insurance is 40 percent more likely to die
prematurely than someone with health
insurance. Cutting Medicare is a death blow
for tens of thousands. Yes, we are all going
to die, Joni Ernst, but many will have their
deaths hastened by these Medicaid cuts.
Life expectancy in the United
States is 78.4 years, but it differs by race
and gender. Women have longer life
expectancies than men, and Black men have low
lowest life expectance of every major
demographic group, at 66.7 years. That means
many Black men don’t even live long enough to
collect the Social Security they have paid
into all of their working lives. (Black women
have a life expectancy of 74.8 years). Asian
America women have longer life expectancies
(86.1 years) than any other demographic group,
while Asian men, with a life expectancy of
81.2 years have longer life expectancies than
all other men. Native American men, with a
life expectancy of 63 years, have a lower life
expectancy than Black men, but few
demographers report that data, since the
Native population is just 2 percent of the
total population.
Many of these differences are a
function of assets, access, and attitudes.
Differences in assets have been
well-documented. Those with more income and
wealth have better health care than those who
do know. Access has also been well documented.
Hospitals and health care centers are often
located away from the neediest populations.
Additionally, environmental hazards are most
often located in lower-income neighborhoods.
The attitude issue is best illustrated by Joni
Ernst’s callousness, but numerous studies
have, again, documented the ways that some
patients are treated. The Institutes of
Medicine (IOM), for example, reported that a
Black man with a broken bone was likely to be
denied painkillers. Serena Williams might have
died giving birth to her first child because
of neglectful medical attitudes. Volumes have
been written about the differential way Black
people are treated in health care.
Budget-conscious Republicans
might try cutting tax breaks for the wealthy
rather than shredding the social safety net.
When Senator Ernst said we would all die, I
immediately thought of the Harlem Renaissance
poet Claude McKay who wrote “If we must die
let it not be like hogs, hunted and penned to
this inglorious spot, while round us bark the
mad and hungry dogs, making their mock at our
accursed lot.” The poem ends, “Like men we’ll
face the murderous cowardly pack, pressed to
the wall, dying, but fighting back.” If we
must die, oh, let us nobly die.
Shame on Senator Joni Ernst. Let
us all take inspiration from Claude McKay and
fight the cowardly Senators who prefer to
reward the wealth than to provide basic
medical care from millions.
