PARKERSBURG, IOWA − Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, fielded angry questions on Medicaid cuts, President Donald Trump’s tax cut proposal and DOGE at a town hall on May 30, at one point telling a member of the crowd concerned about Medicaid cuts that “we all are going to die.”
While portions of the hourlong event proceeded respectfully and Ernst, a Republican, answered several questions without interruption, at other points members of the roughly 100-member crowd repeatedly interrupted her answers, booing her and calling her a liar.
As Ernst was answering a question about Medicaid eligibility in Trump’s tax cut bill, she was interrupted by a woman in the crowd, who shouted, “people will die!”
“People are not — well, we all are going to die,” Ernst said, prompting shouting from the audience. “For heaven’s sakes, folks.”
Ernst said the goal of the bill is to make sure that people who are not eligible for Medicaid benefits don’t receive them.
“What you don’t want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable,” Ernst said. “Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid we will protect. We will protect them. Medicaid is extremely important here in the state of Iowa. If you don’t want to listen, that’s fine.”
Karen Franczyk, a retired health care provider from Cedar Falls, also asked Ernst a question about potential cuts to Medicaid in Trump’s tax cut bill.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill will reduce federal Medicaid spending by $723 billion over a decade and could increase the number of uninsured people by 7.6 million in that time.
More: Low-income families would lose, wealthier ones would gain under GOP tax proposals
“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,” Franczyk said. “If you vote for this bill, what will you do to ensure that all Iowans can not only continue to receive care but have access to resources that make them healthier?”
Ernst began her answer by telling Franczyk, “thank you for being a health care provider. I really appreciate that.”
“We know the House has their provisions for Medicaid, and I actually agree with most of their provisions. Everyone says that Medicaid is being cut, people are going to see their benefits cut. That’s not true,” Ernst said, as members of the crowd began shouting “liar.”
More: ‘Don’t know how we will survive’: Medicaid cuts could put this group of mothers in peril
Ernst is serving her second term in the U.S. Senate. She told reporters last year that she intends to run for reelection in 2026 but has not yet launched a formal campaign.
Randall Harlow of Cedar Falls asked about a one-sentence provision in the version of the tax bill that passed the House that would make it harder for federal judges to enforce contempt orders in cases where the federal government defies court decisions.
“My question for you today is, will you pledge to us, your constituents who you serve, that you will not vote for this bill or any other bill that contains this poisonous provision?” he said.
Ernst said many of the provisions in the House bill will not make it into the Senate bill because the Senate has different rules than the House, which only allow provisions related to spending to be passed with a simple majority vote, not unrelated policy language.
“I don’t see any argument that could ever be made that this affects mandatory spending or revenues,” she said. “I just don’t see that. I don’t see it getting into the Senate bill.”
Ernst said the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian is the one who will make a decision about which provisions are eligible to be included in the bill.
“I will support the parliamentarian,” she said.
When members of the crowd shouted at her to answer the question, Ernst said. “I did. It will not be in the Senate bill.”
“I could support the Senate bill and I may not,” she said. “I don’t know what’s in the Senate bill yet.”
Harrison Cass Jr., a former Navy officer and a retired superintendent who lives in Waterloo, prefaced his question by saying, “clearly, we have a president who is destroying the federal government.”
He said Trump has “taken over the government” and “in four months he’s made it into a dictatorship.”
“The worst thing is the Senate and the House of Representatives have been rendered useless,” he said. “And you folks have let it happen. You’ve sat back and done nothing.”
“My question is this,” Cass added. “Are you afraid of Trump? Are you corrupt like Trump? Or are you just at the point you don’t care anymore and that’s why you don’t do it?”
Ernst began her answer by thanking Cass for his service. She said she doesn’t believe the federal government is being destroyed. Instead, she said the Department of Government Efficiency set up by Trump is identifying areas that the federal government has expanded into that it shouldn’t be responsible for.
“The things that were not spelled out into the constitution were delegated under the 10th Amendment to the states,” she said. “So what we are seeing in federal government is the right-sizing of the federal government and allowing the states to take up the role that our forefathers intended.”
“It’s chaos!” a woman in the crowd shouted.
“It may be chaos to you,” Ernst replied, “but we do have to get back to a semblance of what our country was founded for.”
Nathan Sage, a Democrat seeking his party’s nomination for U.S. Senate in 2026, called Ernst’s remarks “a new low,” saying “she’s not even trying to hide her contempt for us.”
“This is simple: these cuts will kill people,” Sage said in a statement. “But Joni Ernst can’t even pretend to care. She shrugged it off. It’s disgusting and vile. Iowa deserves so much better. She needs to go.”
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Joni Ernst fields angry questions on Medicaid cuts at Iowa town hall
