Sen. Joni Ernst gives GOP its slogan: We're all going to die

The Herald Scotland

a day ago

But Republicans couldn't quite seem to give voice to their suffering-first agenda.
Sen. Joni Ernst reminds constituents they're all going to die anyway
Ernst herself, during a May 30 town hall, was asked about the fact that the giant Republican tax-cuts-for-rich-people bill now in the hands of U.S. senators will, according to the Congressional Budget Office, slash $723 billion from Medicaid over the next 10 years and leave nearly 8 million Americans uninsured.
And she stumbled around a bit, saying: "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."
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At one point, someone during the town hall accurately shouted, "People are going to die!
GOP should embrace its new goth slogan: 'We are all going to die'
And THAT was the moment it all seemed to come together for Ernst and, by association, the Republican Party as a whole. That was when the senator summoned the courage to flatly say: "Well, we all are going to die."
It might sound a bit goth, but she ain't wrong. And it seems, in the face of brutal cuts to virtually everything in the U.S. government that helps people who aren't rich, like as good an excuse as any.
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"We are all going to die" is punchy. It's deflating, in a way that will surely tickle Republicans' spirits as they try to get Americans to sit back and tolerate the cruel and draconian cuts Republican lawmakers and self-appointed government-spending slicer Elon Musk have championed.
GOP bill includes 'policies that would harm the health of children'
It's a swift and simple response to people like Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who said in a statement that the GOP tax-cut bill that was recently passed in the U.S. House "includes sweeping policies that would harm the health of children and families."
Kressly said: "Cuts to lifeline programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would be devastating to the children and families who rely on them for access to health care and the food they need."
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Thanks to Ernst, any Republican confronted by worry-wart pediatricians who "care" about the "health" of "children" could respond with a snappy: "Hey, doc. We're all going to die. What are ya gonna do?"
USAID cuts have likely led to tens of thousands of deaths
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg reported May 30 on the Trump administration's gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development, writing, "The administration says that it has terminated more than 80 percent of U.S.A.I.D. grants. Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year."
The GOP's response to such unconscionable news, thanks to Ernst's ingenuity, can now be a casual, "Whelp, we're all going to die."
I encourage everyone, and particularly conservatives, to embrace the Republican Party's forthright, optimistic-if-you're-into-nihilism new slogan for America: "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE."
Dark? Yes. Increasingly accurate thanks to the Trump administration? Definitely.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk