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The Guardian
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Republican senator criticized for mock apology after saying ‘we all are going to die'
Senator Joni Ernst triggered fierce criticism after making light of voters' fears that Republican Medicaid cuts could prove fatal, telling a town hall audience 'we all are going to die' and then filming a mocking response video over the weekend. The Iowa Republican, who is facing a possibly challenging re-election battle in 2026, was explaining at a Friday town hall how the Republican immigration and tax package would affect Medicaid eligibility when an audience member shouted that people could die if they lost coverage through the proposed cuts. 'Well, we all are going to die,' Ernst responded as the crowd groaned. 'So, for heaven's sakes. For heaven's sakes, folks.' Rather than clarify or apologize, Ernst channeled Trump-era defiance in her response on Saturday with an Instagram video that appeared to be filmed in a graveyard. 'I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,' she 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.' She concluded by telling viewers: 'For those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.' The controversy comes as Senate Republicans prepare to tackle the so-called 'One Big Beautiful Bill', which passed the House and would slash social safety net spending by more than $1tn over a decade. Congressional Budget Office projections suggest the measure could strip Medicaid coverage from 8.7 million people and leave 7.6 million more Americans uninsured. On Monday afternoon, the White House defended the legislation with a 'mythbuster' statement dismissing claims that the bill would cause deaths as 'one of Democrats' most disgusting lies'. The White House argued the bill would actually 'strengthen and protect the social safety net' by removing what it claimed were 1.4 million undocumented people from Medicaid rolls and implementing work requirements for able-bodied adults. 'By removing at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants from the program, ending taxpayer-funded gender mutilation surgeries for minors, and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, the One Big Beautiful Bill will ensure Medicaid better serves the American people,' the statement read. Senate Republicans acknowledge the House-passed bill will undergo significant revisions, with several Republican senators seeking changes to the Medicaid provisions. Ernst's comments have also provided Democrats with potent ammunition for their argument that Republicans prioritize tax cuts for wealthy Americans over healthcare for ordinary citizens. Democratic National Committee chairperson Ken Martin said Ernst had 'said the quiet part out loud', arguing Republicans don't care 'whether their own constituents live or die as long as the richest few get richer'. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut told CNN on Sunday that the Republican bill 'is about life and death'. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'Everybody in that audience knows that they're going to die. They would just rather die in old age, at 85 or 90, instead of dying at 40,' Murphy said. 'And the reality is that, when you lose your healthcare, you are much more at risk of early death.' In Iowa, the stakes are notably high, with roughly one in five residents relying on Medicaid coverage, including half of all nursing home residents, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Ernst attempted damage control during Friday's town hall, insisting Republicans would 'focus on those that are most vulnerable' and protect people who meet Medicaid eligibility requirements. The senator faces several primary challengers as she seeks a third term, with the Medicaid controversy potentially complicating her political positioning in a state where healthcare access remains a key voter concern. In December, she was attacked by her right-flank for being a 'Rino' after initially hesitating on confirming the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.
Fox News
14-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
House Republicans face down Dem attacks, protests to pull all-nighter on Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
Three key committees in the process of putting together President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" are expected to work through the night to advance their respective portions of the Republican agenda. The House Agriculture Committee, the Energy & Commerce Committee and the Ways & Means Committee are all holding meetings aimed at advancing key parts of Trump's bill. Sources told Fox News Digital they expected the Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means meetings, which began on Tuesday afternoon, to last upwards of 20 hours each. The Agriculture panel's markup is also expected to last into Wednesday. Democrats on each committee, meanwhile, have prepared a barrage of attacks and accusations against GOP lawmakers looking to gut critical welfare programs. Sparks flew early at the Energy & Commerce Committee meeting with protesters both inside and outside the room repeatedly attempting to disrupt proceedings – with 26 people arrested by Capitol Police. Protesters against Medicaid cuts, predominately in wheelchairs, remained outside the budget markup for several hours as representatives inside debated that and other critical facets under the committee's broad jurisdiction. Inside the budget markup, Democrats and Republicans sparred along party lines over Medicaid cuts. Democrats repeatedly claimed the Republican budget proposal will cut vital Medicaid services. Many Democrats shared how Medicaid services have saved their constituents' lives and argued that millions of Americans could lose coverage under the current proposal. Meanwhile, Republicans accused Democrats of lying to the American people about Medicaid cuts – a word Kentucky Republican Rep. Brett Guthrie, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, deterred his colleagues from using. Tensions arose when the word was repeated as Democrats called it a mischaracterization of their testimonies. Republicans have contended that their bill only seeks to cut waste, fraud, and abuse of the Medicaid system, leaving more of its resources for vulnerable populations that truly need it. That committee was tasked with finding $880 billion in spending cuts to offset Trump's other funding priorities. Guthrie told House Republicans on a call Sunday night that they'd found upwards of $900 billion in cuts. Democrats have seized on Republican reforms to Medicaid, including heightened work requirements and shifting more costs to certain states, as a political cudgel. At one point late in the evening, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made an appearance at the Energy & Commerce panel's meeting. "I just want to mention our Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is here because of his concern about Medicaid. Thank you," the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said. But tensions remain between moderate Republicans and conservatives about the level of cuts the committee is seeking to the former Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act green energy tax subsidies. The meeting at the Ways & Means Committee, the House's tax-writing panel, had relatively little fanfare but was equally contentious as Democrats attempted to offer amendments to preserve Affordable Care Act tax credits and changes to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap. At one point, Reps. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., got into a heated exchange over SALT, with Suozzi pushing Van Duyne on whether she'd ever been to New York. Van Duyne earlier called Texas a "donor state" in terms of taxes, arguing, "We should not have to pay to make up for the rich folks in New York who are getting raped by their local and state governments." Suozzi later pointed out Van Duyne was born and went to college in upstate New York – leading to audible gasps in the room. Van Duyne said there was "a reason" she left. "We're sorry you left New York, but in some ways it may have worked out better for all of us," Suozzi said. The SALT deduction cap, however, is still a politically tricky issue even as House lawmakers debate what Republicans hoped would be the final bill. The legislation would raise the $10,000 SALT deduction cap to $30,000 for most single and married tax filers – a figure that Republicans in higher cost-of-living areas said was not enough. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., threatened to vote against the final bill if the new cap remains. As the committee's marathon meeting continued, a group of blue state Republicans are huddling with House GOP leaders to find a compromise on a way forward. Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., hinted at tensions in the meeting when he posted on X that Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., a member of the SALT Caucus and Ways & Means Committee, "wasn't involved in today's meeting" because her district required "something different than mine and the other most SALTY five." Malliotakis had told Fox News Digital she was supportive of the $30,000 cap. She's also the only member of the SALT Caucus on the critical tax-writing panel. The Agriculture Committee, which began its meeting on Tuesday evening, saw Democrats waste no time in accusing Republicans of trying to gut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially known as food stamps. Rep. Adam Gray, D-Calif., accused Republicans of worrying that "somebody is getting a meal they didn't deserve or kids are getting too fat" instead of more critical issues. Republicans, like Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, touted the bill's inclusion of crop insurance for young farmers, increasing opportunity for export markets, and helping invest in national animal disaster centers aimed at preventing and mitigating livestock illness. He also said Republicans were working to "secure" SNAP from waste and abuse. House and Senate Republicans are working on Trump's agenda via the budget reconciliation process, which allows the party in power to sideline the minority by lowering the Senate's threshold for passage to a simple majority, provided the legislation at hand deals with spending, taxes or the national debt. Trump wants Republicans to use the maneuver for a sweeping bill on his tax, border, immigration, energy and defense priorities. Two sources familiar with the plan said the House Budget Committee intends to advance the full bill, the first step to getting the legislation to a House-wide vote, on Friday.
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Debate Turns Raucous as House Panel Weighs Medicaid Cuts
As he called to order a marathon committee session to consider Medicaid cuts and other critical pieces of Republicans' sweeping domestic policy bill, Representative Brett Guthrie of Kentucky surveyed a packed hearing room on Tuesday afternoon and asked for a respectful debate. 'I know we have deep feelings on these issues, and we may not all agree on everything,' said Mr. Guthrie, a Republican who is in his first term as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It was not to be. Minutes later, a group of protesters in the back of the Capitol Hill hearing room began shouting at lawmakers to 'keep your greedy hands off our Medicaid.' They drowned out the chairman's calls for order, and Capitol Police officers ultimately removed five people — three in wheelchairs — as the dozens of lawmakers on the panel looked on. (The Capitol Police later said that officers had arrested 26 people for illegally protesting inside a congressional building.) The disruptions were a raucous kickoff to a meeting that was expected to go all night and well into Wednesday — one committee member estimated it could take as long as 28 hours — as Republicans and Democrats sparred over the plan, a key part of major legislation to enact President Trump's domestic agenda. It unfolded as the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee met to consider a $2.5 trillion tax proposal that would extend Mr. Trump's 2017 tax cuts; temporarily fulfill his campaign pledges not to tax tips or overtime pay; roll back subsidies for clean energy; and create a new type of tax-advantaged investment account for children. A third panel, the House Agriculture Committee, was to meet Tuesday night to begin considering another piece of the bill that would slash nutrition assistance to help raise money for the plan. But the bulk of the drama on Tuesday was at the Energy and Commerce Committee. During the first hour alone, Republicans giving opening statements were interrupted repeatedly by protesters who accused them of taking health care away from vulnerable people. G.O.P. lawmakers, in turn, accused Democrats of misrepresenting the Medicaid cuts they are proposing to score political points. Mr. Guthrie labored to keep control over the proceedings, at one point presiding over a shouting match over whether members of his panel were allowed to use the word 'lying' in their remarks. (Republicans had been permitted to say that Democrats were lying about the scope of the Medicaid cuts, but Democrats were barred from saying that Mr. Trump was lying about his desire to protect the program. An informal agreement to simply avoid using the word 'lie' altogether for the remainder of the session fell apart a few hours later.) Even some Democratic senators came to take in the spectacle. Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Tina Smith of Minnesota were on hand. All before lawmakers had debated a single provision of the measure. The bill's proposed reductions in Medicaid coverage and its expansion under the Affordable Care Act have become a flashpoint for Democrats and an area of concern for vulnerable Republicans who are wary of the political consequences of supporting cuts to insurance programs that have become popular with Americans. Though House Republicans shied away from a huge structural overhaul of Medicaid, their proposal would reduce federal spending by an estimated $912 billion and cause 8.6 million people to become uninsured, according to a partial analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that was circulated by Democrats on the committee. Around $700 billion in cuts would come from changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Republicans argued that their proposed cuts would help control rising Medicaid costs by targeting 'waste, fraud and abuse' and ensuring the program's long-term health. 'Medicaid was created to protect health care for Americans who otherwise could not support themselves, but Democrats expanded the program far beyond this core mission,' Mr. Guthrie said. Their proposal calls for stricter paperwork requirements across the program, makes changes that affect federal funding to states and adds a work requirement to Medicaid that requires poor, childless adults to prove they are working 80 hours every month to stay enrolled. That provision, which targets an expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, would not kick in until January 2029, after the next presidential election. During their opening remarks, Democrats on the committee held up matching posters with photographs of constituents they deemed the 'faces of Medicaid.' The lawmakers told their stories as a way of humanizing people who rely on the program. Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan directly addressed a family who had traveled to Washington in the hearing, who she said needed Medicaid to care for a child with Down syndrome. Representative Marc Veasey of Texas held his phone up to the microphone, inviting a constituent to speak about how Medicaid affected her. Mr. Guthrie ruled that out of order. Some of the people being highlighted were not at risk of losing coverage under the Republican proposal. And Democrats frequently claimed that the Republican plan would cause 13.7 million Americans to become uninsured, inflating the bill's effects on coverage by about five million people. Pointing to these discrepancies, Republican lawmakers accused Democrats of dishonest politicking. 'Not a single person on these posters is going to be affected,' Representative Kat Cammack of Florida said. 'It's unfortunate that people are so enraged by misinformation,' Representative Gary Palmer, Republican of Alabama, said, referring to a woman who was taken from the room by the police after she shouted that she was H.I.V. positive and that the Medicaid cuts 'will kill me.' The hallway outside the committee's hearing was packed with protesters, many of them wearing shirts or bearing signs that read 'Hands Off Medicaid.' Others wore shirts reading 'Fight for Planned Parenthood.' The organization is targeted by a provision in the bill that would block Medicaid from funding health providers that also offer abortion services. 'Hopefully, everyone understands that these demonstrations — people feel very strongly,' Representative Frank Pallone Jr., the top Democrat on the committee, said. 'Because they know they're losing their health care.'
