The largest Medicaid cuts in US history, which, if signed into law, would sever healthcare for the poorest Americans in order to offset massive tax cuts for the wealthy, have a curious new defense: “Well, we all are going to die.”
The line emerged on Friday as Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) attempted to defend the cuts before angry constituents during a contentious town hall. It was delivered with a smirk, and then, apparent impatience. “For heaven’s sakes, folks,” she said as the audience gasped.
It is true: Every one of us will indeed perish. But implicit in Ernst’s cavalier response on Friday is that the inevitability of death neutralizes how death comes for us. Jeopardizing health care for the most vulnerable? Why the hell not. Speeding up death for the oldest Americans by making them sicker? Well, we all are going to die.
Of course, the reality is that so much of the death that American society tolerates—our gun epidemic, a lack of universal health care, etc.—is a choice enshrined in our shitty politics. Just take a look at the staggering rise in babies born HIV positive right now, thanks to a similar casual cruelty of Elon Musk.
Ernst’s point is an accidental bedrock of GOP politics. Death does not matter, for certain people, if it means a supposed economic boost to the few.
