IDP Chair Hart Issues Statement on Ernst's Vote to Move the Republican's Big, Bad, Budget-Busting Bill Forward

The bill will raise health insurance, home energy costs for Iowans

DES MOINES - Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart issued the following statement regarding Joni Ernst casting a deciding vote on a motion to proceed with the Republican’s big, bad, budget-busting bill:

“Joni Ernst took a bill that will kill jobs, close rural hospitals, raise energy costs and insurance premiums, and add trillions in new debt and made it worse. Today, after telling Iowans ‘we all are going to die,’ she voted for the Senate to move forward with a bill that includes even deeper cuts to Medicaid that even Republicans acknowledge will kick working people off their healthcare, and create even more debt – just to give bigger tax breaks to the well-off and well-connected. It’s just more broken promises from Republicans and another reason Iowa needs change.”

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The Republican’s big, bad, budget-busting bill:

• Will cut more than $930 billion from Medicaid.
• Will put 597 nursing homes located in 45 states at risk of closing, including 11 in Iowa.
• Cedar Falls Health Center
• Granger Nursing & Rehabilitation Center
• Aspire of Perry
• Azria Health Prairie ridge
• Iowa City Rehab & Health Care
• Mississippi Valley
• Heritage Specialty Care in Linn County
• Aspire of Muscatine
• Aspire of Primghar
• Aspire of Southerland
• Aspire of Gowrie
• Stands to be the biggest job-killing bill in American history, according to the National Association of Building Trades Union.
• Will be a ‘kill shot’ for solar, wind and clean energy initiatives. It will be devastating to a state like Iowa, which is the first state in the nation to generate more than 57% of its electricity with wind.
• Will make it harder for college students to receive Pell Grants.
• Adds $4.5 trillion to the national debt.

Joni Ernst and Senate Republicans voted to fund tax breaks for billionaires and the ultra-wealthy on the backs of working Iowans.