At a recent town hall Sen Joni Ernst (R-IA) told attendees that Congress needs to meet “behind closed doors” to address social security. It is no secret that Republicans have long harbored plans to gut the popular social program over concerns that it is ballooning the federal deficit. It is Sen Ernst’s suggestion however that Congress needs to hold deliberations in secret that caught many people’s attention. She went on to say that if discussions are held in public, people will accuse her of “throwing grandma off the cliff” which in itself is a dead giveaway that she prefers cuts to social security, but she doesn’t want the voters to know–certainly not as she heads for reelection in 2020.
We saw similar tactics from Republicans during the 2018 midterms where privately they advocated for the entire scrapping of Obamacare but publicly maintained that they favored Obamacare’s preexisting conditions provisions. This is at best voter deception by Republicans because they are essentially asking people to vote for them first then tell them what their policy proposals are afterwards. It is supposed to be the other way around–stating what your policy proposals are and then letting voters decide whether they like them or not.
Given Sen Ernst’s statement on social security one can only assume that she wants cuts to the social program, but she intends to let Iowa voters know what specific cuts she wants only after they reelect her in 2020–a total travesty.
Bottom line folks, Democrats must do a better job of holding Republican feet to the fire. There are myriad issues where voters totally agree with Democrats but Democrats don’t aggressively prosecute their cases to the electorate. This issue about social security cuts is a prime example. Whoever Joni Ernst’s Democratic challenger is needs to go out there and tell voters in no uncertain terms that Sen Ernst intends to cut their social security but is afraid to tell them to their faces. This video of her saying exactly that would make it really hard for Sen Ernst to defend herself. If by some miracle Sen Ernst wiggles her way out of these comments, then the prospective Democrat should pull out this other video by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying the same thing. Boom–Dem U.S. Senate seat from Iowa!!
For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out.
You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com