Cheat Sheet: Ernst’s Record of Risking Medicare and Social Security

*NOTE: SIMILAR RELEASES WERE SENT TO ARIZONA, COLORADO, GEORGIA, KENTUCKY, MAINE, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, AND TEXAS*

Trump’s Latest Threat to Medicare, Social Security Spotlights Ernst’s Votes to Cut Billions from Medicare & Plan that “Smashes Open” the Social Security Lock Box

Senator Joni Ernst’s long record of pushing to gut earned benefit programs like Medicare and Social Security is once again in the spotlight as Donald Trump makes the GOP’s latest threat to gut those programs. She’s backed a budget plan that would “essentially end Medicare by turning it into the voucher program,” backed other budgets that called for cutting the program by hundreds of billions of dollars, talked about privatizing Social Security and suggested that lawmakers need to discuss plans to gut Social Security “behind closed doors,” and pushed a sham paid leave plan that has been broadly panned as a direct threat to Social Security benefits.

Check out the cheat sheet on Ernst’s record of pushing to cut Medicare and Social Security: 

• 2011: Expressed support for the Ryan Budget, which “would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/04/11]
  
  • 2011: “Ending Medicare as we know it is a key part” of Senate Republicans’ budget proposal. [NPR, 4/04/11]

• 2012: Expressed support for Republicans’ “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan, which “would necessitate deep cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.” [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 7/16/11] 

• 2014: Admitted, “Yes, I have talked about privatizing Social Security.” [Wesley Acres Retirement, 2014]

• 2015: Voted for a budget that called on Medicare to be subjected to “$430 billion in spending cuts without explaining where they would be made.” [Senate Vote 171, 5/5/15; Conference Report, 4/29/15; Bloomberg, 3/27/15; Congressional Actions, S. Con. Res. 11]

• 2017: Voted for a budget resolution that “propose[d] $473 billion in cuts to Medicare’s baseline spending over a decade and about $1 trillion from Medicaid” [Senate Vote 245,10/19/17; The Hill, 10/19/17; Congressional Actions, H. Con. Res. 71]

• 2017: Voted for a corporate tax giveaway that spiked the federal deficit, “trimmed a year of solvency from the primary Medicare trust fund and had a negative effect on the Social Security trust fund.” [Politifact, 9/5/18]

• 2019: Introduced the CRADLE Act, described by experts as a “sham” and a “terrible idea” that “smashes open” the Social Security lock box and would “take a sizeable cut out of older Americans’ retirement payments.” [Bloomberg, 5/13/19; Los Angeles Times, 3/13/19; Barron’s, 3/16/19; Obradovich, Des Moines Register, 3/14/19; CNBC, 4/20/18]

• 2019: Suggested lawmakers considering cutting Social Security benefits “need to sit down behind closed doors so we’re not being scrutinized by this group or the other.” [Iowa Starting Line, 9/4/19]

“Senator Joni Ernst has spent years trying to gut Iowans’ Medicare and Social Security benefits, so it’s no surprise that she is refusing to stand up to her party’s latest threat to put these benefits back on the chopping block,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Make no mistake — with Medicare and Social Security on the ballot in 2020, Iowans know that Senator Ernst is to blame, and she cannot hide from her toxic record of trying to cut, privatize, and undermine her constituents’ retirement security.”

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