Serena Zets: Republicans are hiding from the constituents their “Big Beautiful Bill” will hurt
By Serena Zets
At the Iowa State Fair last month, a mother told Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) the story of her son’s near-death experience and how Medicaid—a service Ernst voted to cut severely—made the 141-day NICU fight for his life possible. Ernst responded, “That’s wonderful.”
Another constituent traveled all the way from Iowa to D.C. to tell Ernst about how these Medicaid cuts will impact her disabled son, after having tried to reach her via email for months without response. Ernst chose to play baseball that day instead of talking to her constituent. Her dismissive behavior should come as no surprise at this point; her “we’re all going to die” dismissal of Medicaid cuts a few months ago is now infamous.
Since those moments, Ernst announced she won’t be seeking re-election, a sign that the bill’s cuts are a powerful tool for communities to organize around and hold members accountable to. Ernst’s behavior is a symptom of a bigger issue for Republicans: They don’t know how to talk about, let alone defend, their signature piece of legislation because of its overwhelming unpopularity. As they fail to sell the bill to constituents, we need to keep holding these legislators accountable for the cuts they voted to pass.
A recent Pew report estimates that 46% of Americans disapprove of the One Big Beautiful Act, while only 32% approve and another 23% remain unsure. Republican strategists know these polling numbers are a huge liability for their party—so much so that the National Republican Congressional Committee instructed its members not to host town halls during August recess. Public-facing events are going poorly, and at the few town halls and in-district events Republicans have held in recent weeks, protests have broken out as constituents continue to fight hard to make their voices heard.
The unpopularity of this legislation isn’t just a problem for members of Congress—it’s presenting issues for President Trump himself. Data shows that on August 14, Trump’s net approval rating among Medicaid recipients was down 37 points since taking office. It’s almost as if Americans want a social infrastructure in place to support their families and neighbors when hard times hit. Who knew? Clearly not the GOP.
Put simply: Republicans on the Hill are having a hard time selling their budget because it’s a bad budget. There’s no way to message their way out of the largest wealth transfer from the poor to the rich in U.S. history. There’s no spin that can offset taking away healthcare from millions of Americans. There’s no way to placate your constituents when you’re taking food off their tables by cutting SNAP.
An elected official’s job is to go into their community, talk to their constituents, and hear their concerns—then advocate accordingly in the halls of power. But the members of Congress who voted for this bill didn’t do that. And now, they’re afraid to look their own constituents in the eye and acknowledge that they voted to make their lives harder and their futures grimmer. It’s much easier to hide behind staffers in the comfort of their insulated offices.
As Americans, we deserve more than senators who can look into the eyes of a mother whose son nearly died and tell them, “that’s wonderful.” We deserve more than congresspeople who vote more out of fear of retaliation from the president than in their constituents’ interest. We deserve elected officials who hold town halls more often than once every eight years.
To get there, we need our community members and elected officials working together to fight back against cuts to basic needs programs. We have a long way to go, but we’re seeing progress already. We’re seeing it at those town halls and out in the streets as Americans chant, “Hands off Medicaid!”
The history of social movements suggests that we need just 3.5% of the population to mobilize in peaceful protest in order to succeed against an authoritarian government. The researchers who confirmed that percentage concluded that every movement with at least 3.5% public participation succeeded in achieving its goals. Our goals are in sight: We must demand accountability from the members of Congress who voted for these cuts, we must resist authoritarian rule, and we must sound the alarm about how dangerous these cuts will be for the health, safety, and prosperity of our country.
3.5% of the U.S. population equals 12 million people. We know that many more than 12 million people are fed up with these Medicaid cuts. Senator Ernst and the other Republicans policymakers who voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act might be adept at ignoring individuals—but they can’t ignore 12 million of us. There’s power in numbers, and we’ll continue fighting to make the symphony of our voices heard.
Serena Zets is Campaigns Manager at the Center for American Progress and a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C. The Campaigns team amplifies the perspectives and experiences of Americans who represent the human impact of federal policies and cuts.
