To the editor:

You’ve heard it said many times in your life that actions speak louder than words. That was a sentiment stated recently in a letter to the editor in this publication. Well, let me tell you, my fellow Americans, that Iowa’s Senator Jody Ernst really stepped into a pile of her own making and did her best to disprove that age-old axiom. At a recent town hall Senator Ernst in a symbolic pair of red slacks tries to justify proposed cuts to Medicaid with this revelation: “We’re all going to die.”

Thank you, Captain Obvious. (I’m glad she was prepared for the inevitable Medicaid questions.) But what you’re really trying to say so indelicately is that the government is just trying to facilitate some people’s removal from this life. Getting rid of Medicaid is a very Kervorkian, Republican way of expediting the end-of-life process. And the eradication of a few million vulnerable people is just the Right’s Darwinian agenda of survival of the fittest.

Lest we forget another leg of the big, bogus GOP package, the billionaire class of contributors to the current administration will receive huge tax breaks as a soothing balm should they ever contemplate the suffering that their accumulated wealth has wrought upon average Americans. I’m reminded of another old saying by which the wealthy are frequently cautioned: “You can’t take it with you.” The old, money-grubbing capitalists are probably cognizant of that reality, but they can console themselves with the certainty that their descendants will be forever grateful for receiving zealously protected trust funds.

As an example of the happiness which money can’t buy, consider the world’s (once?) richest man, one Elon Musk. Money helped him to get a convicted felon elected as president and garnered himself a co-presidency (for a while), but his overindulgences and debauchery will probably land him in a rehab facility. The people there might not be so accepting of his manic behaviors. Apparently, his body is not too happy with him right now, either.

Keith R. Klawitter

Morgan