The images of disabled Americans in wheelchairs being zip-tied and dragged out of the halls of Congress for protesting imminent and devastating cuts to Medicaid are blatant demonstrations of a cold lack of empathy from members of Congress, who defend gutting health care and food assistance to pay for large and absurd tax breaks for the rich.
For far too long, Americans with disabilities have been treated by those in power as the Inconvenient Americans, a virtually silent and invisible minority group. Disabled Americans represent, at minimum, 15 percent of the population. In my state, one in five Iowans is either blind, deaf, physically, or intellectually disabled. We are also arguably the most under-represented group in local, state, and federal government.
I know this directly as the first and only disabled representative in the Iowa Legislature. Because of this lack of representation and political power, so many issues affecting disabled Americans have been ignored or misunderstood. But on the issue of Medicaid cuts, we can no longer be silent because it is literally life or death.
I was horrified to witness my fellow disabled Americans, many in wheelchairs, being zip-tied like criminals for peacefully protesting cuts to Medicaid. There seems to be a misconception that they were protesting for "just another welfare entitlement" or for some frivolous additional comfort. This could not be further from the truth.
The vast majority of people on Medicaid are, in fact, poor children, the physically and mentally disabled, and the elderly. These are the most vulnerable individuals in our society. We have a moral and ethical duty to protect them. Services like direct care workers or personal care attendants are not covered by private insurance. So, in many cases Medicaid is the only option disabled Americans have for health care. Without Medicaid, many disabled Americans literally could not even get out of bed, let alone find employment and live full, dignified lives. We, the Inconvenient Americans, cannot exist without it.
And Medicaid is already stretched far too thin. States like Iowa have incredibly low reimbursements, years-long waitlists, a lack of providers and caregivers, and health facilities and rural hospitals closing all over the state. This along with dramatic increases in delays and denials to services and supports due to privatization. Our Medicaid system is already terribly broken and underfunded and now they want to make even deeper cuts.
What the handmaidens of the American oligarchy are doing with their reckless dismantling of Medicaid runs directly counter to the defining words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said, "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
There is a dire need to improve Medicaid, but the Trump administration's "big, beautiful bill" does the exact opposite. It cuts over $700 billion from Medicaid and over $300 billion from SNAP (food assistance) to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans. Cutting food and health care for the most vulnerable to give tax breaks to the richest like some reverse Robin Hood who steals from the poor to give to the rich is wrong and immoral and Americans should be appalled.
One of my U.S. senators, Republican Joni Ernst, when pressed at an Iowa town hall about the potential of people dying from Medicaid cuts, said with stunning dismissiveness, "Well, we all are going to die."
Well, Senator Ernst, we will no longer stay silent. Not about our health care. Not about Medicaid.
As I became involved in politics, a place of great reverence has always been the U.S. Senate. That is where nearly 35 years ago, one of my heroes, former Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, toiled for the passage the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA remains the most significant civil rights achievement for disabled people in our country's history. This legislation provided disabled Americans a ramp to be an active part of society and gave us access to the educational and occupational opportunities all Americans deserve.
To see the U.S. Senate today desecrated by the harsh treatment of disabled Americans—protesting for their lives—continues to haunt me. I know that the cruelty displayed that day does not represent the values of the United States—the nation I proudly represented in the Paralympics and now as a public servant.
Disabled Americans may be seen as mere obstacles to obscene wealth-building by those that pull the levers of power. But we disabled Americans know our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness only come with access to health care—services that are only provided by Medicaid. So yes, we will speak out for our rights. We will fight for Medicaid. The Inconvenient Americans will not just roll our wheelchairs in line and die quietly.
Representative Josh Turek is the first permanently and disabled state legislator in Iowa's history. He is also a 4-time Paralympian and 2-time gold medalist representing the United States in wheelchair basketball.