Iowa’s Ashley Hinson gets mixed reception at town hall as she fields questions about DOGE, Medicaid cuts

ELKADER — Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson was met with a mix of boos and applause from the approximately 100 people in the audience at her town hall meeting in Elkader Wednesday morning.

Hinson, who represents northeast Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, used the event to affirm her support of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, prohibit transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls sports, extend tax cuts, and use Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to cut spending.

Constituents at the town hall shared concerns about access to Medicaid and other health care, funding cuts to university research, and Hinson’s support of President Donald Trump’s policies.

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The brief applause Hinson received was in response to her opinions on deportation efforts, while the majority of the boos were directed at her support of DOGE and Medicaid cuts.

In her opening remarks, Hinson recalled the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last year and continued to voice her support for him.

“I think God saved the president, and he's working to save our country … My colleagues and I are working overtime as well to work alongside the administration to undo a lot of damage that was done in the past several years, and we are fast tracking America's path to what I think is a new golden age for our country,” Hinson said in her opening remarks at the Elkader Opera House.

Concerns about access to health care

Hinson said that there’s a lot of “fear mongering” about Trump’s tax and spending bill, which the president has called “one, big beautiful bill.” Hinson and the rest of Iowa’s U.S. House delegation — Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn and Randy Feenstra — voted to pass last week.

The bill includes roughly $4.5 trillion in tax breaks passed during Trump’s first term in 2017 that are set to expire this year, while temporarily adding new ones he campaigned on during his 2024 campaign, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay, car loan interest and others.

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To make up for some of the lost tax revenue, the bill would cut an estimated $625 billion to Medicaid — the joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for low-income individuals, including the elderly and those with disabilities — and $300 billion to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, over the next 10 years.

The cuts would largely be done by imposing work requirements on many of those receiving benefits. Able-bodied adults age 19-64 without dependents would need to work, volunteer or go to school for 80 hours a month in order to maintain them.

“If you actually read the bill, we have done everything possible to make sure that these programs are going to, number one, be efficient,” Hinson said Wednesday. “We're rooting out the waste, fraud and abuse that we need to get rid of in the programs. We're finding ways to get people back into the dignity of work, people who should be working, who don't have someone they're caring for, who aren't disabled, who are able-bodied adults who should be out working in the workforce if they're going to take a government benefit.”

Iowans’ concerns about access to Medicaid and other forms of health care took up the majority of the time allotted for questions at the town hall.

“I have only used my health care once, and that was to get the prescription for the glasses on my face. What holds me back from using my health care is the shame pushed by Republicans targeting Medicaid recipients as the people committing the waste, fraud and abuse …,” said Adam Koresh, a University of Northern Iowa student.

Koresh went on to ask Hinson if the “one, big beautiful bill” were to return to the House, would she support an amendment to allow full-time college students to stay on Medicaid if they do not meet the work requirements.

“I think it's really important that people who are low income have access to health care, and so that is going to continue to be a priority. What I think is important about the vote we took last week is … we have finite resources to be able to devote to these programs … We are anticipating growth in the program as well, and more people taking advantage of those benefits. But what we don't want to see happen are illegal immigrants receive those benefits …” Hinson responded.

Hinson said she would be open to having a conversation with her colleagues in the Senate about student access to Medicaid.

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The congresswoman fielded multiple other questions surrounding access to health care. She stood by her decision to vote for Medicaid cuts while championing access to health care for all.

“So whether it's prescription drugs, programs like Medicaid to make sure that we're actually exposing some of the ways we want bad actors to be held accountable for if they are exposing the system or are fraudulently using the system. But we, again, want to make sure that health care is accessible no matter what your ZIP code is, whether you're in a big city or a small community,” she said.

NIH Funding, DOGE cuts

Other Iowans at the town hall wondered about the effects of the Trump administration’s termination of grants that have provided funding for research.

“One thing that I'm really concerned about is … all these universities that are being attacked because they feel that they're too liberal … But they've cut almost $2 billion in research … and just so the rich can get an extra tax cut is a crime,” said Darryl Syverson of Strawberry Point.

Hinson said that part of the cuts to National Institutes for Health (NIH) funding were intended to eliminate administrative overhead and get money directly to researchers. She said it’s important that institutions operate within the lines of Trump’s executive orders, pointing to an order that rescinds federal funding for schools that allow transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports.

“They need to comply with those executive orders and if they're not going to comply … they shouldn't be getting federal money,” Hinson said. “They have giant endowments that these universities can use to help support their students and encourage more people to go.”

Hinson also brought up NIH funding while speaking about the work DOGE is doing. She DOGE has discovered “thousands of credit cards being used inappropriately.” That assertion was made with boos from the crowd.

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“ … National Institutes of Health is an agency that we want to see continue to fund good health research. For example, when they have dozens and dozens of different departments, they're not sharing research data. That's an inefficient way to do business, and who knows, we might have missed out on the next great cure or the next great research discovery. So we need to make sure through those efficiencies that we're making improvements,”

Another attendee asked what Hinson planned to do to protect federal judges who block Trump’s executive orders. Data collected by the U.S. Marshals Service shows threats against federal judges have increased since Trump took office in January, according to reporting by The New York Times.

“I think access to the courts is important no matter who is the president. I really believe that to be true, and what we don't want to see is, no matter who is in the office, that people don't have remedies for those lawsuits,” Hinson said. “I think that is important that they have access to the courts, and we've certainly seen that happen this administration and in the prior administration as well. What I don't want to see happen are activist judges that can put a stop to policies for the entire country.”

Tom Barton of The Gazette contributed to this report

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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