1. United States
2. Iowa
3. Letter

One Last Vote That Will Matter: A Constituent's Challenge to Senator Ernst on Social Security RE: Social Security, the Tariff Refund, and Your Final Opportunity to Do Right by Iowa I am one of your constituents, Senator Ernst, and I am going to be direct with you — because I think you deserve honesty more than flattery, and because the clock on your Senate tenure is running out. You served in the Iowa Army National Guard for over two decades. You deployed to Kuwait. You know what it means to serve people who are counting on you to show up when it matters. The 600,000 Iowans who depend on Social Security are counting on someone to show up right now — and you are one of the few people in Washington with both the knowledge and, at this moment, the freedom to do it. You announced you will not seek reelection. That means the political calculations that have shaped so many of your votes no longer apply. No primary to fear. No seat to protect. No donor calls to make. What remains is your record — and the question of what you choose to do with the time you have left. I am asking you to use it for Social Security. And I am asking you to do it in the open — not behind closed doors. Because that is exactly where you said it should happen. At a town hall you told constituents that Congress needed to sit down behind closed doors to address Social Security — away from public scrutiny — because you were afraid of being accused of pushing granny over a cliff. At a closed-door Washington fundraiser in 2019, you were recorded agreeing that Social Security is out of control spending. You have spent years calling for reforms while declining to say publicly what those reforms would be. Senator, I am not bringing this up to embarrass you. I am bringing it up because it proves you understand how serious this problem actually is. You have known for years that Social Security is headed for a crisis. You have just been unwilling to say so where Iowans could hear you. That changes nothing about the crisis — but it does say something about this moment. Because right now, for the first time in your Senate career, you have nothing left to lose by telling the truth in public. Here is the truth. Without congressional action, the Social Security Trust Fund is projected to face insolvency by 2033. When that happens, every recipient faces an automatic 28 percent cut in monthly benefits. For the average Social Security disability recipient in Iowa — receiving around $1,537 a month — that is $430 gone. Every single month. That is the difference between paying rent and not. Between keeping the heat on through an Iowa January and going without. Between a senior eating three meals a day and skipping one. More than 600,000 Iowans depend on this program. They paid into it their entire working lives on a promise. That promise is in danger. Now here is the opportunity — and it is sitting right in front of Congress doing nothing. Iowa farmers paid more for equipment. Iowa families paid more at the grocery store. Iowa businesses paid more for supplies. Working Iowans absorbed the cost of the Trump administration's tariff program in higher prices every single day it was in effect. And on February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that every dollar of it was collected illegally. The Court found the president never had the authority to levy those tariffs in the first place. Approximately $166 billion in refunds has been ordered — money that is sitting there right now, accruing $22 million in interest every single day while Congress does nothing. On April 20th, Customs and Border Protection opened a refund portal. The money is already moving — back primarily to corporations and importers, while the Iowa families who paid higher prices at the checkout counter see nothing. The administration is already pursuing replacement tariffs under different legal authority. The revenue pipeline continues. This is the moment to put a law in place that directs a meaningful portion of that ongoing tariff revenue toward Social Security — before it disappears into the general fund or finances another round of tax cuts for the wealthy. This is what I am asking you to do. Sponsor legislation that dedicates a share of ongoing tariff revenue directly to the Social Security Trust Fund, locked in and protected. Direct a portion of the refunded tariff windfall toward Social Security — because Iowa's working people bore the cost of those illegal tariffs, and they deserve to see some of that money protect their retirement. And establish a formal public accounting of what the federal government has borrowed from Social Security across all administrations and both parties, with a realistic schedule for paying it back. This is not a tax increase. This is not a cut to anything. This is a redirection of money the Supreme Court has already ruled was taken illegally — back toward the program that Iowa's working people paid into their entire lives. You have said many times that any Social Security fix must be bipartisan. You are right. The Reagan and O'Neill deal in 1983 happened because two people chose their constituents over their politics. That deal happened in public — not behind closed doors — and it saved Social Security for a generation. You have one session left, Senator. The question is whether you want your final chapter to be the senator who talked about fixing Social Security in secret for a decade, or the senator who finally did something about it where everyone could see. I will be sharing your response — or your silence — with my community. But that is not why I am writing. I am writing because I think you are capable of this, and because 600,000 Iowans need someone to prove it. The door is closing on your tenure, Senator Ernst. I am asking you to walk through it doing something that will matter long after you are gone. I expect a substantive written response by May 30, 2026 — not a form letter, but your actual position on whether you will act.