Iowans are exhausted and fed up with politics today. Frankly, so am I. With almost 50 days left until the election, we know what’s next. TV ads, our mailboxes filling up, and lots of opinions on our Facebook feeds.
But here in Iowa, I’m proud of our long history of strong public schools, vibrant communities where neighbors look out for each other, and using common sense to get things done.
Iowans want their elected leaders to listen and then focus on the issues important to them. I couldn’t agree more.
For too long now, politics has gotten in the way of making progress on the Iowa values we all share. Released today, our new People Over Politics agenda is based on the priorities of Iowans and will be the roadmap for the Iowa House Democrats this fall and next session. The agenda has four main components that are all supported by a strong majority of Iowans, aimed at improving their lives: lowering costs, protecting reproductive freedom, investing in public schools, and legalizing marijuana. Let’s break it down.
Lowering costs for Iowans: Too many Iowans are still struggling to make ends meet today. Their wages simply aren’t keeping up with the rising costs of healthcare, food, child care, and utility bills. We need to make housing and child care affordable, raise wages, and lower taxes for working families instead of more handouts to big corporations.
Protecting reproductive freedom: Everyone deserves the right to make their own health care decisions, especially when it comes to reproductive care and abortion. We will guarantee reproductive freedom by adding it to Iowa’s Constitution.
Investing in public schools: For generations, Iowans have counted on our great public schools to educate our kids and be the heart of our communities large and small. But we’ve lost ground and our public school kids are losing out and teachers are leaving the classroom. We must fully fund public schools to keep up with rising costs and make sure every kid, in every zip code gets a great education. We also need to raise pay for educators, give them a seat at the table, and stop the Governor’s private school voucher plan to ensure public money is used to help public schools.
Legalizing marijuana: A majority of Iowans support legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Legalizing marijuana for adult use will keep Iowans safe, stop our tax dollars from going to neighboring states, improve the quality of life for Iowans suffering from chronic illnesses, and stop wasting state resources to unfairly punish Iowans.
It won’t be easy and the problems we face today won’t be fixed overnight. Iowans have every right to be skeptical and we may not agree every time, but we’re committed to listening and fighting for the Iowa values we all share.
Since Biden took office, the price of natural gas — one of the key utility bills Mrs. Konfrst claims to be upset about — has doubled. Even if it drastically drops to ~$5.50 from its current $7.89 price point, it will only be 47% above what it was when Trump left office in 2021. That’s akin to a 47% cost-of-living-tax on all constituents; which hits the poorest hardest. Gas for cars has seen a similar rise over the past 20 months. Food, clothing, nearly every industry has seen inflation drive prices of goods and services up.
Seems a bit ironic now that the Democratic Party should choose, once again, to wave the banner of raising employee wages heading into the November mid-terms. Farbeit for the party in control of national economics since 2021 be party to blame for the current fiscal malaise affecting everyone from Wall Street to Main Street, Iowa. The solution of personal wealth is not to simply increase hourly wages; it was only a few years prior that the Left was clamoring for $15/hour wages at McDonald’s. Now McDonald’s can barely hire anyone for less: all without the government mandating it, thanks to inflation.
Speaking of “lowering costs for Iowans”, I do not recall one single Democrat in the Iowa legislature voting for Kim Reynold’s monumental Income Tax reduction and the elimination of Retirement Income Tax. So, one would hope the Democratic Party of Iowa has a well-reasoned accounting for this hypocritical stance. I, on the other hand, would not hold my breath.
As for a “great education”, I would hope that would mean a return to rote education. Reading, writing, and arithmetic. Rather than saddling our children with memorizing classmates’ pronouns, drag queen poetry, or being taught their heritage is one of either oppression or of being oppressed, I would love to see public education return to the forefront of “education”. Academic education. Not political indoctrination regardless of parental concerns.
We already use more than 50% of the state budget for public education. While one could argue that staff salaries are not keeping pace with current inflation rates, I would challenge anyone to point to an industry, public or private, where salaries ARE keeping pace. Sadly, over the past 20~30 years, our school districts have become bogged down with ever more layers of administration and regulation; to the point that far fewer tax-payer dollars (percentage-wise) are actually reaching the classrooms. Teachers now have to account for ever more time & effort to fulfill administrative oversight on a number of issues. Long gone are the days when Planning Hours were sufficient enough to plan out lessons and gauge individual student progress.
Real improvement of Iowa’s public education will come when an overhaul of the administrative layers restricting Iowa’s teachers and youth is pulled away and revamped to focus on student academic achievement. I’ve yet to see any significant suggestions from the Democratic Party of Iowa on how to accomplish the goal of bettering Iowa’s academic performances aside from simply throwing more tax-payer money at the problem.
Typical rationale of the Left. Hasn’t worked for ‘equity’; to which we’ve now been at this BLM movement for years—any progress in racial relations? What is the goal? What are the markers of attaining the goal or showing progress? Hasn’t worked for ‘poverty’ either. The War of Poverty began with the Lyndon Johnson administration in the 1960s. When do we “win” that war? What does victory look like? Has the current Biden administration gotten us closer or further away from that goal? Dare I ask about “Global Warming”?
The Democratic Party does not want to engage in discussions about the root causes inflation, broken immigration, fentanyl abuse, rising crime rates, or a myriad of other pertinent issues. Instead, they continue with the broken record of “raising wages for the lower class” and “education dollars”. Will Iowans continue to heed this cliched’ message, or will they vote for Common Sense this coming November?