Over the years as your State Representative, I have been asked a lot of questions and given comments about policy, about singular issues a person is having with a state department or organization, about important issues in the lives of regular NW Iowans. Sometimes I am told I am being too partisan, and we need more bi-partisanship and while I don’t disagree, I must point out that bi-partisanship is a two-way street in which there is give and take. To be honest, our policies, which me as a conservative Republican espouse, work and theirs do not.
I know I just offended some because they hold liberal policies dearly. One just needs to look at liberal cities to understand that what they are doing simply isn’t working from the over-taxation, defunding of police, soft on crime attitudes, and everything in between. Conservative ideals simply work!
I don’t want to focus on the other side of the aisle issues because I would rather show you, the reader, that our conservative ideals work better. Here in Iowa, we are doing great based on many different metrics, to include polls, studies, and official data.
Let’s start with tax cuts because the biggest tax cut in Iowa history happened this year. That tax cut didn’t just happen, though. It started years ago with conservative fiscal management where the State fully funded programs that you felt were important but did not spend money just to spend it or to create new spending. As a result, every Iowan who pays tax will see more of their hard-earned money stay in their pocket instead of letting the bureaucracy spend it.
This year we were able to complete an overhaul of unemployment benefits. While the number of people on unemployment is small, the number who abuse the system is great and people need to be productive in our society if our culture is to continue to move forward. So, we reduced the number of weeks that a person can stay on unemployment and several other changes. You must admit that with all the help wanted signs out there it is hard to fathom why there are unemployed Iowans.
We have reduced regulations and rules on Iowans so that they can do more, without being hamstrung by their government all the while keeping Iowans safe. The purpose of government is not to stifle growth and the ability of people to thrive, but it is to protect people and so the rules and laws that Iowans need should be looked at in that light. Specifically, as an example, a bill I have worked on for 3 years was signed into law this spring. That bill prohibits rules and ordinances oppressing home based businesses and frees up the cottage food industry in Iowa to locally grown and produced food, which adds value to the local areas.
Teachers and those in the education field should like that Republicans did away with onerous regulations on test taking for graduates of teaching programs who have completed the teaching program but now must take a test to prove what the college or university already knew as well as opening up the ability for smaller, rural school districts to share employees both of these save teachers and school districts money. In schools K through College level we protected women’s sports. This is important because women in the 70’s fought to have an equal playing field when it comes to sports and now that they have it biological males are stepping in with an unfair advantage and taking those sports over in more frequent cases.
Finally, we have made it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Iowa with several changes to our voting laws. While some would have you believe that we are stifling votes by doing this the facts are that we have had record turnouts at the polls in 2016, 2018, and again in 2020. Additionally, Republicans have made it illegal for organizations to provide private dollars to engineer our elections such as the well known Zukerbucks.
I could keep going on with this list of policies that Iowans want versus what some in the Country are getting. Republicans don’t want to defund police; we want to defend them. Republicans don’t want to spend your hard-earned money; you are better able to spend your money. Republicans don’t want to set criminals free; we want to ensure they have been punished and that they don’t re-offend after their sentence. Republicans don’t want to separate Iowans with certain titles or skin colors; we want every Iowan regardless of their race, creed, or gender to be treated the same. The difference is stark but Conservative principles work for all Iowans.
