Miner Queries: What’s the vision for Iowa?

In 2001, I moved back to Iowa with my family. I am on the brink of my second child graduating from Iowa schools, but I’m not encouraging her to stay in this state – because Iowa has no economic vision. Her brother ended up in Minnesota, whose economy is more stable.

Since I was a kid, I have watched this state lose ground. And state leaders have done little to stem the bleeding.

Instead, I’ve watched leadership, particularly under Republican administrations, cut funding for vital services and defund government under the guise that lowering taxes stimulates growth. That’s a marketing message with no evidence to back it up. Lining historic U.S. tax cuts up with periods of growth quickly debunks it. More recent state level experiments with it in Kansas also clearly demonstrate its debilitating effects.

I’ve also watched legislation written in recent years focus on outside entities and their interests, rather than constituents in Iowa. Iowa’s Stand Your Ground law is an example.

As is education and its funding. In 1992, Governor Branstad politicized school funding by doing away with the funding formula, which was one of the premier school funding models in the U.S. By eliminating it, Branstad and his Republican colleagues were able to consistently defund our schools and erode our public education system.  This is death by a thousand cuts. Meanwhile, the state has increased funding for private schools, home schooling and online schools. If an educational program is private, it should NOT receive public funding. Parents choose private schools; they should pay. Period.

But decreased school funding doesn’t just affect schools. Iowa communities fighting for life have constricted further as schools, often the largest employer, close. Meanwhile, state government has not invested in building Iowa-based businesses and infrastructure to sustain and attract residents. Instead, we’ve courted outside corporations to bring in jobs – most of which haven’t materialized.

These decisions are always disguised as balancing the budget and being fiscally responsible. But it’s more marketing messaging. Take it from this former marketing and PR professional. As the state has cut, cut, cut, local taxing authorities have hit property owners harder. So our state officials may say, “We cut taxes,” but really all they’ve done is shift the burden. Eventually people catch on.

If we want to rebuild Iowa, we must invest in our people – starting with education. We also must take care of our people with health care (This includes mental and women’s health care. As a woman who experienced recurrent miscarriages and had multiple D&Cs, I know abortion needs to be part of that.), and we need to provide support for economic development with financing and infrastructure.

So does our one-party state government even have a vision for Iowa? Or is it simply out to protect the interests of that party and its primary funders? Do representatives vote with the caucus and accept the party’s talking points, or are they really dreaming big for Iowa?

Iowans don’t have to be fighting for crumbs. We can build a better state if we have a vision and political will. But we must stop being led around by unproven political and economic ideologies and engage in some critical thinking. We must get over party loyalty and be willing to stand up and question leadership, especially our governor and state legislators.

What's changed since 2008?

As a 2008 volunteer, I get mailings from Obama for America.

Last week, the mailing envelope was a 12x18-inch poster headlined: CHANGE IS.
Beneath that was a black and white portrait of President Obama. And under the photo was a list of eleven accomplishments. They included:

Equal Pay for Equal Work

Saving the U.S. auto industry

Credit card reform

Hate Crimes Prevention Act

Affordable Care Act

Student loan reform

Wall Street reform

Middle-class tax cuts

Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Raising fuel efficiency standards

Ending the war in Iraq

Since I track the president’s record, I’d add the destruction of Al-Quaida and its leader Osama Bin Laden.

Overall, the list just hits the highlights.

How many items were you aware of? How many of these items have made a difference in your life? I’d venture a guess that most of us have seen benefits from almost all of them, whether we’ll admit it or not.

Unfortunately, our mainstream corporate media has failed to cover the actual policies this administration has championed – mainly because they do not overwhelmingly benefit corporate media owners’ interests. Citizen ignorance is their friend.

Why? If you do not understand the Affordable Care Act, maybe you won’t support it – even though it allows your college graduate to stay on your insurance plan while he or she searches for a job.

If you’re ignorant, you won’t support it even though now your insurer can’t cut you off when you hit a certain dollar amount spent to cover your pre-existing condition. Ignorance will allow you to oppose it despite the fact your premiums would have increased more drastically had ACA not been passed.

The fact is that with a higher number of U.S. citizens insured, many of them healthy young people, ACA is already bending the cost curve down. But even with ACA, we’re barely making a dent in rising healthcare costs. We could more effectively control costs and care for people with either a single payer system (like Medicare) or socialized medicine (like the Veteran’s Administration), both of which could be expanded.

Yet, as journalist Chris Hedges points out in a recent column on healthcare, “. . . as long as corporations determine policy, as long as they can use their money to determine who gets elected and what legislation gets passed, we remain hostages.”

Plenty of people I’ve met are also unaware President Obama cut middle class taxes during the worst of the recession. Media didn’t report it that way; instead they reported he wants to “raise taxes,” even though he only wants to raise tax rates on wealthy individuals and large multinational corporations. He’s also decreased the deficit and cut more government spending than his predecessor.

This president has a long list of accomplishments, but listening to media reports you’d think we have seen no change. Where is this “liberal media bias” I hear about?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again -- the first step to deciding who to vote for is to do your homework. Quit voting on emotion, turn off the TV and radio, and read. And know who pays for your sources. Otherwise you’re just a cog in the corporate machine, and nothing will change.

Because change is not just up to the president; it comes down to us.