Political Football

There were 3-4 seconds of boos or applause for each speaker, and the crowd was quiet for the next guy – no interruptions during the 3 minute orations.

Absolutely no reason to kick us out.

I’ve been in the chamber when the Governor walks in and there are all kinds of cat-calls and whistling – don’t give me that respect for the House crap.

My representative helped me get onto the floor about 25 minutes after we were kicked out of the gallery and the line of the night was a speaker who said:

 “I’ve never attended an event when the tenants evicted the landlord”….

 …….. it’s gonna get louder before this is settled folks.

It started as such a nice day.  Spent 6 hours at work, then headed to Des Moines by myself.  Sun was shining – decent radio on the way to Des Moines, not much traffic.  After stopping at the hotel, I drove to the capitol – majestic place to be sure.  Windy with an occasional snow flake hitting my windshield.

Left my coat and ran into the building and smack into Trudy and Keith going through security.  We sat and talked for a bit, Trudy was going to be one of the speakers.

The time went by fast waiting for the 7:30 session to start.  Found one of the last seats in the gallery facing the front of the House, reminding myself that the three floors I climbed to the gallery should not have left me so winded.

Trudy was the second speaker, the first against House Bill 807 which removes the deductability of our federal income tax before calculating our Iowa Tax.  Trudy actually had the hardest role – starting the opposition ball rolling and she did a great job; she too is a small business owner.

This is a difficult issue.  No one wants to deny essential goods and services to those who are more unfortunate than ourselves.  But the Iowa Legislature has been out of control with their spending for the last 2-3 years and this is a grab for more money with no plan to stop the bleeding.  We decided to draw a line in the sand today.

Much was made that Iowa was only one of three states that allow that deductability.  But there are also states that have no state tax.  Why not go that way?

I feel we are at a crossroad in this country and it’s not a good feeling.  One speaker, a lady from a social service department of the government said people deserve a decent home, food and clothing.  On the surface who can disagree?  I can disagree with one of her statements, “the government needs to lift these people out of poverty”.  Hasn’t worked so well yet has it?

President Obama had a town hall meeting last week and I was stunned to hear the questions – they were all “when are we going to get this or that”.  Get.  Get?  When did we not work for stuff?

And President Obama changing the structure of tax benefits when donating to charities.  What is that about.  Read this.

Why would a President think this move was important in his first 100 days?  Because he wants people dependent on the government, not charities?  That’s the only reason I can think that he would do this…  It makes no sense.

This feels like the beginning of a class war, but it shouldn’t be.  This is simply the Iowa government spending too much money without too much thought and wanting more.  Like a spoiled child the parent needs to just say – no more.

I’m going to recap the points that some of the speakers made here.  (my favorite one was at the top of this article…)  here it goes…

Many of the speakers were small business people – I think I heard most of the speakers, I was out in the hall with the rest of both galleries for about 25 minutes when Jeff got me on to the floor which let me hear the rest of the speakers.  I read in the press accounts there was a 15 minute delay as the galleries were emptied.

One speaker was a young lady who with her husband ran a construction company that employed 40 people.  She was concerned she would have to lay people off, and was tired of coming to Des Moines to beg for legislators to do the right thing.

Several speakers just announced this move would cause them to leave the state.

One young lady was an engineer and told of her parents owning a small business.  She conducts a series of classes through her church that teaches personal budgeting, debt management, investment - teaching people to live within their own means.  Her students can’t raise taxes to cover the short fall, why should the government?  Why can’t the government live within their means?  I mean it’s not like the population of Iowa is growing!  Where is the money going?

Government jobs pay about 20% more than the private sector.  Why?

Government jobs (most? all?) pay 100% of medical insurance.  Why?

One fellow said, “Revenue is not the problem.  We have more tax revenue than we did 5 years ago – we’re not smart about prioritizing.”  Why?

Several guys made light of their articulation skills but were very funny (and articulate).  One said that they should really make the tax code easy (like the flat tax) and then the legislature would be out of session by February.  And the best thing about passing this bill is that it will create a BIG TURNOVER in the legislature in 2010.

A poignant and sad fact (there were over 40 speakers) was when one fellow simply said he was there because you (pointing at the legislators) “have not earned my trust”.  Please vote for this bill if you want to reduce employment, continue the brain drain from Iowa and penalize success.

A continuing drum beat was college kids leaving Iowa and the potential repeal of the R&D tax credit.  That is crazy!  Iowa is 42nd out of 50 states in innovation and entrepreneurial jobs.  97% of the jobs in Iowa are from small businesses.  Those business owners have no safety net, received no bail out and lately many of the owners are not taking salaries to keep employees working.  These business owners are the ones penalized by this tax change.

Many of the speakers were from LINN, still recovering from the devastating 2008 flood.  20% of the flooded businesses in LINN closed their doors for good.  The Governor is in Washington talking to Microsoft about 75 jobs, when people in LINN have lost 7,500 jobs – and the worst economic effect is typically 2-3 years AFTER the flood.   You can’t grow, expand or strengthen Iowa’s economy in this business climate.

But what finally raised the roof and got us kicked out was Greg Baker, the outgoing Chair of the Iowa Federation of College Republicans.  Greg is a friend of mine as many of the CRs are in the state – and he really took the legislators to the proverbial woodshed.  He loves this state and wants to stay – but doesn’t expect to be able to stay here.  “What a great state – what an opportunity for a guy like me – talking to an esteemed group like this…  But, I have to tell you, what you’re doing is wrong.  You are screaming to college graduates, if you want to make something of your life – not here! Think about what you’re doing! I’m begging you!”

The eruption of applause for Mr. Baker is what got us kicked out.  Baker Cleared the House.

Read HERE and HERE for press accounts of the evening.

ok, better yet,  Baker – You Tube right here.

… and the Register caught me at the door of the HOUSE after we were pitched out of the gallery.

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