Rick Smith

Five months after Republicans passed their massive corporate tax cut, the CEOs of American companies are popping their champagne corks, toasting their bonanza of pay increases. American workers are still waiting for Trump’s promised wage increase of $4,000 per year. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals CEO Ian Read should be the poster child for runaway corporate greed. Thanks…

Last week, Governor Kim Reynolds’ Department of Human Services (DHS) gave three separate and wildly contradictory estimates of Medicaid privatization savings. Not only do these three latest estimates conflict with one another, none of them come close to earlier estimates made by Reynolds’ office. Adding to their latest wacky estimates, Reynolds has failed to provide…

Why did Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley vote against a Senate “net neutrality” resolution that would protect both consumers’ and businesses internet rights? We must demand they explain their vote to give monopoly power to giant internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast, Spectrum, AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink. Net neutrality is the Obama era rule…

Recent polling among young Republicans on environmental issues show them siding with Democrats rather than older leaders of their own party. In this highly polarized political atmosphere, the environment could become a bridge to common ground between Democrats and younger Republicans. This shared environmental view could provide an opening for Democratic candidates to appeal to…

Why is all the attention focused on raising Iowa’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and no discussion on raising the tipped sub-minimum wage of $4.35 per hour? In Iowa, an employee that receives more than $30 per month in tips is considered a “tipped employee” and can be paid at the lower $4.35 minimum…

Perhaps it’s time to go after the gun lobby with the tool they fear the most: the courts. Gun manufacturers and gun dealers have special immunity from lawsuits thanks to a National Rifle Association (NRA) sponsored bill they rammed through Congress in 2005. Following the passage of the lawsuit shield law, Protection of Lawful Commerce…

Under the tax bill signed by Governor Kim Reynolds, millionaires cash in with nearly $25,000 in tax cuts annually while middle class Iowans will receive between $100 to $300. Lower income Iowans will get a whopping $18 per year in cuts. The Iowa Policy Project (IPP), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that focuses on tax and…

President Trump’s decision to break America’s word by pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement has stunned the world. Trump intentionally defied three of our closest friends and allies – France, Germany and Britain. The Iran deal was negotiated by all five of the permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, UK,…

Iowans are asking why Republicans have ignored reality by pursuing a futile effort to overturn Roe v. Wade. Iowans wonder why Republicans are fanatically focused on the earliest points of life, but refusing to listen to the needs of Iowa women? The Republicans’ manic obsession on passing an unconstitutional fetal heartbeat bill exposes their irrational…