Rick Smith

This week Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held an emergency conference call with a number of progressive organizations warning about the coming GOP tax scam plan. His message was clear: “This is the worst tax plan in history!” Schumer’s call to action was to many of the same groups that played such an important…

Tom Steyer, the Democratic California billionaire, launched an in-your-face Trump impeachment ad campaign across the country this week. Timing and momentum is everything in politics. It certainly appears Steyer’s impeachment ad launch is timed perfectly considering the momentous exchange between President Trump and Senators Corker and Flake yesterday. Steyer is calling on Democratic lawmakers across…

This week the Des Moines Register reported another Iowan on Medicaid died following refusal of Medicaid providers to pay for adequate care. Her nursing home’s decision to refuse accepting Medicaid patients on ventilators would require her to move 90 miles from Des Moines. The Register reported, “the Fleur Heights nursing home blames insufficient and untimely…

Republican Senator Bob Corker is raising serious concerns about President Trump’s stability and mental balance to continue to serve as President. If Senator Corker was a Democrat warning about Trump’s disturbing behavior, it would be dismissed as purely partisan politics. If Senator Corker was alone in speaking publicly about Trump’s abnormal behavior, it might be…

The Washington Post reported last week that President Trump intentionally torpedoed Governor Kim Reynolds’ proposed stopgap insurance plan for 72,000 Iowans. The stopgap insurance plan requires a waiver from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), so Governor Reynolds and Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley urged Trump to approve the plan. It appears…

This long-awaited national Republican tax cut plan is nothing more than the recycling of Reagan’s failed “trickle-down economics” tax cut plan. Also known as supply side economics, President George H.W. Bush called it “voodoo” economics. The premise of Reaganomics was based on tax cuts for the rich that moved massive amounts of cash to those…

Governor Reynolds’ continuing budget crisis is raising additional questions regarding her administration’s basic lack of competence in managing the state’s finances. The Governor’s lack of transparency and accountability in dealing with her budget mess is contributing to growing suspicions that the fix is in. It was nearly certain in June that Reynolds would need to…

The Republican-controlled Legislature rammed through a heartless reversal of higher wages for thousands of Iowans and their families earlier this year. They arrogantly overruled the four Iowa counties (Johnson, Linn, Polk and Wapello) that had each passed minimum wage increases for their residents. Now, six months later, it appears the national “Fight for $15” is…

The Iowa Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) is a panel of nine citizens who are supposed to provide public policy oversight of Iowa’s environmental protection efforts. At their September 18th meeting they had an opportunity to pass major improvements in the rules governing concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Instead, they punted by voting no for any…

Republicans love to brag that they don’t believe in choosing winners and losers. The latest Obamacare repeal bill picks winners and losers and Iowa would be a major loser. The Graham-Cassidy repeal plan will specifically penalize Iowa. Yet, Governor Reynolds endorsed Graham-Cassidy, saying, “[It] can work for the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.” The Senate…