Rick Smith

Iowa Democrats expected the Republicans in the Legislature would continue their far-right agenda in 2019. Following the experience from the 2017-18 session, Democrats anticipated more of the same this year. The Republicans didn’t disappoint. They didn’t moderate their radical, take-no-prisoners scheme to impose their one-party rule on Iowans. Having taken control of the Iowa Senate…

Iowa and the Upper Midwest have suffered unprecedented flooding on the Missouri River. It is of historical proportions exceeding the previous 1952 record by 51% and smashing a 67-year-old record. The latest cost estimates have spiked to over $2 billion dollars, and the Corps of Engineers is warning that there will be continued flooding through…

Once again, hundreds of thousands of Iowans dependent on Medicaid have been thrown under the bus as another Managed Care Company (MCO) abandoned them. Last Friday, Governor Kim Reynolds announced that United Healthcare is terminating their contract for the care of over 425,000 poor and disabled Iowans. Reynolds and Department of Human Services (DHS) Director…

The Trump Administration decided this week to ask the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to kill the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Trump Justice Department said it supported the Texas Judge who ruled in December to end the ACA in its entirety. The case will most certainly go to the Supreme Court, and it will…

Iowa Democrats owe a debt of gratitude to the Asian and Latino Coalition, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) of Iowa, and Iowa State University student Taylor Blair for continuing their fight to overturn the Republicans’ 2017 voter suppression ID law. In May of 2018, LULAC and Blair, assisted by Priorities USA, successfully sued…

This Friday, March 15, tens of thousands of the world’s students will strike for climate in 80 different countries. This is predicted to be the largest global environmental protest in history. It was all ignited by Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old Swedish student, last summer. Thunberg has become a world-renown climate activist after speaking at the…

A very small but vocal group, Coalition for Rural Property Rights, is attacking Iowa’s clean renewable wind industry. This coalition of anti-wind energy fanatics have convinced some Republicans in the Iowa Senate to sponsor a bill that could severely damage Iowa’s wind industry. The bill SF 361 sponsored by Waylon Brown (R-St Ansgar) would increase…

The Green New Deal introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) has an inspiring goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within a decade. The resolution proposes to reach that goal with an audacious plan to rapidly transition to renewables. In addition to decarbonizing the American economy, it simultaneously proposes making that…

Democratic legislators and the public should be very suspicious of Governor Reynolds’ proposed constitutional amendment to restore former felons’ voting rights. There are several glaring reasons to distrust her proposal as simply a public relations stunt. She can claim she supports restoring former felons’ voting rights knowing that it’s likely to run into a buzz…

Republicans are beginning their 2020 messaging early with campaign attacks that paint all Democrats as socialists. They plan to demonize Democrats as crazy leftists out to destroy America. They have focused on the Green New Deal (GND) resolution sponsored by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey as evidence that all Democrats have suddenly gone socialist.…