I know that this is a Democratic Blog, but this was a first opportunity to see what the proverbial Republican candidates running for the Iowa House and Senate had to say. Well, it turned out to be the same tired old lines of cut taxes, reduce government size and cut expenses. Problem was, not one of them seemed to do any of their homework or research. Another interesting thing was that like Arizona, they thought that they could change federal laws in the Iowa House and Senate.
I guess that they missed the fact thatn the last session, the budget was in fact balanced, and substantial spending cuts did take place. They did propose that lobbyists be eliminated by law in Iowa, which I always thought was more of an idea from Democrats.
Some additional interesting comments included, eliminating the salaries for the Democrats in the House and Senate, I assume that meant the Republicans also. Changing the law so that county zoning would be subject to a public vote of the county voters and not at the discretion of the county board of supervisors. That seemed to be a “free county” proposal, apparently forgetting that all of the current board of supervisors are Republicans. Also, I wonder if they checked to see when that law was passed and by whom.
All in all, it was a very uneventful gathering of approximately 26 people, plus 5 candidates and 1 moderator and 5 of those 26 were Democrats that I know of.
