Only Need An Anti-Woman Law To Fill The Sheet.

Sometimes between sessions, I think about making out bingo cards or race track type cards for the next session just to at least have a couple of laughs while some of our legislators are wasting our money. But filling such things out is almost a no-brainer anymore. Especially for Republicans. Gone are the days when you could make out a card for them and include such items as “more money for college” or “aid for the poor” or even “aid for the cities.”

Nowadays the list is about 5 items long and it goes something like this:
– Screw the poor and middle class on health-care
– Anti-gay, anti-marriage equality laws
– Anti-women laws – often against women managing their own reproductive health
– Anti-union legislation
– Take away some “welfare” from the poor.

A person can almost always count on three of those items having some legislation written about them. As far as I know, this session we already have the anti-poor health care cooking along with the annual anti-gay crop. But I fear our local Republicans are falling behind their counterparts across the country. Doesn’t some self respecting Republican legislator want to put a trans-vaginal probe someplace? I had better be careful what I ask for

Democrats are kind of predictable also. They want decent schools, decent pay for teachers, good jobs, health care, and education to be affordable through college. How can they ever win by putting people first and not doing God’s work by peeking in Iowan’s bedrooms? It is a wonder.

If you are a person who is going to legislate on people’s morals then I believe you should be fully biblically moral yourself. That is no more than one marriage total and no fooling around outside that marriage. Also if you are going to force women to have unwanted pregnancies, there must be some provisions for the other half of the pregnancy team to care for the child.

But if the the legislature can’t do its part, then Matt Schultz is expected to do his part to fill in the ALEC score card. Remember that on March 13th Schultz is planning to implement his plan to stop people from voting whose name ends in a vowel or a Z.

I am sorry, but every year when I see our legislature wasting time and money, I get upset. Especially when the time they waste is in trying to screw those among us that do not have the political connections to make the system work for us. Now we got Branstad wasting money to score points with ALEC by avoiding a really good Medicaid deal. This will teach people not to be poor by letting them die slowly at home rather than seeing a doctor.

Medicaid Expansion Would Save Lives!
I read today that for every 175 people enrolled in the new Medicaid, one life will be saved. That means that for the 150,000 new Iowans enrolled in the Medicaid Expansion, 857 lives would be saved. Often those who claim to be pro-life are the same who are anti-medicaid expansion. I am wondering how they square “pro-life” with “Go Die” if you can’t buy health insurance? For that matter, even if you can buy health insurance, that doesn’t mean your claims will be covered or you can afford the deductible.

If Republicans Cared About Morals ………
They would ban gambling in Iowa. Studies I have seen show that gambling hits the poor the hardest. But I forget, being poor is a moral disease. Until then, the rich are morally ok to prey on those poor. And we know it is alright because gambling began in Iowa under that morally straight governor – Terry Branstad. The same Branstad who is saving the poor from the shame of using Medicaid.

 Labor News
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin predicted this morning (March 7th) that federal officials would reject Gov. Terry Branstad’s alternative proposal to expanding Iowa’s Medicaid health-insurance program for the poor.

In a phone call with reporters, Harkin said he spoke to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius after Branstad outlined his proposal to her last month. Harkin said Sebelius agreed with him that Branstad’s idea was “not acceptable.” More here:

DES MOINES – AFSCME Iowa Council 61 President Danny Homan issued the following statement regarding Arbitrator Marvin Hill, Jr.’s arbitration award that was opened today (March 7th):

“During the arbitration hearing, our Union made clear that state employees have repeatedly made wage concessions and plan design changes to maintain their health insurance. We demonstrated that the state currently has historic surpluses and that state government’s health insurance costs for employees have been stable over the past several years. We also noted that the State’s Final Offer on health insurance was nothing more than cost shifting; it did absolutely nothing to lower the overall cost of the State’s health insurance plans. We pointed out that the State’s Final Offer would basically be a large pay cut for state employees. We also showed that the Aon Hewitt wage and benefits studies were flawed; these studies used one comparability group for the wage comparison and then used a different comparability group for the health insurance comparison.

“We are pleased that the arbitrator recognized that the Union’s Final Offer was the most reasonable proposal and that the appropriate decision was to support AFSCME Iowa Council 61’s Final Offer on health insurance.

“With this fair and final decision, AFSCME members are pleased that we will be able to look forward and focus on providing public services to Iowans.” More on the decision: