The legislature has adjourned. Thus Progress Iowa ha ended their daily newsletter. Earlier this week they sent out a great summation of the bad deeds of our Republican legislature. All for the rich and none for the poor I would put it:

2022 Legislature Adjourns: A string of attacks on working families

Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa lawmakers have officially concluded the 2022 legislative session. Republicans spent the session pushing Corporate Kim Reynolds’ harmful agenda and passing bills that attack working families and marginalized communities.

“Once again, Corporate Kim and the Republican-led legislature have failed Iowans,” said Matt Sinovic, Executive Director of Progress Iowa. “While we’re happy to see the Governor’s terrible proposal for private school vouchers fail, this session has been a disaster. Republican legislators spent most of their time this year attacking working families, bullying kids and targeting our public schools and educators. The laws they passed will make the Reynolds Workforce Crisis worse, all in an effort to give massive tax breaks to the rich and wealthy corporations. We need leaders who reward work, not wealth. Iowans deserve a Governor and legislature that prioritize Iowa families and make our state a place people want to live, work and raise a family.”

Harmful bills passed in 2022

• An unfair 4% flat tax that will provide massive tax breaks for corporations and the ultra wealthy, while actually raising taxes on the lowest income earners in Iowa
• Massive corporate tax cuts
• Banning transgender girls playing female sports
• Slashing hard-earned unemployment benefits from 26 to 16 weeks
• An inadequate, under inflation 2.5% funding increase for Iowa’s public schools
• Making child care centers less safe by allowing 16-year-olds to watch children without supervision
• Making child care centers less safe by allowing adults to watch more children at one time
• Allowing law enforcement to search and seize garbage placed outside the home, going against an Iowa Supreme Court ruling
• Changes to Iowa’s judicial selection process, allowing Governor Reynolds to stack the Court as she sees fit
• Making the penalties for manufacturing, possessing, or delivering heroin the same as methamphetamine, perpetuating a racist war on drugs
• Making public schools less safe by preventing K-12 public or charter schools from performing health screenings on students without written permission from a parent or guardian.
• Changes to the state’s bottle bill that favor corporate greed, not the need to recycle 

Let me add that Corporate Kim Reynolds was unsuccessful in her attempt to undermine Iowa’s once vaunted public school system. She won’t give up until we are competing with Mississippi for the bottom.

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In light of Republicans dominance in Iowa, I thought this quote from Republican Legislator Brad Zaun really sums up how arrogant Republicans are and how they demean democracy and Democrats. From Wednesday’s Capital Dispatch:

“I just I’m very frustrated about this. And I will tell you this. I look forward to when the minority party does not have power in this decision. And I look forward to our side being in the supermajority because what’s being done with these great Iowans is disgusting.” — Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, on the defeat of four governor’s appointees to the state judicial nominating commission who failed to win a two-thirds majority of votes.

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And finally once again from Progress Iowa on Corporate Kim’s disdain for Iowa’s children:

Kathryn Kuckelman (Press Secretary)

kathryn@progressiowa.org

(515) 490 – 8526

STATEMENT: Why doesn’t Kim Reynolds care about our kids?

Des Moines, Iowa — Progress Iowa Executive Director Matt Sinovic issued the following statement in response to the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school where 18 children and three adults were killed:

“Our hearts ache for the victims and the families impacted by the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School in Ulvalde, TX. But this feeling is all too familiar. 

“These senseless acts of violence keep happening. Enough is enough. When will Republican politicians like Kim Reynolds give up the empty ‘thoughts and prayers’ and actually take action to address the plague of gun violence in our country?

“When we drop our son off at daycare, we’re not allowed to know if there’s a loaded gun on site because of a rule the Reynolds administration created. When we pick our older son up from 4-year-old preschool, he tells us about the lockdowns they practice.”

“Our kids live in a world created by Kim Reynolds. Where their lives don’t matter as much as her corporate donations and support from the gun lobby.”

“Until the Governor does anything – literally anything – to prevent gun violence in our state, we will have to keep asking: why doesn’t she care about our kids?”