I was looking for something else when I stumbled across this statement from Progress Iowa from about a week ago. It was such a nice synopsis that I thought I would give it some sunlight:
Ashley Hinson wants Iowans to believe she’s fighting against congressional insider trading and working to lower costs for families, but her voting record and financial disclosures tell a very different story.
A recent report by Heartland Signal revealed that Hinson has quietly maintained up to $5 million in insurance company stocks and has boosted her net worth by up to 10 times since taking office. Despite campaigning on a stock trade ban, she refused to sign a discharge petition that would have forced Congress to vote on legislation to do so.
While ensuring that her family’s net worth keeps climbing, Hinson has repeatedly voted to raise costs for Iowans. She voted for historic Medicaid cuts in the Republican Tax Law that are impacting primary care closures across Iowa and allowed Affordable Care Act premiums to skyrocket for thousands of Iowans. She has also voted in support of Trump’s chaotic tariffs that are hammering Iowa families’ budgets.
Karen, a retired social worker from Allamake County, said that news of Hinson’s real priorities is disappointing.
“It has become an affordability crisis, families are now forced to choose between filling up their gas tanks, getting groceries, or paying for medicine,” Karen said. “Our representative’s actions show that she is not working for us, she works for herself and Trump’s agenda.”
“Hinson thinks she can trick Iowans with talking points because she knows Iowans care about this issue,” Progress Iowa Executive Director Mazie Stilwell said . “She’s cosponsoring a watered down bill to save face. The bottom line: she could have helped force a vote to ban stock trading and she didn’t. That’s all Iowans need to know.”
What I was looking for were articles that would show whether Republican candidates would continue to toe the Trump line after a week in which Trump has shown he really give a hoot about our country. Being a candidate in the heartland and having to keep your mouth shut about items like:
- surrendering to a third rate power after HE started the war
- illegally transfering money from other accounts to build your ballroom that never had funds allocated for it
- staging one of most garish of parties on the White House lawn that will cost tax payers multiple millions at a time when tax payers are hurting
- ending that party by laughing at a racist joke about a previous First Lady
- then going to a meeting in Europe where HE makes a speech that sounds incoherent at best
- continuing to claim that elections in the US where Republicans lose are rigged
- stories abound of Trump buying and selling stock in open corruption
- Trump himself said the US came within a few weeks of a massive economic downturn as oil supplies got short.
After seeing that Iowa’s Republican candidates for the most part line up with Trump down the line I was looking to help the professional journalists in Iowa to formulate some decent questions for those candidates. Our experience with said journalists has been that they seldom ask a Republican anything more difficult than cookie recipe.
So let’s just see if we can’t come up with some questions:
- Does your investments in insurance company stocks color any votes you may take on health care for Iowans. Healthcare insurance is one of the biggest issues iowans face?
- Were Trump to be impeached and tried in the senate, could you be impartial? Why or why not?
- Is it alright with you that Trump is using his insider information to buy and sell stocks?
- At what point will you stand up to Trump clearly unconstitutional ICE policies?
Zach Lahn’s past as an employee of the Koch brothers is certainly troubling.
- So, Mr. Lahn, will policy be generated in Des Moines or sent to you via Americans for Progress or ALEC?
A friend just sent me this video. Zachary Oren Smith nails it!
It would be nice to see an Iowa journalist ask a tough question like this reporter did. Rod Blum walks out on a reporter in May of 2017:
Blog For Iowa 