The people of Iowa just couldn’t seem to catch a break this month due to the disastrous policies of Governor Kim Reynolds and her Republican Legislature, and instead of taking proactive moves to fix some of these problems, the governor either dug in her heels or ignored them completely.
“The Iowa Democratic Party is not about to let Governor Reynolds off the hook for a month that exposed the ever-worsening cracks in our state’s well-being,” said Iowa Democratic Party Spokesperson Tess Seger. “Iowans deserve leadership on all of these issues, but Governor Reynolds has let us down at every turn.”
ReynoldsCare Catastrophe
This week, Governor Reynolds reaffirmed her commitment to the privately managed Medicare system, but after this last month, it’s baffling as to why.
- Iowans are suffering and calling on Governor Reynolds to make a substantive change, but the Governor has refused.
- It’s not saving the state enough money to justify the consequences – not that Iowans losing their lives is worth any cost savings.
- The whole point of moving over to this system was to give Medicaid enrollees more choices, and now they’re down to just one option.
The secrecy surrounding the negotiations was not only unacceptable, but directly hurt Iowa families when they chose to keep AmeriHealth’s exit from Iowa quiet for over a month, reducing the time available for families to transition to a new program.
Clearly, Governor Reynolds and her administration did not adequately prepare for AmeriHealth’s exit.
Just days after the transition was announced, Amerigroup announced that they could not accept any more patients and lost their contract with UnityPoint Health, reducing options for those already on their plan.
Furthermore, while patients were initially promised that they would have a second option by July 2018, Reynolds administration officials have already extended that timeline by a year.
Partisanship Over Citizenship
Despite overwhelming evidence that the GOP Tax Plan in D.C. would hurt working Iowans, Governor Reynolds sided with her party and spoke out in favor of Republican tax reform.
The bill that Governor Reynolds endorsed would:
- increase the deficit by over a trillion dollars
- raise taxes on working and middle-income families
- make healthcare prices skyrocket
- cause mandatory cuts to critical services all while corporations and the wealthiest Americans get a tax break
Mishandling Sexual Harassment
After a jury awarded former GOP staffer Kirsten Andersen $1.75 million dollars in the middle of a budget crisis, Senator Bill Dix engaged in a series of misstepsthat spent more taxpayer dollars and did nothing to make the State Capitol a safer working environment.
Despite being the top elected official and highest ranking Republican in the State, Governor Reynolds has done nothing to help solve this problem and still has not withdrawn her full support for Senator Dix.
Earlier in the month, Ms. Anderson expressed her disappointment that the Governor had not done more or even acknowledged the wrongdoing in her own party.
Iowa Economy Slides Backwards
This month is was revealed that the state of Iowa was last in the nation for GDP growth in the second quarter.
This is particularly bad news in light of the Reynolds Budget Crisis, which was caused by special interest handouts that clearly failed to boost Iowa’s economy and resulted in cuts to vital services that attract and keep businesses in the state.
Governor Reynolds has yet to speak out on this issue or offer a solution.