From Trade Wars to Health Care Cuts, Iowa is Headed in the Wrong Direction Under Republican Leadership 

CLIVE – Under Donald Trump’s Administration, Iowa is getting hit the hardest by Trump’s agenda. Iowa families are footing the bill for Trump’s billion-dollar bailout of Argentina and cost-raising tariffs that are causing Iowa farmers “extreme financial distress.”

As Iowa Republicans cheer on Trump’s tariffs, hardworking Iowa families are seeing their costs skyrocket. According to a new report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee – Minority, the average Iowan is paying $1,303 more per year for necessary expenses like housing, transportation, utilities and health care.

Speaking of health care — the Republicans’ big, bad budget bill made cuts to Medicaid and the ACA, threatening health care for 106,700 Iowans while spiking premium costs for 117,890 people in the state. These cuts disproportionately affect small business owners and other self-employed individuals that rely on the ACA, which includes an estimated 27 percent of American farmers.

The cuts have also put extra pressure on rural health care providers, who heavily rely on Medicaid funding. MercyOne recently announced it will be closing a health clinic in Ottumwa, and reducing operations at a clinic in Pella. Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center in Fort Madison also announced it will be ending its inpatient labor and delivery services earlier this year. 

Under Republican leadership, Iowa is ranked last in the nation in economic growth. Republican legislators have admitted that Iowa is in a “recessionary economy.” Leaders at the Federal Reserve have noted that Iowa’s economy is particularly vulnerable because of Republican tariffs and ongoing trade disputes, which have resulted in mass layoffs at Iowa factories and struggling farmers. 

“Today as Donald Trump visits our state, we want to remind everyone that under Trump and a decade of Republican, one-party rule in Iowa, everything is getting more expensive and Iowans and our nation are worse off,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart. “Iowa is ranked LAST in the nation for economic growth. That’s not something that should be celebrated with a small rally — it should be cause for concern.”

Iowa Republicans are in full support of Trump’s disastrous cost-raising agenda:

• Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn have all voted to increase health care prices by making cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, and voted in support of Trump’s tariffs, which are driving up costs for Iowans. 

• All of the Republicans running for governor have embraced Trump’s tariffs and cuts to health care. Randy Feenstra is a vocal supporter of Trump’s tariffs who has bragged about his role as a “key author” of his party’s deeply unpopular budget law, which threatens health care for 106,700 Iowans while spiking premium costs for 117,890 people. Zach Lahn also backed the tariffs that are raising prices on working families and has a disastrous record of opposing Medicaid expansion. Adam Steen praised D.C. Republicans’ harmful economic agenda and said “I would partner to the greatest degree with President Trump.”

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