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We are all diminished by Iowa’s hunt for illegal voters

on Mon, 11/04/2024 - 19:46   by Ed Tibbetts

by Ed Tibbetts, Iowa Capital Dispatch
November 2, 2024

This week, Paul Pate tried to clean up his mess.

Iowa’s top election official insisted at a news conference on Wednesday it is the federal government’s fault that he ordered county auditors in this state — just two weeks before Election Day — to challenge the votes of up to 2,022 potential American citizens. He’s doing this because at one point in time, perhaps years ago, these people once told the Iowa Department of Transportation they were not citizens.

Pate freely admits he doesn’t know how many of the 2,022 people on his list have become citizens since their initial declarations. But they’re being asked to cast a provisional ballot, which will require them to provide additional proof of eligibility. And since the names on the list haven’t been publicly released, affected citizens won’t even know they’re being singled out until they go to vote.

Which means many will have to make a second trip to get their vote counted.

Iowa school book ban undermines the state’s mission of educating its students

on Tue, 08/20/2024 - 22:59   by Ed Tibbetts

by Ed Tibbetts, Iowa Capital Dispatch
August 18, 2024

When I was a kid growing up in eastern Iowa during the 1970s, the school library opened up the world to me.

I remember rushing through my homework during study hall, so I could get to the library.

Like most students in school, there were classes I loved (history and English) and those I hated (math and science). But despite my misgivings about the curriculum, never did I doubt my love for the school library. To me, it was a refuge for independent thought and exploration, where nobody could exercise control over where my mind wandered.

There, the world beckoned, and I eagerly dove in.

The idea never occurred to me that a librarian would curb my youthful curiosity by stripping these shelves of books. Never did I suspect they aimed to shield my eyes from discovery.

I would have laughed at the notion my education was better served by exposing me to fewer books.

Yet for the last year, Republican legislators and Gov. Kim Reynolds have tried to partially pull the curtains over these windows to the world.

Sen. Joni Ernst wants to hold the IRS accountable, but not in going after biggest tax cheats

on Mon, 08/05/2024 - 04:38   by Ed Tibbetts

Iowa Capital Dispatch
August 2, 2024

Joni Ernst calls herself the U.S. Senate’s “fiercest advocate” for government accountability.

Too bad she doesn’t appear to care about the country’s biggest tax cheats.

Over the past couple years, the Iowa senator has been fixated on the Internal Revenue Service. But rather than help the IRS try to recover the hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes each year, Ernst and her fellow Republicans are doing the opposite. They want to choke off the funding that is helping the IRS to rein in these abuses and give you better service.

Guns win. Americans lose.

on Fri, 06/21/2024 - 23:50   by Ed Tibbetts

by Ed Tibbetts, Iowa Capital Dispatch
June 21, 2024

They sounded like they cared.

In the aftermath of a mad gunman’s horrifying massacre of 60 people at a concert in Las Vegas seven years ago, members of Congress from Iowa sent this message: It made no sense that bump stocks — the device that allows semi-automatic weapons to act like machine guns — could be legal under federal law.

Sen. Chuck Grassley said, “modifications to legal firearms that effectively convert them into something that the law prohibits certainly deserve scrutiny.”

Sen. Joni Ernst was one of nine GOP senators who asked the Trump administration to review an Obama-era finding that bump stocks were legal.

“I do think there can be some action,” Ernst said. “We’ve just got to figure out what that action is.”

Turns out, they figured out exactly what to do: Nothing.

Lousy choices best describes 'school choice' bill

on Thu, 01/19/2023 - 00:33   by Ed Tibbetts

Along the Mississippi

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says her plan to use taxpayer money to pay for private schooling gives people a choice to educate their kids where they want.

But that’s not what her plan says. Just look at the details: Only certain families with kids in public schools will get that choice.

What this plan really does is pay people who already are sending their kids to private schools.

Governor Reynolds' work to end student debt forgiveness is an effort to keep taxes high

on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 18:56   by Ed Tibbetts

Iowa Capital Dispatch
October 14, 2022

In one of her TV ads, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds brags about cutting taxes.

What it doesn’t say is this: Kim Reynolds is fighting to keep taxes higher on Iowans who already face significant economic challenges.

You hadn’t heard this?

Here’s what’s happening:

Last month, Reynolds joined a lawsuit with some other conservative-run states challenging President Biden’s student debt relief plan.

In a news release, Reynolds complained the plan isn’t fair to people who paid off their college debt or never took out a loan in the first place. But what she didn’t say is if the plan goes through, Iowa and some other states won’t be able to rake in as much tax money from hundreds of thousands of borrowers across the country.

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