The State of the State Address that Should be Given… My fellow Iowans Iowa is the greatest state in the Union: a state of rolling fertile hills, of great rivers, industrious people, and my family’s home for over 150 years. In the past we have been the American Dream writ large, offering great opportunity for people to prosper and to be free. But we are letting the greatness of our state dwindle as we have too long ignored our motto: Our Liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain. Sadly, we have not safeguarded our liberties, and if we cannot maintain liberty in our small Iowa communities how do we expect to maintain our freedom nationally? Through every Administration, Republican or Democrat, Iowa government has expanded and expanded, and we citizens of the state have allowed this, by continuing to vote for expansionists. Instead of looking to ourselves as free people to solve our own problems, we have become habituated to government “solutions” which are everything but solutions. Government is nowhere as effective nor as efficient as individuals in managing our businesses and our private lives. And, of course, as government has expanded the private sector has shrunk. But it is private businesses which produce the real goods and services which make every one of us richer—food, clothing, shelter, medical care, transportation, widgets—all the things we once produced. If, for the moment, we discount corruption, Government only produces two things--taxation and regulation. And no society ever taxed and regulated itself into wealth. We are at a tipping point. We can continue to enslave our children and grandchildren to burgeoning debt and the day to day servitude to regulators. Or we can fight back by choosing not to follow the federal government into economic oblivion. We can choose not to take every federal program that comes along, because, if history teaches us anything, it is that federal programs come with red tape that eats up all attached funding-- and then some. Government is the great Ponzi scheme, and like all Ponzi schemes it is supported by big lies. And the biggest lie of all is that Government cares about its citizens and therefore of its own accord acts in the best interest of them. If that were true we wouldn’t need the Second Amendment. But it isn’t and we certainly do. Specifically, we must just stop Common Core. We should pluck it out by its root, and return education where it belongs—to the ultimate authority and responsibility—to the parents. And that means local control. When Iowa was ranked in the top three nationally year after year for K-12 education, we had no Federal or State Departments of Education. We had a school board who set standards and got funding. We had teachers who were free to teach to their best ability without consulting the state, the feds and their unions. We had a principle who ran the physical plant and when necessary supplied a little old fashioned discipline. I personally am offended that all these state and federal bureaucrats think that, if they don’t supply standards, we wouldn’t set standards for our own children. Are you kidding? Half of the education budget is collected locally, and as it happens, half of the funding goes to the actual teaching of students. The other half essentially just funds the state bureaucracy. So for practical purposes we have no financial direct benefit to students by taking all the federal monies. We just get all the volumes of regulations that keep us from being creative and innovative and thus effective in our local schools. Secondly, we must abandon the Obamacare state exchanges which will cost Iowans 20-60 million dollars in administrative costs before any actual medical care is given. State exchanges support the Insurance monopolies in the state, raising rates 200-400% and thus exacerbating rather than helping those who previously were uninsured.. Outside the exchange the only real choice for most Iowans is Wellmark (Blue Cross Blue Shield), and within the exchange we have Coventry or we have Medicaid by another name. Thanks to government intervention, the well meaning intention of some, and the greed of others, insurance costs more for less. Ask yourself this simple question: When in your experience has government ever come into a business and made it run more efficiently and with less cost. Answer: It never does. And it doesn’t in my business of medicine either. Next we must shrink government by cutting regulatory boards and the regulatory morass that is killing mainstreet small town Iowa. Remember the Declaration of Independence in which our founding fathers complained of King George III that “He has erected a Multitude of New offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” They could just as well be writing of the state government of Iowa. We have Iowans working two or more jobs so they can make ends meet, only to pay taxes to a government which then sends out regulators who make it harder for those taxpayers to get a job, grow a job, or get paid at a job. Business owners are afraid to expand because they don’t know what will be illegal next. Bosses cannot pay their employees more because they are paying corporate lawyers and accountants and compliance officers so the business does not run afoul of regulations. Think how much wealthier you could be and how much more productive you would be if you were not trying to run with a 200 pound government regulator on your back. And finally we must push back the federal government by every means we have—legislation, nullification, and civil disobedience when necessary. Let me be clear--I am not an anarchist. There is a legitimate role of government. Only one legitimate role. It is not to keep you from choosing your health care, nor deciding whether or not to allow you to drink raw milk, nor to order that your grass be no more than 12 inches tall. It is not the role of government to define what a pet is—allowing dogs but not chickens, horses but not pot-bellied pigs. It is not the role of government to monitor its citizens from morning to night, in their car and in their homes, nor to incarcerate people for truly victimless crimes. The one role of government, the only role of government is to support your individual liberty. And I suggest that, at long last, we actually get on with it.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 19:00:20 +0000
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