In his recent visit to our state, President Obama toured Alcoa, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of aluminum, located in Davenport, IA. As a part of his visit, President Obama praised the manufacturing sector of the economy and touted the strong growth of private sector jobs over the last 15-months of his administration. President Obama also mentioned in his speech that not only had Alcoa rehired laid-off workers, but that it was anticipating the need to add new employees to its workforce.

I am delighted that the President recognizes the positive impact private sector manufacturers are having on the economy, but what he failed to mention as a part of his visit was that he is advocating for repeal of the Last-In, First-Out accounting …

The Following piece is the 2nd installment of an ongoing series here at The Conservative Reader. “American Gladiators” is a recurring feature focusing on the defining political issue of our generation: the crucial battle over Federal spending and the debt and deficit it creates.

A favorite saying of both political parties these days is that “elections have consequences”—2010 proved that so do primaries. For Republicans no past event has had a bigger impact on the eventual major players and the shape of the fiscal debate’s battlefield than the primaries preceding the 2010 mid-term elections.

Though history now, you may recall at that time an internal debate was raging amongst Republicans. Many influential Conservative thinkers, including Charles Krauthammer, joined a large number of high ranking members …

Overall, this was probably the most entertaining political event that I have attended yet this year.   Hats off to Iowans For Tax Relief (ITR) for putting on a great program!

The afternoon consisted of a speech by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (who is currently considered a likely candidate for President in 2012, but is being shy about the idea), and 8 minute speeches by each of the candidates for Governor (except for the Democrat) intended to be focused on the Iowans for Tax Relief Candidate Questionnaire.  The actual answers provided by the candidates to the questionnaire will be at ITR’s web site on Monday.  Dave Stanley, Chairman and Founder of ITR and Ed Failor, Jr, President of ITR, spoke at the beginning of …

I’ll be tweeting from the Iowan’s For Tax Relief (ITR) “2010 Iowa Taxpayers’ Day” event at the Northwest Holiday Inn in Des Moines.  All of the candidates for Governor (except for Governor Culver) will be grilled here today, and we’ve already got a number of press and bloggers present.

Even Steve Deace is here, standing 3 feet away explaining that he tries to get to these kind of events ONCE in a while so people don’t think he’s just a disembodied voice like the namesake of “Charlie’s Angels”.

Just had a nice chat with Dawn Pettengill (Republican State Representative from District 39, Benton County), who in 2007 switched from Democrat to Republican.  I asked her how it’s been being a Republican, and she said that …

From Iowa Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley:

Of all the weeks on the calendar, this may be the week Iowa taxpayers look forward to the least.

On one hand, this week marks the deadline for filing federal tax returns. Many Iowans will likely write bigger checks to both the federal and state government this year.

On the other hand, this is also the week where every school district in the state must certify their budget for the upcoming school year. Normally, this might not seem like a particularly noteworthy annual occurrence to everyday Iowans. But due to the recent actions by Governor Culver and legislative Democrats, property tax increases are on the way.

Last fall, when Governor Culver made his 10 percent across-the-board reduction after

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In full harmony with the wreckless abandon that led to two northeast Iowa communities getting a combined total $100,000 in relief money for weather related damage that never happened to them, news that Cedar Rapids residents who need relief are going to take second place to other community projects.

There are some great Des Moines Register reader comments at the story site above.  Many questions, most pointed being “What is being done to ensure the next flood doesn’t cause this kind of damage?”, are being asked.  And while I can certainly agree that when rebuilding from the ground up one would want to start afresh instead of just rebuilding the same structure in the same location, one can also rebuild in phases, designing facilitities to …

More evidence that we need to put better controls on our government.  And before you discard this discussion as “more of the same government stupidity” that we’ve become accustomed to writing off as just “how the system works”, stop and read through this.  And really think about it.

I am loath to speculate on what specifically happened here, that is, how Rebuild Iowa managed to send $100,000 out to the towns of Dunkerton and Fairbank despite the lack of need or request for the money.  The story makes it sound like they just, well, used National Weather Service information. 

But I can’t wait to hear what the Governor’s office has to say about it.  If anything.

As you may know, Rebuild Iowa is a state …

Urgent alert from the Iowa GOP:

Energy Tax Disaster:  Congressmen Boswell, Braley, and Loebsack vote to raise energy costs on Iowans by about $400 a year for Iowa families and cost Iowa jobs.

ACTION ITEM:  Call Senator Harkin, IMMEDIATELY, and tell him to vote

NO on cap and trade (HR 2454)!

You can reach his Washington, DC office at:  202.224.3254

You can reach him via email at:  https://harkin.senate.gov/c/index.cfm

Last Friday was a dark day for our country.  Dark because the U.S. House of Representatives, with the support of Iowa’s three Democrat members, voted for energy legislation that will dramatically increase energy costs for Iowa consumers and turn the lights out on Iowa’s economy with staggering job losses.

Congressmen  Boswell, Braley,  and Loebsack all sided with

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The following are Iowa Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley’s (R-Chariton) final remarks delivered Sunday morning:

Thank you, Mr. President. Friends and Colleagues:

I know we are about to drop the gavel for the final time on this year’s legislative session and I know we are all a little tired but before we go home to the people in our districts, I think it might be necessary to look back at the last 104 days and provide the people of Iowa with some needed perspective. After all, it is the people of Iowa who are our employers and it is the people of Iowa who make our communities unique and our state something we can all be proud of.

These three million people elected us to

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House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen provided these remarks at 4:15 Sunday morning:

Thank you Mr. Speaker.  Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentleman of the House,

First I would like to thank my caucus.  It is indeed a great honor to stand for you and represent you.  We are 43 strong and we made a difference – be proud of your efforts and successes. Next year we will stand with 44 members as we welcome our friend Rep. Royd Chambers back from serving our country in the Middle East.  We look forward to serving with him in this chamber again. Thank you to my leadership team: Rod, Jodi, Jeff, and Steve for your input and efforts.  And a special thank you to the Republican Whip, Linda Upmeyer

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