The first step in choosing a better Iowa is choosing a better governor
May 21, 2010
I’ve traveled all across the state this week talking with people about the need for real leadership in Iowa. Over the last three-and-a-half years, we’ve seen Governor Chet Culver run away with spending your hard-earned money. We’ve seen him spend so much money that he had to take it away from local schools, forcing property tax increases.
We’ve seen him rack up a bill so large that a child born today will still be paying on Culver’s debts when he or she graduates from college.
Governor Culver also traveled the state this week to launch his re-election campaign. He’s asking Iowans to “choose a better Iowa.” I’m telling Iowans that choosing a better Iowa starts with choosing a better governor. We wouldn’t need a better Iowa if Culver wasn’t failing as a leader.
Today, for instance, Culver campaigned in Wapello County. Unemployment has gone up there by more than two percent over the last year. I wonder how he can look those people in the eye and tell them that his signature I-JOBS program has been a success? I-JOBS has a $1.6 billion price tag and it hasn’t created any long-term jobs. Just today, new unemployment numbers came out showing unemployment has increased in Iowa yet another month. Iowa’s unemployment rate is now 6.9%. How much more evidence does Culver need that his big-government, big-spending style of leadership is an absolute failure?
On the campaign trail this week Iowans are hearing Culver pitch I-JOBS as a flood recovery program in an effort to distract from his failure. The bottom line is that he sold I-JOBS as a job creation program, and it has fallen flat. And let me be clear – Culver is flat out wrong when he says Republicans voted against flood recovery. Republicans voted against the unnecessary debt, like funding swimming pools, which Culver tied to the flood recovery money.
We need a governor who makes job creation a real priority. Job creation doesn’t come from government spending. Job creation comes when we create an environment where a small business owner can add workers without fearing job-killing legislation from Des Moines.
