Seeing is believing

Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Gazette “On Topic” column from Aug. 14, 2016

Gov. Terry Branstad calls them haters — those who see a very different picture in the current state affairs of Iowa’s Medicaid managed-care situation.
“Democrats don’t like it, and the Des Moines Register hates it. We’re not going to be deterred by that,” he told the Westside Conservative Club in Des Moines late last month.
“These great so-called progressives are the ones that are the most against progress. They’re stuck in the past.”

Too quick for our own good?

Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Gazette “On Topic” column from March 13, 2016

Gov. Terry Branstad always and forever, it seems, has branded himself as pro-business.
Back in 2010 when he campaigned to retake Terrace Hill from then-Gov. Chet Culver, Branstad won the endorsement of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry’s political action committee. The organization at the time represented 1,400 businesses in the state.
When he got that nod from the PAC, Branstad vowed to be a “pro-business, pro-growth governor who will reduce taxes and not increase debt.” He resolved, in a Gazette story reported by James Q. Lynch at the time, to “make government more efficient and work day in and day out to encourage job creation.”
So you have to wonder what thought Gov. Branstad gave, with that pro-business mindset, to the many health care providers, large and small, when he set in motion his lickety-split rush to managed care.