Guest opinion: House Republicans follow anti-middle class playbook

Written by STATE SEN. DICK DEARDEN

The new Republican leaders of the Iowa House seem bent on following the anti-middle class playbook being followed in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere.

First, Iowa Republicans say the state is broke, even though we have $600 million in reserve funds and expect to add another $300 million by year’s end.

Then, they launch an all-out attack on workers’ rights, public schools and public services. Iowa’s Republican legislators have already voted to put teachers and other public employees out of work, take away workers’ rights, increase school class sizes, make college unaffordable and increase property taxes.

At the same time – just like Republicans in other states and in Washington, D.C. – Iowa Republicans have voted for more than $1 billion in tax cuts, mostly for out-of-state corporations and the wealthy.

This session, I’ve stayed focused on job creation and expanding Iowa’s middle class. Here are three examples that were approved by the Republican-controlled House but won’t go anywhere in the Iowa Senate:

- House File 525 would have weakened the rights of Iowa’s teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public employees to bargain collectively, cutting public services and driving down the wages of all workers.

- House File 401 would have eliminated help for workers who are seriously injured if the employer’s insurance company decides injury occurred on “non-work” hours.

- House File 473 would have brought shoddy, unsafe companies to Iowa to do taxpayer-funded public works and road projects.

While the Democratic majority in the Iowa Senate can stop legislation that would hurt middle-class Iowans, the Republican majority in the Iowa House is blocking our efforts to help Iowa’s working families, including:

- Senate File 303, which would have provided extended unemployment benefits to more than 7,000 out-of-work Iowans. The Iowa House rejected $14.5 million in federal money even though there was no cost to Iowa taxpayers and employers.

- Senate File 311, which would have helped to stop employers who steal from workers by failing to pay them what they are owed.