Failing the test
Learning the wrong lessons in Des Moines and other happenings in the QC and beyond
Back in high school, I hated math.
It showed, too. My grades weren’t that good, and there was no greater evidence of this than in 10th grade, when I had to take a geometry class.
On my first test, I got an F.
When the other kids in class found out, I got quite a bit of teasing. It was humiliating.
So, I buckled down, studied and I was ready when the next test came around. As the results were passed out, my classmates, perhaps ready to give me the business again, wanted to know what grade I got.
I remember to this day the teacher at the front of the class, with my approval, proudly announcing: “He got A.”
I was beaming.
I could have complained about the embarrassing F, but I didn’t do that. I learned a lesson: If you want a good grade, do your homework, study and keep plugging away.
This nearly 50-year-old story came to mind this week when Republicans in the Iowa Legislature announced they would not answer questions about bills on the floor. They’re doing this because of a Supreme Court opinion in March that pointed out GOP supporters of a protectionist electricity bill in 2020 had “falsely represented” the measure, misled lawmakers about its level of support and couldn’t even accurately cite its history.
Legislative Republicans are up in arms. The lesson they took from the opinion is to clam up. Don’t say anything about bills. Deprive the public of information and debate – and presumably the court with evidence of future ineptitude.
Republicans claim this is the court’s fault. “Most troubling is the apparent decision by the Court that they are the proper body to judge the competency of legislators …,” House Republicans whined in a newsletter.
That’s not what’s happening here.
The court’s opinion came as it rejected the electricity bill as unconstitutional logrolling, the practice of cobbling together unpopular and unrelated measures that have no chance of passing on their own in order to get them through. And the court cited the embarrassing legislative history not to emphasize sloppy, middle-of-the-night lawmaking, but to distinguish between an opinion it issued last year when the court rejected an accusation of logrolling in an abortion-related case and its examination of this case.
It’s not like citing legislative history is something courts have never done.
In the abortion ruling, the Supreme Court also cited legislative history in rejecting Planned Parenthood’s claim that lawmakers had engaged in logrolling. (As I recall, no Republican complained about the court’s actions then.)
I suspect what they’re really angry about is the Supreme Court ruled against the legislative power brokers. What they’re really embarrassed about is the court citing it as a classic case of “crony capitalism” that would have cost Iowans more money. That’s a tough thing to have to explain to voters.
It also was probably embarrassing that the court exposed to the public the fact that unsuspecting back benchers in the Legislature who voted for this scheme were asleep at the switch.
It seems to me these legislators shouldn’t be angry at the court and clam up. Instead, like any schoolkid in Iowa is told to do when they get an F, these lawmakers ought to go back to their desks, study hard, get the facts right and follow the rules. Then they might get a passing grade.
New and noteworthy
It’s spring, so it must mean flooding in Davenport.
As the Quad-City Times reported, parts of River Drive were closed Friday due to flooding along the Mississippi River:
Major flooding is on its way to the Quad-Cities. The National Weather Service is predicting the Mississippi River to crest at or about 22 feet by early May.
Hydrologist Matt Wilson said the river at Rock Island Lock & Dam 15 was expected to reach moderate flood stage of 16 feet over the weekend. By Monday night, the water is expected to reach 18 feet, which is major flood stage, and 19.6 feet by next Friday.
While the precise timing of the flood stage is a moving target, May 2 to May 4 is when Wilson predicts the snowmelt crest in Davenport will be within 1 foot, either way, of 22 feet. Additional rain would mean the river would crest on the higher end.
The record crest was in 2019, when the river hit 22.7 feet. That was the year when barriers failed in Davenport, sending water surging into the downtown.
As the Times explained, the range in the crest forecast this year is due to a lack of comparable years like this. That’s a bit frightening. Predictability is important to fighting floods.
The city of Davenport has been preparing this year to embark on some of the first stages of its long-term flood mitigation plan, which has been years in the making. We’d hoped flooding would hold off, but now it looks like we aren’t going to be so lucky.
Let’s hope those barriers hold this year. You can follow updates on the City of Davenport’s web site.
The Iowa House passed a bill Thursday that will hobble State Auditor Rob Sand, while consolidating ever more power in the hands of Gov. Kim Reynolds.
As the Des Moines Register reported:
Iowa's state auditor would be blocked from going to court against state government agencies and restricted from accessing certain types of personal information under a bill passed by the Iowa House Thursday. …
In a news conference following the House vote, Sand called the bill "the greatest pro-corruption bill in state history and the worst perversion of checks and balances in Iowa history."
I’ve written about this before. The bill curbs some of Sand’s ability to do audits; most importantly, when there are disputes over access to documents, the legislation wouldn’t let him go to court. Instead, it sets up an arbitration panel controlled by the governor.
Sand is a Democrat, and Republicans like Reynolds have wanted to stifle him for a long time. This will help do it.
Republicans largely voted for it. All the Democrats opposed it. State Rep. Luana Stoltenberg, R-Davenport, was the only Quad-City area Republican to have voted against it.
House Speaker Pat Grassley laughably claimed this isn’t about politics.
It’s about politics.
Last Tuesday was the federal tax filing deadline, and the IRS announced that it had finally cleared its backlog of millions of unprocessed returns and improved its customer service.
Much of the progress is due to the additional funding that President Biden and congressional Democrats provided.
According to Reuters:
New IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told reporters that the initial spending of $80 billion in new IRS funding helped purchase new scanning technology that has allowed paper returns to be digitized and quickly processed.
With the help of 5,000 new people, the agency was able to hire because of additional funds, the IRS is beginning to catch up. They’re answering the phones and even cut the long waiting times from 27 minutes to 4 minutes.
Unfortunately, congressional Republicans are trying to claw back most of this funding. The House GOP has said it will agree not to crash the economy and raise the debt limit if the Democrats give in to a series of demands. This includes revoking the IRS funding aimed at catching rich tax cheats. However, according to the Congressional Budget Office, this wouldn’t lower the debt but raise it. The non-partisan CBO issued an estimate on a similar GOP bill this year, predicting it would raise deficits by more than $100 billion over 10 years.
By the way, McCarthy claims the House GOP plan will cut federal deficits by $4.5 trillion over 10 years. As I demonstrated above that figure is suspect. But even if implemented, this still won’t make much of a dent in the debt. The CBO has previously predicted by 2033, the debt will be $52 trillion. So, even if you accept McCarthy’s estimate, that means his plan would still let the debt grow from $31 trillion today to $48 trillion in 2033.
That’s worth bringing the economy to the brink?
We need to control our rising debt, but this is the wrong way to do it.
A word before you go
Along the Mississippi is a reader-supported publication. It is reliant on the good will of its readers.
In the eight months since I started this publication, I have worked to offer news, commentary and ideas from the Quad-Cities.
I have been fortunate to attract an audience, and I am grateful to all of you. For those who have offered your financial support, you enable an even more robust menu of reporting and commentary, and I want you to know I appreciate it.
In recent years, Iowa and the Quad-Cities have witnessed a declining amount of news and commentary, especially in the area of politics. Since last year, members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative like me have worked to fill this void.
If you haven’t donated to Along the Mississippi or other members of the collaborative, I humbly ask for your support.
Together, we make Iowa a stronger state.
As always, thanks for reading.
Along the Mississippi is a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please check out the work of my colleagues and consider subscribing to their work.
Laura Belin, Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Art Cullen, Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Tar Macias, Hola Iowa, Iowa
Kurt Meyer, Showing Up
Pat Kinney, View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Kyle Munson: Kyle’s Main Street, Iowa
Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton, My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices
Cheryl Tevis, Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
Also, please check out our alliance partner, Iowa Capital Dispatch. It provides hard-hitting news along with selected commentary by members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
Valuable to learn that our court rejected an accusation of logrolling in an abortion-related case . Ed notes the inconsistency. Roe v. Wade was the most prominent case where a high court rejected precedent. In Iowa, our Court picks and chooses both when to honor precedent and when to inject itself into policy. I can understand inconsistency among politicians, as painful as it can be. Policy-making by the highest court in Iowa is controversial and I feel conflicted about that. However, hypocrisy by our Supreme Court in selectively choosing when to honor precedent is not to be tolerated. Even my fellow law school student-Gov. Branstad-would remember our classes which covered the importance of precedent in a democracy and civilized society.
Loved this piece! Thanks!