Brian Gongol
Here's an interesting fact: When people leave Iowa, more often than not, it's because of work. But when they move here, jobs are a much less significant factor. Maybe that's a reminder that when politicians obsess over "bringing jobs to Iowa", they might need to shift their focus to simply doing what's best for who's already here in the state.
On a note related both to the economy and the failure this past week of Project Destiny, a reminder that Iowa is going to drop to four members of Congress after the next round of redistricting. Significant? Quite, when you realize that California already has 53 Representatives in the US House. If we as Iowans don't want our future being decided by voters outside the state, it's probably in our best interests to do what we can to make sure we're making policy decisions close to home. That, after all, was the point of Federalism in the first place.
The field of Presidential candidates just shrank a bit, with Jim Gilmore dropping out. We still don't seem to be hearing much from the candidates on some of the big issues that we know they'll have to face soon -- like Medicare, for instance. Here's a good example: We're hearing from some that they want a national health-care program, but how would they even get Americans to do the basics, like show up for annual physical exams?
The future of energy doesn't look especially bright. One of the biggest problems is that we're not very good at storing energy -- like the volumes of solar energy we get in the summer that just bounce off rooftops and concrete, or the excess capacity that power plants could be building up in the nighttime hours, when air conditioning demand is low. What we need in energy policy is more ideas, not necessarily higher taxes.
20 years ago: Ronald Reagan was demanding that Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall.
Keywords in this show:
batteries •
Berlin Wall •
California •
Cold War •
Congress •
Congressional redistricting •
employees •
energy •
energy storage •
Federalism •
Gilmore, Jim •
health care •
House of Representatives •
Iowa •
jobs •
Medicare •
Presidential candidates •
Project Destiny •
Reagan, Ronald •
solar energy •
taxes