By Matt Reisetter
You’ve probably heard my opponent – State Senator Jeff Danielson’s – ridiculous attacks on me on TV. I tend to laugh this stuff off, but I’m starting to get irritated, and I want to make sure you know the truth.
I addressed this the other day when I spoke at the Paul Ryan event at UNI (video below), but I want to give you a little more detail, so here goes:
False attack: “Matt doesn’t support public schools.”
Truth : As a child of a teacher and a longtime school board member – and as a parent – I want the best for Iowa’s public schools. I had a great experience going through the Cedar Falls schools, and I loved my four years at UNI. I want to see our public schools return to the #1 spot in the country, and I think we can do it by putting control back in the hands of local parents, teachers, and school boards and making sure as much funding as possible makes it to the classroom.
False attack: “Matt wants to get rid of Medicare.”
Truth: Ridiculous. This is the attack Democrats always fall back on when they’re losing.
False attack: “Matt wants to ban birth control.”
Truth: This is absurd, but it’s what Democrats nationwide are throwing at every Republican, from Mitt Romney at the top down to me at the bottom. It’s beyond false – it’s utter nonsense.
False attack: “Matt wants to force abused women to stay with their abusive husbands.”
Truth: Obviously I don’t want to stick women with abusers. I want to hold abusers accountable to the fullest extent of the law. I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but these attacks are so far over the top it’s hard to find words strong enough to describe them. But no, I don’t want to force women to stay with abusive husbands; this is, again, an utterly ridiculous attack.
Danielson claim: “Iowa has a balanced budget and a billion-dollar surplus.”
Truth: While it’s true that Iowa’s budget is in much better condition than it was two years ago, this improvement was accomplished by Governor Branstad and the new Republican majority in the House; the improvements were made over my opponent’s objections. If his party was still in power, they would still be spending every dime they could find, raiding protected one-time funds, and growing government unsustainably, and then making reckless across-the-board emergency cuts when fiscal reality forced them to. That’s what they were doing before 2010, and it’s exactly what they’ll do if we let them. Let’s not go back to that.
Danielson claim: “There’s money in our accounts, so we need to spend it.”
My view: This brings up an important difference between Jeff and me. When the state has money in its rainy day funds and other one-time funds, my opponent’s first questions are why we didn’t spend it and what we can spend it on. My first questions are why we took so much money from taxpayers and how we can use the surplus to reduce the tax burden.
I hope this helps clear the air a bit; in any case tomorrow’s the big day – so go vote!
Matt Reisetter is the Republican candidate for the Iowa State Senate in Iowa Senate District 30.