The liberal propaganda machine is in full swing this election season. The Daily continues to perpetuate lies about Jim Ross Lightfoot.

As the field representative for the area, it is incumbent upon me to set the record straight and establish why Iowa needs Governor Lightfoot.

It is said that Lightfoot voted to eliminate the Department of Education in 1995. True.

For those who are unfamiliar with the DOE, this little beauty spends 6 percent of the education budget for primary and secondary education but hands down 55 percent of the mandates. SAT scores were higher before the DOE was created as a payoff by the Carter administration to the teacher’s unions in 1979.

The big teacher’s unions, who support Tom Vilsack, continue to resist any changes to the current system, even those changes which would give parents more control over their child’s education.

Vilsack voted against the Republican education reform plan this year. This plan would have created a $5.2 million Early Childhood program to help kids get off to a good start. It would have sent $9 million to local school districts to improve K-3 education. Had they wanted to, those districts could have had the money to lower class size, a measure that Vilsack favors.

The Republican plan would also have established merit pay for teachers and raised teacher’s starting salary. Tom Vilsack sided with the “educrats” instead of the children of Iowa and that is sad.

It is also said that Lightfoot voted to cut student loans in 1995. This one is false. According to the Congressional Budget Office, in the 1995 Republican education reform bill, which was vetoed by Bill Clinton, student loan volume increased from $24.487 billion in 1995 to $33.023 billion by the year 2000.

The last time I checked, 33 was bigger than 24, but as a product of the public school system, I could be wrong. The average student loan amount would have increased from $3,646 in 1995 to $4,300 in the year 2000.

This is not “slashing education” as Sara Leonard observes. Vilsack, Leonard and the “Harkinistas” must be using “liberal math” when they call that a cut. They should find a better issue to attack Lightfoot on because on the education issue, Lightfoot wins hands down.

Sarah Leonard notes that Vilsack “floor-managed the largest property tax relief bill in the history of Iowa.” This is not true.

Vilsack voted against major property tax relief not once but twice in 1995(S-3020, S.J. 192, 1-26-95 and S-3021, S.J. 193, 1-26-95).

He also voted against providing property tax exemption for machinery and equipment used by businesses (SF 426, S.J. 1543, 5-2-93).

Vilsack even went so far as to vote to increase taxes on the transfer of property (SF 360, S.J. 1004, 4-3-95).

Vilsack’s property tax “relief” was actually a huge spending increase at the state level. Ask the people of Buena Vista, Greene, Bremer, Wayne, O’Brien and Butler (among other) counties how much “relief” the Vilsack plan gave them.

Leonard is correct in saying that Lightfoot voted against the ADA. The Supreme Court recently ruled that having a venereal disease (AIDS) is a “disability” under the terms of the ADA.

So are alcoholism and drug use. There are still disabled people attempting to get changes made that the ADA was supposed to do outright eight years ago.

The ADA was another unfunded government mandate that has cost businesses billions of dollars, dollars they could have used to create jobs.

The same is true for the Family and Medical Leave Act. Republicans, in principle, support the FMLA but the Democrat-controlled Congress attached a mandate (again unfunded) to the bill.

The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act are both unfunded mandates. There are ways to clean up the air and water that do not require a federal mandate or impose a billion dollar burden on American businesses.

A fascist is one who seeks to control the economy by over-regulating business to the point that doing business is no longer profitable. Vilsack and Sarah Leonard, in their support of mandates such as the ones mentioned above, fall into the category of “fascist.”

Another thing Ms. Leonard, Michael Fitzgerald is not a conservative. He is a Democrat who has aligned himself with Vilsack to ward off a tough Republican challenger.

The Lightfoot tax plan is attainable. Governor Brandstad says so, the Iowa Taxpayers Union says so, Arthur Laffer says so and the list goes on and on. Next time you spout off about Lightfoot, you had better have your facts straight.

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Steve Erickson

Senior

History

Field representative

Lightfoot for Governor