Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds from Iowa has always been something of a monster. Her mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic is rivaled only by the rest of her political party. In 2021 Reynolds sent back federal tax dollars earmarked for Iowa schools to score political points from the America Rescue Plan. She then tried to take credit for a $100 million investment in the state’s Water Infrastructure Fund—using the America Rescue Plan. She’s that kind of person.
It is important to note that Reynolds’ whimsical use of federal money for political gain has real life consequences for the people living in Iowa. Specifically for families with young children. On Wednesday, Axios reports that Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services “declined to sign off on a federal grant application that could have brought Iowa $30 million in funding for child care services.”
One of the reasons Reynolds even had access to this potential $30 million in funding was because Iowa is “eligible,” for that money. According to Axios, Iowa was one of “only 25 stated seemed eligible.” According to Common Good Iowa, 1 in 7 Iowan families cannot “actually meet a basic-needs budget.” That’s paying rent, proving food and clothing and baseline health care for themselves and their children.
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Before we talk about pretend bootstraps let’s consider the pretend reasoning that conservatives have always given for not taking federal money—it’s a bad investment. A free market freedom-y freedom class will freedom up our free markets and everybody will be free. Here’s some of the governor’s “Child Care Task Force Report” from last year.
The task force started with a major assignment. Iowa’s child care crisis touches every corner of the state–livelihoods of families, economic growth of communities, expansion of businesses and stability of our government. The economic impact is significant; Iowa loses $935 million dollars annually as a result of lack of child care. A lack of child care availability affects employers, and also creates challenges for Iowa families when parents leave or miss work, or postpone their own education or training.
So, giving back $30 million that might help shore up the almost $1 billion in losses Iowa faces annually as a result of a lack of affordable child care options for its families. You don’t have to be Alan Turing to do the math on that.
This comes on the heels of Iowans losing out on tens of millions in housing assistance for the Hawkeye State. It is interesting what federal money Reynolds will sit on, of course. In March, Iowa’s own state auditor asked the governor to return a little less than half a million in COVID-19 relief funds. What was she using the money for? To pay her staff. “Staff” of course, is a big word for governors. Just ask corrupt former governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant.
While there is no evidence that Reynolds was misusing the funds being given to her from the federal government (i.e., Americans not living in Iowa), the fact that she picks and chooses to use the money for herself and her political gain while lambasting everybody else for taking handouts is a classic conservative hypocrisy that seems almost old-fashioned these days.
What have Reynolds and the Republican Party done for working families in Iowa? Instead of providing funding for more child care workers, Iowa’s Republicans have sculpted legislation to allow child care workers to manage larger numbers of children, while also allowing 16-year-olds the ability to care for children alone in Iowa day care centers. As Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu put it best, “I wouldn't want my child, or anyone's, to be treated as a crowd-management problem.”
So, penny-pinching for children, tax breaks for the rich, and holding federal money for possible political lubrication. That’s Reynolds platform.
Election Night 2022 was full of surprises—mostly for people pushing the last couple months of traditional media narrative of a "red tsunami." The problem is that Americans are not super into the GOP. Markos and Kerry have been saying the media narrative was wrong for months, and on Tuesday, Daily Kos and The Brief team was validated. Time to celebrate!