Long Live King George…

Long Live King George….

While sitting at my desk in the Iowa Senate, I find myself wishing, for lack of something better to do, for some wet paint to be on one of the walls here in the chamber so that I could watch it dry.

Like I’ve said before, and I’ll say again (and again), they removed the 40-year-old procedural rules that would’ve allowed me to force votes on good legislation!

So not much happens here in the Senate. The liberal majority party has ignored their constituents’ wishes all session long and successfully gutted every bill that conservatives, like me in the Senate, have brought forward.

They have a nasty habit of mutilating bills that passed through the House of Representatives as well.

It boils down to a good ole’ fashion arrogant rejection of the voter’s demands in November!

It’s such a waste that I thought I’d run some rough numbers for you. Senators and their clerks ALONE have a daily total cost of roughly $21,000.  That’s for 50 senators and their clerks.

It gets worse. The Senate majority party’s refusal to yield to the demands of the people they’re supposed to serve in effect wastes the time of the House of Representatives as well.

So take that Senate number, multiply it by 2 for the 100 members of the House Representatives, add it to the Senate total, and it seems that Iowa taxpayers are footing a bill of roughly $63,000 a day for legislators and their clerks ALONE.

This doesn’t include:

–        The Legislative Services Agency employees that service the legislators and help draft legislation, bills and amendments.

–        The caucus staff for both parties in both chambers.

–        The time the pages in both chambers put in.

–        The Secretary of the Senate and the administrative staff, AND their House counterpart.

–        The cafeteria staff.

–        The laptops that all 150 legislators have.

–        The paper and printers that we use each day.

–        The building maintenance staff…

…and the list goes on!

You know, I don’t have the exact numbers, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we spend over $200,000 a day at the Capitol.  Multiply that by a 110 day legislative session and Iowans are on the losing end of a whopping total of $22 million bucks.

And for what?  Do we elect our representatives so that an elite few can ignore, reject and refuse the will of the people?

Americans have been here before.  I think a major part of our American heritage is defined by our willingness to throw out the whole “divine right of kings” mentality. We fought a successful war against the world’s greatest military so that we could implement a constitutional republic, where those in office derived their governance from the consent of the governed.

But it looks to me like King George III is alive and well in ultra-left-wing liberals like Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal.  We exist to serve the elite like Gronstal, and the big-spending, big taxing policies that they like to promulgate have failed in history and will always fail in the future.

Our hemorrhaging middle class is clear and present evidence of this fact.

Our unemployed are the reality of this fact.

Our faltering economy and stagnant small business climate are evidence that this is only going to get worse.

Remember in the next elections that the Senate majority only continue their assault on the middle class that they began years ago.  Like our Founding Fathers realized, we need to remove those that threaten our livelihood from office.

And we’re lucky enough not to have to take up arms to do so, like our Founding Fathers. We only need to take up a pencil at the next elections.

I welcome hearing your concerns and issues, and as always you can email me at [email protected]. 

Sincerely, 

Kent Sorenson
Serving Warren, Madison and SE Dallas Counties