Lawmakers dream up imaginary issues

Editor:

The Washington County Board of Supervisors must really be hard up to find problems to solve, so they have decided to create some imaginary ones. Last week it was announced that board members Richard Young and Jack Seward would seek to make Washington County a “2nd Amendment Sanctuary county.”

Really? Is someone coming for their guns? Is the “guvment” confiscating guns? Every time Republicans need to rally their voters they dream up problems that don’t exist. Legal experts have already said these types of declarations are legally indefensible.

Here are few more examples. Republicans in the Iowa Legislature have banned the teaching of “critical race theory.” This is a solution that has no problem because schools in Iowa don’t teach CRT. But thank goodness the Legislature is on it. They even distorted the definition of critical race theory into something it isn’t and then passed laws against a non-existent theory. It is a classic case of a straw man argument.

Our legislature also passed with the governor’s signature, restrictions on voting to solve a non-existent voter fraud problem. There has never once been a real problem with voter fraud in this state or any other state, but the Legislature is sure trying to fix it. What they are trying to “fix” are future elections so that certain groups of people will find it harder to vote.

Additionally, to reduce abortions in the state, three years ago the GOP-led Legislature banned Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood (none of that money was ever used for abortions). This effort has now resulted in an increase in the abortion rate in the state of Iowa after years of decline.

It appears that when you reduce access to birth control, family planning services, and sex education unintended pregnancies increase. Well done, GOP. Trying to fix imaginary problems has real-time consequences on the lives of Iowans.

Someone needs to tell our state legislators and county Board of Supervisors that there are indeed serious problems that they need to deal with. They don’t need to make up imaginary problems so that they can “fix” them. We have real problems such as climate change, income inequality, racial division, white nationalist extremists threatening violence and attacking the Capitol.

We need to fix our infrastructure and protect the voting rights of every American and make it easier to vote, not harder.

So, instead of wasting taxpayer time and money on useless declarations to attack non-existent problems, how about rolling up your sleeves and improving the water quality in our county? How about making Washington County a more prosperous county by seeking investments and companies to come here? How about creating some jobs so our young people will want to stay here? How about tackling the real problem of COVID-19 variant that is killing people? How about a program to encourage people to get the COVID vaccine?

Is this why we have elected these fellows? To make up imaginary problems to solve on the taxpayer dime?

Dan Henderson

Washington