Posts Tagged chris rants

Where Good Ideas Go to Grow

Maybe Washington should be paying more attention to what’s happening in the states when it comes to finding solutions to solving the health care issue in this country.  Chris Rants is running for Governor of Iowa, and he’s come up with 4 ideas to improve health care.  You know he’s not the only candidate out there trying to create or identify solutions that Washington might be missing – but he’s the one in the news right now. The truth is, Washington can work better if it works harder at looking for solutions to the nation’s problems by looking where they grow more plentiful….out in the nation.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Rants is touting four ideas he says could raise the quality and lower the cost of health care in Iowa. “Some of these proposals are common sense, practical solutions (like) electronic health records,” Rants says. “Making a commitment that the state should enable that is something that I think both parties should be able to agree upon.”

In addition to calling for all medical records in Iowa to be digitized within four years, Rants proposes adjusting the system of reimbursing hospitals for the care provided to Medicare and Medicaid patients. Rants says high-quality care should be rewarded with the highest payments.

You can read the entire article at Radio Iowa dot com.  Check out Rants entire press release here.

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Got Iowa on the brain

Came across this headline earlier today: 53% of Iowans Want a New Governor and thought, well that’s a pretty not nice thing to say about a mid-western governor.  Then after reading the article you start to think, well, Governor Chet Culver hasn’t exactly been a pillar of leadership on the really rock-hard place issues so far for 2009.

A lot of his problems stem from fiscal matters, whether it’s hoping for the best on the $161 million budget deficit instead of making cuts and upsetting some core political allies, not standing up for taxpayers thrown out of a public hearing because they demanded their voices to be heard (literally hundreds of Iowans were escorted out of the House chamber by state police), and a little splash of social issues by folding on a key family values issue he had earlier pledged to stand strong on (he said he’d do whatever it took).

Some other little bits and pieces that make the case against Culver stronger.  Iowa families impacted by flooding continue to feel a real tax pinch because Democrats under Culver’s leadership blocked giving flood victims the ability to deduct their losses.  That cuts in a poll like this one.  Or jobs missed by Iowans that could’ve been had by offering tax incentives to green companies that can build components for wind farms.  Others states need the business more than Iowa one would surmise.  That also cuts pretty good.

So right there, 5 real issues that will continue to drive Chet Culver’s numbers down, and give Republicans like former House Speaker Christopher Rants, and Bob Vander Plaats the opportunities to offer Iowans real change in the office of Governor.

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