The country’s fiscal and demographic challenges are so large that elected officials in both parties have a responsibility to work together to find bipartisan solutions, according to two Iowa state legislators.
“At times it can seem like there is nothing Democrats and Republicans can agree on,” Rep. Ken Rizer (R-Cedar Rapids) and Dan Kelley (D-Newton) write in a guest column in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids).
The country’s fiscal and demographic challenges are so large that elected officials in both parties have a responsibility to work together to find bipartisan solutions, according to two Iowa state legislators.
“At times it can seem like there is nothing Democrats and Republicans can agree on,” Rep. Ken Rizer (R-Cedar Rapids) and Dan Kelley (D-Newton) write in a guest column in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids).
But they argue that bipartisan action is no pipe dream: “We both know firsthand that solving our policy problems is best done when we work together as Iowans, rather than as Democrats and Republicans.”
Kelley and Rizer say that’s why they have joined First Budget, a nonpartisan joint initiative of The Concord Coalition and the Campaign to Fix the Debt.
“The federal debt is a large and complex problem, and only plans that both increase revenue and reform spending will be viable,” they write. “So we will urge candidates to focus on national priorities rather than narrow, partisan talking points.”
They encourage other Iowans to also urge candidates to explain how they would put the federal government on a better course.
