Culver predicts popularity will grow for Obama and his health care reform

DES MOINES – Gov. Chet Culver today said President Obama “accomplished a tremendous thing” in getting landmark health-care reform enacted and he expects the president's popularity will grow once Americans see the changes in action.

Culver, who is facing a tough re-election battle this fall, said he “absolutely” would welcome the president's help on the Iowa campaign trail later this year. The governor made his comments today before heading to Iowa City to attend the president's return visit to the venue where he unveiled his health-care ideas three years ago. 

“It will be exciting today to be with him as we discuss what this means for America and what this means for Iowa,” Culver said. “In a nutshell, I think it's a big, bold step forward.” 

Culver touted some of the benefits the federal health-care overhaul will have for uninsured children and seniors facing high prescription drug costs and health-care premiums. He also said nearly 50,000 small businesses in Iowa will be eligible for tax credits to make coverage for their employees more affordable. 

However, Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association, marked the occasion of Obama's Iowa trip to criticize Culver for celebrating the president's “federal health care takeover” as a “job-killing policy” at a time when the Iowa governor's I-JOBS bonding/jobs program “remains a boondoggle.” 

“Not content with leading Iowa down the path of mediocrity and unfulfilled expectations, Chet Culver is now enthusiastically embracing a known economic and fiscal disaster in the government-run health care boondoggle,” said Murtaugh. “I-JOBS is a profound disappointment, just as national health care will be, and just as soon-to-be-former Governor Culver has been.”

Culver and Democrats who control the Legislature are in discussions as the 2010 session closes out whether to proceed with the final $105 million installment of the I-JOBS program or increase it to $150 million under the current bonding authority to provide more money for disaster recovery projects. 

Culver said today that Iowans this spring will be the tangible fruits of the $830 million bonding program as more than 1,500 projects get implemented. “We are moving forward in this state, we're coming out of an economic downturn,” Culver told reporters, and noted the progress has been achieved without raising taxes. 

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