Fool me twice, shame on me

The speaker of the Iowa House recently wrote, 'Republicans support IPERS.” The saying goes: 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

I don't believe GOP statements about how they love IPERS. Gov. Kim Reynolds keeps saying we need take a look at IPERS. There is already a bill filed in the Senate to change IPERS.

At the beginning of the last session almost every Republican talked the party line of 'looking” at IPERS. Have you noticed none of their statements talk about possible plan design changes? Not one of them is saying they wouldn't change the plan for new hires. But, if you stop putting money into IPERS, what happens to the fund?

Remember these are the same folks who never said a word about changing the collective bargaining law before the election. After the election, they spoke about tweaks to collective bargaining. The bill that came out in the middle of the night was pretty much a gutting of Chapter 20, a 40-year-old law. My own Republican representative played this game.

If given the chance, there is no reason to believe Republicans won't play the same game again. So, Speaker Upmeyer and Republican lawmakers, I don't believe you. Period.

Bob Gilchrist

Springville

' Editor's Note:

Due to an abundance of election-related community letters and limited newspaper space, some are being published only online in an effort to include as many voices as possible.