As an elected official, I took an oath to uphold the Constitutions of Iowa and the United States. As a county supervisor, I’m charged with protecting the health, safety, and welfare of our residents—and I take that charge seriously. Unfortunately, too many of our state and federal lawmakers seem to have forgotten that responsibility to the people they serve.
It’s already too hard to survive in Iowa. Last year, homelessness reached an all-time high. Food insecurity broke records. Rents keep rising, wages aren’t keeping up, and families are being crushed under the weight of increased costs.
Yet instead of offering relief, many of our “leaders” are making it worse.
Gov. Reynolds recently signed a bill restricting what families can buy with EBT. The same governor who said we had to “trust Iowans to do the right thing” during a major public health crisis doesn’t trust parents to make nutritional or medical decisions for their own children.
Senator Grassley continues to support cuts to SNAP, and last month, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks voted for a federal budget that would hand trillions in tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy while implementing the largest Medicaid cuts in history, threatening access for tens of thousands of her own constituents. These are real people. Children, single parents, veterans, our elderly, folks with disabilities. Many work full-time or more just to barely scrape by.
I’ve been one of them.
I know what it’s like to raise children on a single income. I’ve stood at the grocery store doing mental math to make sure I had enough left for gas. I’ve worked full-time for the state and still spent half my paycheck on rent. I’ve been a survivor trying to figure out how to keep my kids safe and fed when everything around me was broken. And I know exactly how much of a difference SNAP and Medicaid can make, because they helped save my life. They gave me the stability I needed to build a career and eventually be elected to office.
In the spring, I traveled to Washington, D.C., hoping to speak with Representative Miller-Meeks about the harm this budget would do to the people we both represent. After being assured her office was finding time, I was ignored. Two months later, she still refuses to meet—not just with me, but with many others who’ve reached out.
These decisions are attacks on our most fundamental rights: to live with dignity, to meet our basic needs, and to make our own decisions.
What we are seeing—in cuts to food and healthcare, in book bans, and in attacks on immigrants, queer folks, and bodily autonomy—is an abuse of power.
Iowans deserve better.
We deserve a government that centers people, not corporations. That feeds children instead of padding billionaire bank accounts. That protects our civil rights instead of ripping them out from under us. That actually represents us.
And we’re going to have to fight to get it.
Right now, we need to contact our members of Congress and tell them to vote no on any budget that cuts Medicaid or SNAP, or defunds Planned Parenthood. The bill that does all three only passed the House by one vote and since the Senate made changes, it will return to the House.
No matter what happens, we have to keep pushing. We must stay informed, hold our elected officials accountable, and take care of one another through mutual aid. Those who can should vote and run for office.
It’s time to build communities where we can all thrive. Join me in working for that, no matter how hard they make it.
Mandi Remington is a former UIHC employee of 18 years, the founding director of Corridor Community Action Network, and a current Johnson County Supervisor.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Hunger and hardship are not inevitable, they’re policy choices | Guest Column
Reporting by Mandi Remington / Iowa City Press-Citizen
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
