Senator Sorenson Responds to Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality”

Dante

Some of you may have recently received an email alert from a lobbyist at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition about my reluctance to sign a discharge petition that would allow a so-called late-term abortion ban to be debated on the senate floor.

I feel the need to explain to you where I stand since this email alert from the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition failed to accurately report where I stand and why, which is unfortunately the sort of tactic I would expect from our liberal adversaries and not someone that’s supposedly on the same team.

If you’re as passionate about the pro-life cause as I am, then there’s something important you need to know that sadly you wouldn’t be aware of if all of your information came from the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition.

What you need to know is that we are close to getting the first historic vote ever on life at conception (or personhood) in the Iowa House. Some pro life warriors in the Iowa House have been working tirelessly to make this happen with a life at conception bill I first introduced when I was in the Iowa House, and its wording is taken literally from the words of the Republican Party of Iowa platform. This vote sanctifying all life from our Creator could literally happen any day.

Sadly, you wouldn’t know that if you all you did was read email alerts from the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. For reasons known only to the leadership of that organization, which includes a Republican National Committeeman, the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition has done literally nothing to help the fight for life at conception during this legislative session. In addition, the same lobbyist from that organization that sent out the incomplete email alert about my position has done nothing to help persuade my colleagues to vote for life at conception.

Let me say that again just to make sure those of you who believe in the pro life cause as much as I do hear me loud and clear—the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition has done nothing to help pass a life at conception bill.

Nothing.

Why? You’d have to ask them. I’ve tried, and don’t get an answer. Instead, they have spent all their energy attempting to stop a gruesome late-term abortionist from entering our state, an intention I support, but the bill they’re pursuing may not do that at all. All it will do is compel him to kill the baby a few days or weeks earlier than he had previously planned. Not to mention those who generate an income off of the killing of innocent life probably can’t be counted on to keep accurate records of their dirty dealings in the first place. Planned Parenthood has already announced its bringing more abortion mills to Iowa as well.

Still, I can see why some of my fellow pro-lifers are eager to try and do something to stop this late-term abortionist, as am I. This is why I am also spending my energy on passing legislation that wouldn’t just make life tougher for abortionists, but instead put them out of business altogether. I am also working on drafting an amendment that could correct some of the troubling language in HF 657 (formerly HF 5).

However, instead of helping us pass a life at conception bill, the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition instead attacked my fellow pro life warriors in the Iowa House who were fighting for it, and inexcusably urged other pro-lifers to contact them and lobby those legislators to violate their moral conscience.

It appears that the leaders at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition are like too many of my Republican colleagues who didn’t get the message of the last election, which is that voters want principles and have rejected the failed policies of the left. Instead of playing the old political game the way the left would like us to, as the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition is still doing, I believe we should challenge the left head on and defeat them once and for all.

This is why last year I didn’t vote for the compromised pro-Second Amendment legislation until we forced liberals to go on the record on Constitutional Carry first, and it’s why this year I will not support a compromised “pro life” bill until we have actually fought for the core principle of the pro-life movement first–that all life is sacred from conception until natural death. The pro-life movement has neglected the inalienable right to life, and I promise you I will do everything in my power to get my colleagues on the record about who really believes in the right to life and who does not, that way you the voter can be fully informed about where your elected officials stand.

I agree that we can’t win back the victories the left has had for decades in one legislative session or one election, and that we’ll have to incrementally win several battles along the way. But when we don’t advance our principles first and surrender them before the fight has even begun, we’re not moving incrementally in the right direction, but instead increasingly moving in the wrong direction the left prefers.

This is why I agree with State Reps. Glen Massie, Kim Pearson, and Tom Shaw’s valiant fight to have their chamber vote on life at conception, which is a fight I have been proud to help them with. I will also continue to fight to make that vote happen in the senate as well, even if that means adding a life at conception amendment to HF 657. However, my conscience also tells me that if we can’t advance the most principled position we should still do as much good as we can and trust God from there, so I will vote to stop another late-term abortionist from setting up shop in Iowa, regardless of the bill’s obvious imperfections.

Now that I have clarified where I stand and what I am doing to fight for life at conception, perhaps the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition that inspired this note from me in the first place should explain where they stand, and why they have done nothing to support life at conception.

As always I welcome your feedback and covet your prayers. I will keep you updated on this fight for life at conception, and promise you it is a fight I will see all the way through no matter how much I am pressured to compromise—even if the pressure is from people that are supposed to be on my side.

Taxpayers Last…

The “Taxpayers First Act” (HF45) that passed the House of Representatives would’ve saved taxpayers $500 million dollars over the next three years. Unfortunately, when the liberal Democrat Senate leadership got done with it, it was gutted almost beyond recognition.

Instead of saving you and me the $500 million we so greatly need, it now only saves a whopping $10 million over the next three years.

And instead of setting aside $327 million for tax relief, the liberal Democrat Senate version sets aside a whopping $0.

All of that waiting, all of that Gron-stalling and delay, was for nothing. The clear message that taxpayers sent back on November 2 was that Iowans wanted real representation, lower taxes, lower spending and less government.

So you and I, the Iowa economy and Iowa workers continue to foot the bill.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for saving money. But the $10 million dollar token the liberal leader of the senate forced down our throats is more of an insult than substantive savings.

Senate conservatives offered amendment after amendment to the liberal chokehold on taxpayers but to no avail.  It was a party line vote every time at 26-24.

But have no fear! The liberal Democrats did let us debate a bill about raccoon hunting!

(For those of you needing a refresher, the reason I say that they “let us debate” is because liberal Majority Leader, Mike Gronstal from Council Bluffs controls the Senate Calendar, the passage of legislation through committees, and decides if we should be allowed to vote on any particular legislation and ultimately determines the outcome of any potential legislation IF he decides to let it come to the floor.)

So for those of you who cast your vote on November 2, 2010, because you were mad that you couldn’t take your minor child raccoon hunting with you without them having a license, I’d like you to know that I voted FOR repealing that requirement.

You can now take your minor child raccoon hunting with you and they don’t need a license.  But they are not allowed to carry a firearm if they’re not licensed.

I’m glad we got that passed. Truly. We should’ve let parents take their children hunting without a license anyway, but I still believe that we have more important legislation to work on.

Excessive taxes come to mind.

Combining our state corporate tax rate of 12% with the federal rate of 35% and the Tax Foundation says that the Hawkeye State may have the highest levy in the developed world.

And according to the Wall Street Journal, workers “bear the cost of excessive corporate taxes. A 2009 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City examined three decades of data on business taxes and worker paychecks. The study found that “corporate taxes reduce wages and that the magnitude of the negative relationship between the taxes and the wages has increased over the past 30 years.”

Businesses in high tax states invest less, the study found, and this leads to lower productivity (think fewer jobs) and eventually lower average pay for workers.

This isn’t just hypothetical theory. This is state government stifling businesses that could and would be creating jobs if the tax and business climate were less oppressive.

It’s plain and simple math folks. It’s not sustainable unless we change the path we’re on.

This is why I expect we’ll start to see half-truths and attempts to claim public credit for easing restrictions and burdens on Iowa taxpayers to start coming out of the liberal leadership in the next few weeks. They know, as well as you and I do, that they have to start gaining the appearance of being business and taxpayer friendly if they want to hold on to the majority in the Iowa Senate in 2012.

But you and I know such efforts will be seen for what it really is: political grandstanding. If they cared about taxpayers, and if they cared about Iowa workers and the middle class, they wouldn’t have been so deceptive with their legislation and rhetoric for the last several years.

And if they had truly realized the “error of their ways,” they would’ve immediately reached across the aisle and united with conservatives to ease restrictions, ease the burdens and get us back on track sooner rather than later.

Taxpayers remain last on their agenda.

Sincerely,

Senator Kent Sorenson