Petition drive launched in response to comments made by Terry Branstad and Mitt Romney after last week’s Wisconsin recall election
DES MOINES, IOWA – In response to comments made by Terry Branstad and Mitt Romney after last week’s Wisconsin recall election, Progress Iowa today launched a petition drive to ‘Tell Terry & Mitt: Stand with our neighbors, teachers, firefighters and cops!’
After the Wisconsin recall election, Terry Branstad and Mitt Romney showed their true colors: attacking middle class Iowa, targeting our neighbors, teachers, firefighters, and police officers. Gov. Branstad said he was ‘inspired’ by the politics in Wisconsin, where Gov. Walker wanted to ‘divide and conquer’ rather than bring people together. And Mitt Romney, while visiting Council Bluffs, claimed that the lesson of Wisconsin was that we don’t need more teachers, firefighters, or police officers.
“Terry Branstad and Mitt Romney should stand up for Iowa’s middle class, for our neighbors, our teachers, firefighters and police officers,” said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa. “The last thing we need to do to move our economy and our state forward is to take inspiration from Wisconsin’s politics of divide and conquer.”
Governors Branstad and Romney have a long track record of ignoring the needs of the middle class. Gov. Branstad has made sure the poorest working Iowans pay higher taxes by vetoing the Earned Income Tax Credit, as well as shutting down workforce development centers, cutting off resources for those looking for work. And while he was Governor, Mitt Romney raised taxes on the middle class in favor of tax breaks for millionaires, leading Massachusetts to be ranked number one in debt, and number forty seven in job growth.
The petition launched by Progress Iowa today gives Iowans the opportunity to express their concern, that two prominent leaders should stand up for, not attack, the middle class. For more information and to sign the petition, visit progressiowa.org.
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Background:
ThinkProgress:Romney says America doesn’t need ‘more firemen, more policemen, more teachers’
ThinkProgress: Romney’s campaign chair: ‘taxpayers really do want to hear there will be fewer teachers’
Omaha World-Herald: Branstad inspired to follow Wisconsin’s lead