Issues

Don't accept platitudes, demand plans.

We must demand more from our candidates than glittering generalities such as: “I am in favor of moms and apple pie.”

Everyone can agree with generalities. We all want to keep young people in the state and focus on preventive health. But where is the steak beneath that sizzle? How do we accomplish those goals? How long will they take? And who will pay for them?

I will be rolling out very precise plans that will fix problem as I have already done. So demand of my opponent and myself specific plans of what we will introduce as bills the first week we are going to be in office.

On these pages you will see clear-cut solutions that will address how we can:
- clean up our groundwater;
- reduce hog-lot odor;
- assure a safe environment in assisted-living facilities
- provide early childhood care for all youngsters who need it
- alleviate the malpractice crisis
No other candidate has detailed his proposals.

All my solutions involve Progressive Realism: relying strongly on an alliance between government and private enterprise, as well personal responsibility.
Coming Soon!
Over the next few weeks I will be adding solutions to the following issues/problems:
- Open Government
- Revenue supplementation for local Governments
- Tort Reform
- Renewable Energy
- K-12 education
- Saving Iowans Money on home energy costs
- Early childhood care
All of my solutions will include personal responsibility, smaller government, progressive realism.
HEALTH INSURANCE FOR IOWA: EVERYBODY WINS
I have a very specific plan that will not only pay for private health insurance for all uninsured but will potentially cut the state budget by $100 million and save the hospitals in Iowa over $360 million. Click this link to see my plan: www.koslowforiowashealth.com/custom
Health Care:
I, Without being a legislator yet, I have had more success in this area in the Iowa legislature than many representatives already in the Iowa House. I wrote the initial drafts of both the Healthy Kids bill and the Farm to School bill. Both of them will go a long way toward the prevention of health problems and the epidemic of obesity, especially in our children. I have further plans to require schools and workplace food areas to post a red/yellow/green dot sticker on food to represent unhealthy/neutral/healthy food. I will write specific legislation requiring all the money from the cigarette tax to be spent, as initially proposed, on smoking cessation programs, preventing teens from starting to smoke and the treatment of diseases caused by smoking.
Fiscal Responsibility
I feel the State has a fiscal responsibility. This means that spending does not outstrip revenues (saying, as my opponent does, that if population does not increase then spending should not increase, is saying we should have a stagnant economy). The last 2 years and the coming year the state budget has been balanced and had a surplus cash balance. Spending is up because revenues are up. I will ensure that the State government is an instrument of economic stimulation and we put all available funds into stimulating the economy such as by raising teacher pay, improving our infra-structure, programs such as success-by-six (see Early Child Care) and others. Spending money to stimulate Iowa's economy and improve the life of Iowans is both responsible and logical as long as the budget remains balanced and the size of government is not increased.
Hog-Lot Pollution Reduction and Ground Water Clean-up
The biggest environmental crisis in Iowa is the pollution of ground water and the environment from organic nitrogen from fertilizers and hog lot runoff. Similar to cap and trade plans for carbon that allow the free market to develop solutions to pollution problems, I am proposing a cap and trade plan for hog lots effluent control. Go to this link to see my entire plan: www.koslowforiowashealth.com/custom
Elder Abuse
As seen from the series of articles in the Des Moines Register the week of July 7th, we have a crisis in abuse of our elderly in the facilities they are placed in. I see the problem as follows:
- Staff at nursing homes may not realize certain actions are abuse and criminal
- Family and visitors do not realize what to look for to realize abuse is occurring
- How and where to report abuse is not known
- State agencies do not get abuse reported anywhere near the level it is occurring
I propose a simple solution that costs the State of Iowa nothing and very inexpensive for the nursing and assisted living facilities. In all patient rooms clearly post a sign stating that: "Elder abuse is a felony and should be reported to 888-555-1212" Then list the 6 most common forms of abuse and how to recognize they are occurring.

This would be an affirmation to the staff of what not to do and a guidebook to family and visitors of what to look for.
21st Century Workplace
One of the crises in Iowa is the flight of our young and especially our brightest out of Iowa. We need a comprehensive plan to stop this flow. We need to create new high tech jobs, encourage Iowan high school graduates to go to school in this state, use tax holidays to help stimulate behavior we want and use loan forgiveness to attract people to certain jobs.

We need to encourage high tech firms to come and grow in Iowa. There are tax incentives given in the state for big box stores to open. There are incentives and subsidies for productions of commodities, such as corn, soy and grains. These need to be balances with an aggressive subsides plan for value added manufacturing companies and high tech information companies. All high tech is in the value added segment and the high tech information industry. This will bring many companies into Iowa that are high tech or high information value added and get our youth to stay and bring in even more youth.

We should institute the proposed Davenport Promise ( based upon the Kalamazoo model), which promises all graduates from high school tuition to an Iowa university, college or advanced training program, equal to the tuition at our four year state universities. If they go out of state they do not get this.

Finally i would propose a tax holiday, from state taxes, for all Iowans under 25 for three years. This would be an additional stimulus for young Iowans to stay in the state or come back after going to school out of state.