Mission Statement. Welcome to the Dubuque County Democratic Party website. It is our goal to strengthen our community by connecting people to the political process, developing community leaders and electing officials who listen, respond and represent the needs of the community. This is the place to learn more about how the Democratic Party can make a difference in Dubuque County, in the State of Iowa and in the Nation. All of us, working together, can help our government do its best. Join us in electing Democrats to office at the local, state and national level. Terry Stewart. Chair, Dubuque County Democratic Party
Our motto:
Working to elect Democrats from ...
the
Courthouse to the White House.
Democratic Message: I want unity but above everything else, I want a party that will fight for the things we know to be right at home and abroad. (Eleanor Roosevelt 1959)
As a way to better educate the public about our primary candidates, the Dubuque County Democrats would like you to know about the following primary Democratic candidates for US Senate:
Roxanne Conlin for Congress
PO Box 876
Des Moines, IA 50304
website: www.roxanneforiowa.com
From: Terry Stewart
Dubuque County Democratic
Chairman uncleter@hotmail.com
Subject:An observation on our Current Circumstances
Date: Saturday, January 16, 2010
Bill Clinton left a budget surplus to pay down the national debt. Then the Supreme Court disrupted the 2000 election for George Bush, and over the next eight years, Bush emptied the national treasury. Paul Krugman warned us about the disastrous effects that robbing the treasury (tax cuts for the rich) and fighting an unprovoked war (Iraq) would have on the economy. Bush quickly turned the surplus into record deficits, and quadrupled the national debt, while sabotaging any governmental oversight of his cronies. For the Republicans to whine and cry and moan and groan about the budget expenditures of Barack Obama is blatant hypocrisy.
The best way to describe what's going on is this: the Republicans drove the economy into the ditch, and are now complaining about the cost of the tow truck needed to get us back on the road to a strong economy and responsible policies. They need to push, pull. or get out of the way, and quit siphoning off the lifeblood of our economy for their rich banker and insurance company and military contractor friends.This democracy is supposed to function Of, By, and For ALL the people, not just the corporate giants with the richest lobbyists.
Obama was handed huge problems, and is making a heroic effort to resolve them. Those who created the problems have been the loudest critics and biggest obstructionists to solving them. In spite of their resistance to change, we are inching into the future and making progress on the economy and the environment. From great adversity comes great opportunity. We are living in a key phase of our nation's, and the world's history, and are privileged to be able to participate in the solutions. It's imperative that we meet the challenge.
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From: Terry Stewart
Dubuque County Democratic
Chairman uncleter@hotmail.com
Subject: "TEA PARTIES" DEFLECT BLAME, AND CONFUSE THE WAY OUT OF CURRENT CRISISE
Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009
Conservatives should have been (and many were) absolutely up in arms the last 8 years as our environment, our privacy and individual freedoms, our world respect, our national honor, our economy were anything BUT "conserved". And when a rally is held that asks for the dismantling of every program except military armaments, and asserts that the new administration is spending at a wildly reckless pace compared to the previous one, I have to present the other view.
I know the majority of people who attended the "tea party" rallies across the country were well-meaning, honest, hard-working folks, but many of the organizers on the national level, such as FOX news, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, are rabidly partisan, and are most happy to get poor and middle-class people who are most harmed by their policies, to do their bidding and advance their causes. Some are fomented into violence, instances of which we've seen in recent weeks. My argument is not with most of the good folks who legitimately express their frustration with the current state of affairs by attending these rallies. It is with the fat cats who brought us to this point and now deflect most of the blame onto Democrats. The whole class warfare "greed is good" emphasis started with Ronald Reagan. "Wealth redistribution" has been upward into the hands of 10 % of the population, with the other 90 % being left further behind. That has got to stop, and rallies that shift the blame and fling about charges of socialism and excessive government don't help turn it around.
We can't solve every crisis by reducing taxes. Government has legitimate purposes beyond military action, and we can't address those simply by cutting taxes. That's just too simplistic, and self-serving of the very wealthy. It's our obligation to make the government good stewards of our resources, and stop the favoritism and no-bid contracting and lack of accountability that has been practiced for many years, but worse than ever the last 8. We've been placed in a deep hole by the Reagan and Bush years, and it is taking a monumental effort to climb out. If our citizens will dialogue with everyone's best interests at heart, and we work hard to make the programs effective, we'll get through this crisis and on to brighter times. The election in November 2008 was a wake-up call for reform, attention to infrastructure, development of new "green" industries, restoration of our place among the family of nations. respect for difference of opinion, civility in diplomacy and political discourse. We have great challenges, and must summon the courage and perseverance to meet them.
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From: Frank Belcastro
fbelcast@hotmail.com
Subject: Employee Free Choice Act
Date: Monday, March 30, 2009
Letter to the Editor:
Labor unions are pushing Congress to move on the Employee Free Choice Act and big business and its representatives are spending untold millions to kill it. Why? Because the Employee Free Choice Act is, quite simply, not only the most necessary and important labor law reform in 75 years -- it's the cornerstone of any serious effort to reestablish a real middle-class in the United States. And the corporations and the Chamber of Commerce and the institutional Republican Party don't want a real, secure middle class. They want a docile, subservient class of workers who are utterly dependent on the tender mercies of their employers for every meal.
They realize a better than many progressives that organization in the workplace -- unionization -- is the single greatest tool that workers have to ensure that they get a piece of the pie. They know that they have to do whatever it takes to prevent working Americans from joining together to lead a better life. And so, they will do whatever they have to do to try and kill the Employee Free Choice Act.
What are the advantages of belonging to a union and have bargaining rights? Union workers earn significantly more money, enjoy significantly more retirement security (over 80% of employees working under union contracts have a guaranteed pension--less than half of non-union employees have one),
are significantly more likely to have health insurance, and have significantly safer workplaces than similarly situated non-union workers. It's not close.
But you don't have the opportunity to create that union advantage, to take what's yours, without unionizing. It's that union advantage that's the difference between a family being solidly middle class and a family that's fundamentally insecure. It is to your advantage to ask your Congressperson to vote for this act.
Frank P. Belcastro
563-588-1044
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Action opportunity --
Representatives of the coal, utility and auto industries in the Senate have refused to exercise leadership on climate change. It's time for President Obama to use his executive power through the Environmental Protection Agency and take action on global warming.
On Wednesday, 26 Democrats joined Republicans in the Senate and voted to ensure that the filibuster will be used to block any meaningful climate legislation this year. The rule passed prohibits Congress from using the budget reconciliation process to pass real action on climate. Any truly effective bill will surely suffer death by filibuster because there are more than 40 Senators committed to deferring any real action on climate change that would threaten the coal, oil, and auto industries.
This betrayal by Democrats on one of the most important issues of our time, is deeply disappointing. However, President Obama doesn't need Congress' help to take a very important step: Regulating carbon.
Fortunately, on March 20 the Obama Administration's EPA finally submitted a long-awaited "endangerment finding" to the White House. Now with this finding, President Obama can order the EPA to reduce carbon emissions, including those from coal burning utilities.
With Congress dragging its feet on progress, the time for President Obama to act is now. Sign this petition today to ask President Obama to approve the EPA endangerment finding and reduce carbon emissions now.
I just took action to ask President Obama to approve the endangerment finding and regulate carbon emissions now. I hope you will, too. Please have a look and take action.
As I travel the state and talk to Iowans, the first question folks ask is what we are doing to grow our economy and create good paying jobs. And I wanted to tell you what I tell everyone: My number one priority is fighting to create good paying private-sector jobs -- with benefits - for Iowans.
From our major investment through I-JOBS to helping create the green collar jobs of the future through the Power Fund - we are creating jobs in the short term and transforming our economy for years to come.
Through I-JOBS, we have now approved more than 1400 projects, and invested more than $570 million dollars in shovel-ready projects statewide. Today, I am visiting Clinton and Davenport to talk about two newly announced I-JOBS projects in those communities.
I-JOBS will modernize our entire state infrastructure, improve our bridges and roads, rebuild from the worst floods in Iowa history, improve water quality and protect our state from future disasters.
Through the Power Fund, we are encouraging private sector jobs in the industries of tomorrow. It is helping make our state a national leader in renewable energy. Today, there are nearly 9,000 green jobs in Iowa. We're literally rebuilding our state and our economy at the same time to move Iowa forward.
We now have the 8th fastest growing economy in the United States. We were recently recognized as being the 4th best place in America to do business - up from 9th just one year ago. And Iowa now has the lowest cost of doing business of any of the fifty states.
These aren't just statistics - they represent new businesses in Iowa, jobs that will help working families for years to come, and are tangible ways we are moving Iowa forward.
Some politicians want us to scrap these programs, turn back the clock, and not invest in our economy or green jobs. But I will not just sit on my hands and join them in playing the same old partisan political game.
History tells us time and again that the Iowa way, and the American way, is that when faced with great challenges, we meet them with bold and decisive action.
We have done that, and with your help we will continue to move Iowa forward.
There are widespread opinions out there on the Senate version of health care reform. I understand people's frustration with how Lieberman and Nelson held the Senate bill hostage and killed the public option. A robust public option would have been a great start to the real reforms needed to fix our broken health care system.
When the House and the Senate complete their next task and merge the two bills, the final version will go back to the Senate and the House for a final vote. While it is true that there can be no amendments and the final bill is not subject to debate, IT IS SUBJECT TO ONE MORE CLOTURE MOTION IN THE SENATE. If the Senate doesn't reach 60 votes on that motion, they can't vote on final passage.
With the need for 60 votes in the Senate, the reality is the final bill coming out of conference will look a lot like the bill that passed the Senate. If the House version of the public option comes out of conference, I believe Leiberman and his 40 GOP Republican colleagues would kill the bill.
Many groups are telling people that after conference there is only a need for 51 votes. THEY ARE WRONG. Over the last few days, I confirmed the continued need for 60 votes with Senator Reid's office as well as Senators Levin and Feingold. Many are saying it's better to just let the bill die and start over. I disagree, and here is why.
ACCESS TO THE SAME OPTIONS AS MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Does everyone remember cheering when many Democratic Party candidates for president called for allowing the American people to buy into the same insurance plans as members of Congress? Bill Bradley was the first; I seem to remember Howard Dean, John Edwards and John Kerry proposing the same thing. I know that it was in most of President Obama's stump speeches last year. It's in the Senate bill - well, not exactly.
Remember the confusion when most were reporting the public option was dead and Harry Reid unsuccessfully tried to deny that, saying there was still a public option in the bill? He wasn't referring to the Medicare expansion; he was referring to the compromise on the public option. It wouldn't be a total public option; PRIVATE INSURERS, AT LEAST ONE OF WHICH WOULD BE A NONPROFIT, WOULD OFFER NATIONAL PLANS THAT WOULD BE ADMINISTERED BY THE SAME GOVERNMENT AGENCY THAT ADMINISTERS THE FEDERAL EMPLOYEE HEALTH PLAN. THAT IS WHAT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HAVE, so it is what President Obama and many past Democratic Party candidates campaigned on for the last decade.
It is not as good as the public option in the House bill, butIT IS BETTER THAN WHAT WE HAVE TODAY.
Needed Reforms:
- It will be illegal to deny people based on PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS; that, in itself, is a major reform.
- There will a CAP ON OUT-OF-POCKET expenses.
- SMALL BUSINESSES will be able to BUY FROM A NATIONAL EXCHANGE, giving them increased buying power.
- A new benefit will ALLOW WORKERS TO BUY INTO A plan that will provide them a cash BENEFIT IF THEY
BECOME DISABLED and need in-home care.
- ACCESS TO MEDICAID WILL BE INCREASED to people making 130 percent to 150 percent of the poverty level; the percentage will be worked out in conference.
- There will be LIMITS ON INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS, REQUITING THAT 85% OF REVENUES BE SPENT ON DELIVERING HEALTH CARE.
- If insurance companies exceed those limits and more than 15 percent go to advertising, profit etc., they would have to PAY REBATES TO THOSE THEY INSURE.
- The Senate bill requires all insurers to FULLY COVER federally recommended PREVENTIVE HEALTH SERVICES, such as immunizations, colonoscopies and HIV testing.
- INSURERS WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO RESCIND a policy for someone who gets sick.
- State and federal regulators would be required to REVIEW RATE INCREASES and determine if they are justified.
- Let's face it, if this bill was the first offer and we were not teased by the "robust public option," we would all be ecstatic.
Reform Doesn't End With the President's Signature
FDR has a legacy as a great reformer, but let's not forget that Social Security was weakened to get it through Congress, and then reformed over the years to make it a better program. Advocates for universal health care need to continue to fight until every American has full health care coverage. There are short-term fights that can be waged right away: HOW ABOUT ELIMINATING THE 3-YR. EXEMPTION ON PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS? LET'S MAKE IT AN ELECTION-YR ISSUE to make the law outlawing denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions GO INTO EFFECT IMMEDIATELY instead of in 2014. EXPANDING ACCESS TO MEDICARE to younger Americans would be a powerful election-year tool; let's make Republicans come out on the record against that without the ability to hide behind other parts of a larger bill.
I understand everyone's frustration, but let's get strategic and accept this as a first-round win, and continue to fight until the American people get what we deserve: UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE DELIVERING AS GOOD AN OUTCOME AT AS GOOD A COST AS OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES. Until someone proves me wrong, I believe that means single payer.
Can you believe the 'death' scare tactics of Sen. Chuck Grassley?
Dean Baker | Governor Palin's Crazed Health Care Rant http://www.truthout.org/081009A?n
Dean Baker, Truthout: "As a basic rule, politicians
will say anything they can get away with.... This
basic truth must be kept in mind in understanding
the health care debate. The debate has trailed off
into loon tune land, and it's the media's fault."
Whistleblower Speaks Out Against Health Care Industry http://www.truthout.org/081009B?n
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: "As the healthcare reform debate intensifies on Capitol Hill, we spend the hour today with a former top executive from one of the nation's largest health insurance companies who has begun exposing some of the industry's dirty secrets."
September 10, 2009 >> THIS IS THE TIME TO DUMP GRASSLEY:
It has to be embarrassing for the Republican Party in Iowa to admit that Senator Charles Grassley is one of their favorite sons. He may be from Iowa, but he does not represent the will of Iowans.
The Senior senator from our great State, in Winterset Iowa this past month, stupidly mouthed the falsehood, that the Health Care Reform Act, as proposed by Congress would deny Sen. Ted Kennedy proper care since he was determined to be in the stages of terminal cancer. To put it bluntly, Sen. Grassley doesn’t understand all he reads about it.
I have had the wonderful honor to serve on the Board of Trustees of Xavier Hospital and Mercy Medical Center. During my tenure, the hospitals were meticulous in formulating a policy on “End of Life” situations. Grassley purposely distorted those claims. All hospitals in Iowa were very thorough in developing an ethical and compassionate end of life policy. Chuck don’t get it.
Medicare is not and never was discussed or proposed in the reform procedure. Seniors need not worry about losing coverage.
The salient point about my writing is this. Senator Grassley is owned, lock stock and barrel by the insurance industry.
He has in his campaign accounts the following monies:
$876,084 From the Insurance Lobby
$869,825 From HMO’s
$272,629 From Hospitals and Nursing Homes
$240,090 From Health Care Professionals
This totals $1,383,420 From the ghoul lobbyists that wrote Medicare Part D drug plan. The ones that profit the most from this situation are those who manufacture Preparation”H”.
So you now know who owns Senator Grassley’s soul.
Thank the Good Lord for the Senate’s wisdom. They appointed Iowa Senator Tom Harkin to chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. Senator Tom is on our side and will put forth a herculean effort to enact a fair and equitable Health Care Reform Law
Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton with our
Dubuque County Democrat Party Chair, Terry
Stewart on August 14, 2007.
(Pics courtesy Linda and Nick Lucy.)
Click for more
images.
John Culver Senior
celebrates 75.
Former Iowa US Senator visits with friends.
Among others, his son, the Governor of Iowa Chet
Culver, Dubuque Mayor Roy Buol and Asst Development
Director Terri Goodman. (Pics courtesy Helene
McGee.) Click for more
images.
Barack Obama and Labor
Day Pics.
Obama and friends. Also Dubuque Labor Day
Parade. (Pics courtesy Gregory Simpson and
Caroline Merkel.) Click for more
images.
The 4th Annual Dinner, hosted by Terry Stewart
with a host of notaries including state and city
elected officials and our guest and speaker,
Representative Bruce Braley. (Pics courtesy Alan
Garfield.) Click for more
images.
