Iowa Caucuses- Health Care IS an Economic and Debt Issue

The Iowa caucuses are over and it’s on to New Hampshire. To nobody’s surprise, it was a close contest, a lot of money was spent, and a lot of negative advertising was used in the strategies. Republicans still aren’t united behind any single contestant- but the field will narrow over the next few weeks.

Iowa gave us the first look at the results of the Citizens United decision made by the Supreme Court last year. There is going to be even more money spent, with candidates hiding behind the covers of the “super PACs” created on their behalf. Free speech? We’ll see.

Iowan’s are a rational bunch. They look at things from a different perspective than those in Washington D.C., New York, California or the other highly populated areas. They care about community, about agriculture, and about things that are relevant to themselves. They don’t usually like the negativity associated with politics- but the Iowa caucuses proved the negative ads work. We’ll see a lot more of them.

Interestingly, Iowa Republican’s participating in the caucuses listed the economy and the debt as their primary issues of concern. Health care and abortion listed in the distance.

The Iowa caucuses proved that we continue to keep health care as a separate and distinct political issue even though fixing our health care mess is directly related to both the economy and the debt. A Pew Research Foundation study in April, 2011 determined the unfunded liabilities associated with pensions and health care for state governments increased 26% (to $1.6 trillion) in one year alone. Health care IS an economic and debt issue.

Iowa has always been the starting point of the presidential election process and used to either gather momentum or begin the elimination of candidates. Iowa also provides lessons as to what works and what doesn’t work in the campaign process.

The Iowa caucuses taught us: The Republicans are still not sure who to get behind to run against Obama in 2012, Super PAC negativity works (unfortunately)- and we’ll see a lot more, "retail/door-to-door" politics is still effective, and we still don’t believe reforming health care has much to do with jobs, the economy, or our debt.

We’ll see what we learn in New Hamphshire.