Editorials: She couldn’t speak

Gov. Kim Reynolds did not acquit herself well when testifying about government efficiency at a US House hearing last week. She was asked if she agreed with the suggestion from disgraced former admiral Mike Flynn that Lutheran Services is a “money laundering” operation, and with the comment by Elon Musk that he was working to shut down “illegal payments.”

“I can't speak to that,” Reynolds said in response to a Democratic query.

Later, she issued a statement for the folks back home:

“Governor Reynolds knows Iowa Lutheran Services provides good charitable services for those who need it, and she expects that will be borne out as the review process continues.”

She should have said:

“Mike Flynn does not know what he is talking about. Neither does Elon Musk. Lutheran Services of Iowa does a lot of heavy lifting for us, and they are worth every penny.”

Here’s why: It’s a cold, cruel world. Government and non-profits exist to hew the rough edges off and fill in the holes that the brutal markets cannot or will not. LSI long has provided social services to Iowans, with an office in Storm Lake. In 2023 LSI provided 400,000-plus hours to people with disabilities, and 15,000 in-person and virtual counseling sessions in a state with woeful access to mental health services.

No evidence has been shared that any improper payments were made to Lutheran Services or any network associated with any Lutheran church. Gov. Reynolds knows better and should have said so. She looked silly. She got bound up by an Illinois congressman when candor would be better.

The Trump Administration will find no bonanza of grift going on with the Lutherans. Flynn is a pardoned convict.

You do not serve a free-market capitalist system by attacking its safety net. Food aid for starving nations improves the image of the capitalist system. Mental health counseling for the rural poor and elderly keeps the pitchforks in the barn. Our economic system can be objectively abusive. Providing food and basic care ameliorates the abuse and justifies the system. When you abandon care and leave the vulnerable to the wolves, the system loses its authority. It is written throughout history in fallen civilizations who replied, “I can’t speak to that.”

Feel-good report

The Iowa Department of Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources and Iowa State University last week released an updated version of the state Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It mainly is a bunch of words. For example, it calls for a rotation of corn, soybeans, alfalfa and alfalfa in most fields to reduce commercial nitrogen application, to reduce N outflow by 42%, and to increase corn yields by 10%.

Most farmers will figure that you can make more money in that fourth year planting corn instead of alfalfa, so there goes that idea.

No economic argument is at play. Just another recommendation with no payday. In fact, Reuters reported last week that conservation and renewable energy payments to farmers have been halted. Cattlemen using the EQIP program aren’t getting paid by the Trump Administration. So much for climate resiliency.

And, so much for the Gulf of Mexico. No, that should be the Gulf of America, since our nitrogen has suffocated a big chunk of it. Mexico didn’t make the dead zone — we did. It’s costing shrimpers money.

The report also touts the “batch and build” bioreactors along polluted rivers like the Raccoon in Sac County. A cost-share is promised. You can’t know if the government will make good on the promise. Even if it does, it is the proverbial drop in the bucket so long as we stick with our existing crop production regimen: corn and beans everywhere, with a dose of anhydrous ammonia and a lathering of manure just for sure until the river reeks. Nothing is actually getting in the way of that. Not a report, anyhow. The rotation idea is nice, but really …