My husband and I were talking about the state of the economy. We were wondering, if the Republicans had quit saying “the sky is falling,” the large percentage of the American people who have jobs would know that we are better off. Then perhaps they would go shopping, buy merchandise, increase demand, allowing companies to expand, then hire more employees and just like magic, unemployment goes down.

Instead, we, the American people, after giving President Barack Obama two years to “fix” what took eight or more years to create, overreacted and turned our state governments over to a Republican majority in many states, Iowa included. We had a good Democratic governor who had gotten us through a terrible 2008 and 2009, but we threw him out. We now have a state House that would like to make it harder to vote, increase restrictions on abortions — none of the things they were elected to do.

Please give Art Staed and other Democrats a chance to fix the damage that has been done this past two years. Our representative sends out a nice newsletter that never mentions the radical agenda for which she and her party have been voting.

Staed served us well in a previous term, increasing funding for education and veterans’ assistance, helping build a government surplus and participating in a government that created a better state for all of us.

Pat Lahr

Cedar Rapids