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Iowa Speaker Pro Tem John Wills on Hugh Hewitt Show: Our Conservative Policies Work

I think people are starting to see the light that our conservative policies work.

Nationally syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt broadcast live from the ALEC 49th Annual Meeting in Atlanta where he interviewed Iowa House Speaker Pro Tempore John Wills.  They spoke on a wide range of issues, including Wills’ service in the military and his advocacy for veterans. He also spoke about the mood of voters in Iowa. Below are highlights from the conversation between Hewitt and Wills:

Hugh Hewitt: Iowa decided it’s going to compete with Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and Texas. How hard was it to get your democratic buddies in Iowa to pass a flat tax?

John Wills: It was very difficult. This whole thing started about 10 years ago when we started doing this clean, conservative budget. And we got ourselves to a point now where we have a billion dollar surplus this year, another million dollars next year. So now we’re going to reduce our taxes in half, at least.  We got rid of retirement tax. We went from 12% corporate tax to 5.8% corporate tax. We just did all of this stuff. And our revenue is still coming in like you cannot believe.

Hugh Hewitt:  Iowans are very smart about politics. You folks know what you’re doing and you demand a lot of candidates. I don’t ever want it to change.

John Wills: Right. I think it’s the best thing. A lot of people don’t understand caucuses, but I think it’s the greatest thing. It’s basically a bunch of your neighbors get together. And you sit down and you talk about politics and you talk about the issues and the candidates. At the state fair, we have something called the soapbox. Candidates go to the soapbox and they talk for half hour and the crowds will just gather around a soapbox and listen and it’s just awesome.

Hugh Hewitt: The legislature only needs three months out of the year. How do you get anything done?

John Wills: I think it’s great. If we were there longer, we’d do a lot of damage. So we can get in and get out. And that was relatively little damage to our state. And that’s why we’ve got such a great state.

Hugh Hewitt: Where is Iowa on school choice?

John Wills: Iowans are passionate about schools and education. We’ve got great schools, and so I am passionate about it and we just want to make sure we get it right. We don’t want to hurt the schools.  But at the same time, I think we’re going to come back at it next year and do more with school choice.

Hugh Hewitt: There was a time when Iowa was a pretty blue state, what changed?

John Wills: I think people are starting to see the light that our conservative policies work. People see that and they look at what’s happening in Washington, DC right now and know that the states are really tackling the issues that matter to the average person, not the federal government.

Watch full interview below: