Senator Tom Harkin met with President Obama in the Oval Office this afternoon to discuss health care reform. Harkin, a Democrat, is the leader of a group that’s been working since December on the prevention and wellness components of a health care reform package.

"The president gets it. He does get what it means to promote prevention and wellness," Harkin says. "…He’s healthy himself."

There were just three people in the room during the meeting: Harkin, a staffer who is Obama’s chief liaison to congress and President Obama.

"He’s just one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met in my life, but deeply committed to changing the way we do things in this country," Harkin says. "That’s what I like about him — he’s not afraid of change."

Harkin, though, laments what he calls the "misinformation" that’s floating around about the health care reform bills which are pending in congress.

"The big fear is that people will become frightened by all these scare tactics and that could slow things down," Harkin says. "One of the problems we’re having is that, you know, there’s $2.3 trillion on the table every year that we spend on health care. That means a lot of people are making a lot of money on health care and the last thing they want is for us to change the system."

Harkin is chairman of the Senate Ag Committee which has jurisdiction over government food and nutrition programs and Harkin says as an "outgrowth" of his Oval Office meeting, he’ll be meeting with another Obama.

"I’m now going to be meeting with the first lady about the child nutrition bill and how we can work together with her to change the way we feed our kids, especially in our school lunch and school breakfast programs," Harkin says.

Harkin spoke by telephone with Radio Iowa as he rode from the White House back to his senate office earlier this afternoon.

(This story was updated at 5:23 p.m. and again at 7:26 p.m.)

The governor’s office and the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency disagree over the latest data on state tax revenue.

The governor’s office concludes overall state tax collections are up about 1.2 percent, while the Legislative Services Agency analysis concludes tax collections dropped about six percent. It’s a bit of a bookkeeping dispute.

Both agree personal income tax payments to the state fell by about six percent in July of 2009 compared to July of 2008. The difference of opinion is how to explain the nearly 41 percent increase in sales and use tax payments to the state. Dick Oshlo, Governor Culver’s budget director, says it’s a "healthy increase" that may indicate there’s been a turn in the economy.

"Hopefully, it’s reflective of some good news that we’re hearing on the national economy and some reports even on the Midwest states that the recession may be softening and we may see some hope in the future," Oshlo says.

But the Legislative Services Agency notes a one-month bookkeeping change inflates the sales and use tax payments by about $40 million — and that means there was no "healthy increase" in sales taxes. The July, 2008 and July, 2009 numbers were roughly equal in the sales and use tax category according to Jeff Robinson, a senior analyst with the Legislative Services Agency. Robinson says it’s all about determining how many tax dollars legislators have to build the budget.

"The net receipts is what is available to spend," Robinson says. "Gross receipts have to be offset, in our opinion, by the refunds that are issued to come down to the net number that can be spent."

Matt Strawn, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, says the state collected $23 million less in July of 2009 than it did the same month a year ago.

"So either the governor doesn’t understand his own budget or is deliberately misleading Iowans," Strawn says. "Either way, it’s a problem."

House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha says there’s no rosy scenario yet.

"The truth of the matter is revenues are continuing to decline right now…it’s obviously bad news, but it’s important that we be straight with Iowans," Paulsen says.

After learning of the statements from Republicans, Culver press secretary Troy Price emailed a response. "This negative and baseless attack is just one more sign that some in the Republican Party like the recession they created so much they don’t want it to end," Price wrote. "The fact is, gross revenues for the State of Iowa have improved, and anyone who has spent two minutes in the public or private sector understands that is a step forward."

Later, when asked, the governor’s press secretary commented on the Legislative Services Agency’s report.  "Quite simply, they are wrong," Price said. 

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