Iowa Sen. Joe Bolkcom wrote a guest editorial for the Cedar Rapids Gazette today focusing on the differences between Iowa and national health care reform, and took his own shots at the misinformation spread by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Citing research from the Commonwealth Fund, Bolkcom states that “no state does a better job than Iowa when it comes to providing health care to children.”

…Compare that to the nonsense coming from Washington. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is giving us a taste as he travels around Iowa accusing President Obama of favoring government “death panels.”

Does Grassley know that similar legislation supporting living wills and patient control of end-of-life care became Iowa law in 2008? Does he know that his grandson, Republican state Rep. Pat Grassley of New Hartford, voted for the bill?

I don’t think Grassley really believes a majority of the U.S. House wants to “pull the plug on grandma.” That’s just the way Washington politics is played. And the senator is showing us that his priorities are playing politics and collecting more campaign contributions from drug and insurance industries…

The full column written by Bolkcom, a Democrat representing the Iowa City area, is available on the Gazette site.