Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
In a piece for the Wall Street Journal today, conservative columnist Kimberly A. Strassel claims that U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is about to leave the health-care reform negotiating table out of frustration.
That, she says, portends poorly for President Barack Obama’s pledge to work on legislation in a truly bipartisan way.
“Forget Max Baucus, Henry Waxman and Rahm Emanuel,” Strassel writes. “If there’s one guy who may hold the whole health-care world in his hands, it’s Sen. Chuck Grassley.”
But while the White House showed some interest in Grassley’s role early in the negotiating process, Strassel argues that they have all but abandoned that approach now. The ‘bipartisan’ bill that Democrats now champion, she says, is not really bipartisan because it leaves Grassley out:
Left to their camaraderie, Messrs. Baucus and Grassley might hammer this out. But Senate liberals, who never wanted compromise, are forcing Mr. Baucus to choose between their bread and Mr. Grassley’s butter. The downward spiral began when Majority Leader Harry Reid, channeling the president, put the kibosh on Baucus-Grassley plans to pay for reform by taxing existing health benefits. The only quick and dirty way to fill the resulting $320 billion hole is with an income tax hike, which presumably loses Mr. Grassley. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, senior member of the leadership and Finance Committee, is meanwhile making it his personal mission to develop precisely the sort of co-op that Mr. Grassley will detest.
The White House has unwisely needled the key Republican. Mr. Grassley takes his bipartisanship seriously and likes to note that he and Mr. Baucus craft proposals jointly, starting with a blank sheet of paper. On a recent Sunday talk show Obama adviser David Axelrod nonetheless feted a rival Senate bill, to which Chris Dodd had belatedly tacked a few minor Republican amendments, as bipartisan. The comment drew an unusually sharp Grassley rebuke that “Republicans are not going to be hoodwinked.” Mr. Axelrod’s ensuing boast that the White House is prepared to do this with Democratic votes alone has further tempted the Iowan to let them try.
The administration’s rigid demand that Congress vote on bills before the August recess has now brought the issue to a breaking point. Mr. Grassley has condemned the artificial deadline, but Mr. Baucus is under pressure to produce. Should the Democrat put out a bill or schedule a hearing before settling with his counterpart, Mr. Grassley is likely to stop trying.
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