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.
Responding to recent criticism that he is no longer interested in passing health care reform legislation, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he is still committed to working towards a bipartisan bill.
“Sen. Grassley is at the table, working to develop bipartisan legislation that would get health care costs under control, make coverage accessible and affordable, and not add to the deficit,” a spokeswoman for the senator said in a statement to the Iowa Independent. “He has said many times that he’ll keep working in a bipartisan way until he’s pushed away by the Democrat leadership.”
Over the weekend liberal bloggers and one of Grassley’s Democratic opponents criticized Iowa’s senior senator for holding a fundraiser in Miami where he repeated his opposition to a government-run health insurance option. He also took fire for a fundraising letter clearly stating his “firm and unwavering opposition to government-run health care.”
Many took this as a sign that he was no longer negotiating in good faith on health care reform and accused the senator of saying one thing to constituents and another to big donors behind closed doors. They also point to his many statements that have been proven untrue regarding health care, such has his insistence that it could lead to government euthanasia of the elderly, as evidence Grassley is only paying lip service to the idea of actually passing reform legislation.
Despite all the rhetoric, Grassley is not opposed to any health care reform, his spokeswoman said, only health care reform that would include a government-run option.
“Sen. Grassley’s stance in opposition to President Obama’s desire to have government run health care is nothing new,” the senator’s statement said. “Sen. Grassley made comments to President Obama on March 6 during a nationally televised health care discussion at the White House and has reiterated his position throughout the debate that putting the federal government in charge of health care, as President Obama wants to do, would not curb medical inflation or improve the health care delivery system in America.”
Earlier this month Grassley was critical of the idea that bipartisan legislation may only come after Republicans manage to defeat a Democratic plan, saying he’d rather continue to work on a bipartisan bill than run the risk of Democrats passing a bill with no Republican input.
“If the Democrats are successful doing that, we’ll be stuck with that plan forever,” he said at the time. “I don’t think things like that, once changed, will be changed back.”
Grassley and a bipartisan group of senators on the Finance Committee, known as the “Gang of Six,” have been holding closed-door meetings all summer trying to craft a bill that could garner widespread support. However, recent statements by the committee’s leader, Montana Democrat Max Baucus, indicate he is ready to forgo continued work on a bipartisan bill in order to get health care reform to the full Senate sooner rather than later. Baucus told Kaiser Health News that he is committed to getting health reform “done right and done this year.”
Follow Jason Hancock on Twitter
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter