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.
Republican accusations that the Senate health reform bill will hurt Medicare recipients by making drastic cuts to the program are “fear tactics,” U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said Thursday.
“I’m sad to see that our Republican colleagues have resorted to fear tactics in a desperate attempt to preserve the dysfunctional, costly medical system that we have in this country today by claiming that our health reform bill will make cuts to Medicare and hurt seniors,” Harkin said in remarks on the Senate floor. “If that were true, why would the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, AARP and the Alliance for Retired Americans – groups that represent tens of millions of seniors – all support our bill? The truth is, our proposal will strengthen and preserve Medicare.”
Harkin was responding to U. S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who said proposed Medicare cuts in the health-care reform package would lead to quicker deaths for America’s senior citizens. The comment outraged Democrats, and even drew rebuke from Republican lawmakers. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Coburn’s statement was untrue but that he had every right to say it.
According to Politifact, the Pulitzer-Prize winning site run by the staff of the St. Petersburg Times, a House version of the bill does not directly trim Medicare benefits but instead proposes ways to slow or eliminate some Medicare spending. They concluded that it is likely that changes could lead to reduced benefits, particularly for people in the Advantage program, which is a portion of Medicare run by private insurers.
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