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.
Democrats’ push to expand entitlement programs is just an attempt to get Americans hooked on federal spending just “like a drug dealer,” former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Monday night at the annual Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition fundraiser.
Santorum, who is widely expected to seek the Republican presidential nomination, said Democrats pushed hard for the passage of federal health care reform because they believe “Americans love entitlements, and once we get you hooked on an entitlement, you’ll never let it go.”
“Sounds like nothing more than trying to hook someone like a drug dealer,” he said. “Isn’t that what entitlements do? Make you dependent. Make you feel less. Make you want less. What we’re doing to this generation of America, this entitlement attitude, if that is not a moral issue, I don’t know what is.”
Many politicians and conservative activists have pointed at the Affordable Care Act as a socialization of America’s health care system, but in fact more people will get private health coverage thanks to the reforms. The law sets up “exchanges” where private insurers will compete to provide coverage to people who don’t have it. The law also gives tax credits to people who have difficulty affording insurance, an approach that relies on a free market, not socialized medicine.
The Pennsylvania Republican was joined at the IFFC event by other potential 2012 hopefuls: Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty and Buddy Roemer.
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