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.
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, like most congressional committee leaders, submitted suggestions to the 12-member Super Committee that is tasked with slashing $1.5 trillion from the federal government. Unlike most Democratic leaders, however, Harkin provided push-back against deficit reduction recommendations made earlier by the Obama administration.
“I think the Obama administration is wrong,” Harkin said by phone Thursday morning while discussing the Oct. 6 letter he submitted to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. “I said as much yesterday during a hearing I held on this, and I took the administration to task for it.”
Although the White House has recommended that $3.5 billion be stripped from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, Harkin noted during his opening remarks during a Wednesday HELP committee hearing that chronic illness, which strikes one-in-two adult Americans, is also connected to the nation’s fiscal health.
“Of the nearly $2 trillion we spend on health care, 75 percent is accounted for by individuals with chronic conditions,” he said. “In the work place, these conditions account for nearly $1 trillion in lost productivity each year. Chronic disease is a huge cost to both private and public sectors and is a major contributor to our deficit and our debt.”
Here are some clips of Harkin and Sen. Al Franken comments during the Wednesday hearing:
“I think [the White House is] being penny-wise and pound-foolish, just like many Republicans are who want to cut the Prevention and Public Health Fund,” Harkin told The Iowa Independent. “Sure, you can save a dollar today, but it is going to cost you 10 more tomorrow when people get chronic illnesses, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and everything else. Hasn’t that sort of been the problem in our country; that we always look for the short-term answer without thinking about the long-term impacts? I think that has been a problem in Washington for far too long.”
Harkin added that he’d received no response from the Super Committee and that he did not expect one. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will reduce the federal budget deficit by more than $210 billion over the next ten years and by more than $1 trillion in the ten years that follow.
In his letter, Harkin argued that cutting the maximum award level or reducing student eligibility for Pell Grants could place higher education out of reach for millions, and ultimately would harm the competitiveness of the nation’s workforce. Likewise, Harkin advocated for the continuance of programs through the Education and Labor Departments that “provide individuals with opportunities to gain the skills that they need to fill current job openings.”
… American remains the largest economic power the world has ever seen. We are not broke. We are not poor. We are the richest country in human history. We have the highest per capita income of any major nation. Solving our debt problems over the long-term should not prevent us from spending money in the short-term to create jobs and grow the economy. The immediate need to create jobs and strengthen the economy and the longer-term necessity of reducing our deficits are not mutually exclusive. If Congress is able to pursue a path that combines job creation in the short-term with deficit reduction in the long-term, we can confront the fiscal and economic challenges we face head on, restore the middle class, and return to an era in which prosperity is widely shared by all. Smart policy choices that use our resources to jumpstart the economy, train our workforce, grow the number of good-paying jobs, and get our fiscal house in order are fully within your reach. …
Harkin’s letter is embedded below:
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