STAFF: The following is an unrehearsed interview with Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, speaking to you live from Washington.
Participating in today's public affairs programs are Nikki Thunder with KCHE Radio in Cherokee and Anelia Dimitrova with the Waverly Democrat in Waverly.
The first question will be from Nikki Thunder.
QUESTION: Thanks very much, Senator Grassley, for taking the time to talk with us today.
Now, my first question is regarding health care and insurance premiums. Now, as planned, I know that insurance premiums are expected to go up. My question to you is, how are people supposed to afford that if they can't afford to get any type of extra help because they don't make -- or they make too much money for that or if they make not enough money to pay the premiums, how can people get help with insurance?
GRASSLEY: I presume that almost everybody's premiums are going to go up to some extent. I know here at the federal level they went up. I don't have the exact amount that they went up. But every year premiums go up, at least for most people. And I presume that with this 18 to 22 percent increase, and I even heard of somebody getting a 40 percent increase from Blue Cross in Iowa, that maybe some people won't afford it and they're going to have to drop
it.
In fact, one of the reasons that premiums have gone up is because of high unemployment. And when people have high unemployment, particularly if they're younger, probably the first thing they do is drop their health insurance, and then that means that there's fewer people in the pool.
And so just the plain unemployment or the recession causes premiums to go up because -- and particularly when investments by insurance companies are way down because of the recession and the financial crisis that we're in -- then there's only place to make it up, and that's from premiums.
I'm very concerned about the premiums going up so much. And I've checked with Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Iowa, and I'm thankful that the governor followed up on that and delayed it for 30 days so he can have a thorough judgment.
Now, the answers I got in my letter are a partial justification, but I think that I'm going to not draw any conclusions until the governor's investigation, which is two independent outside agencies doing it, get done with their review.
But there was one thing that I would highlight: That most of the Blues around the country have what you call 400 points in reserve. I'm not sure exactly how you define the word points, but 400 points in reserve, whereas Blue Cross Iowa has 800 reserve.
So maybe, if 400 is enough for most around the country, maybe there's more reserves being -- more reserves being carried over in Iowa than need be, and maybe you have reserves for unexpected consequences like high unemployment now, and maybe if reserves were used premiums might not be so high....
...QUESTION: I know that many National Guard members are being deployed this summer, and they're saying there's a lot of them. And can you tell us why and how, how long they will be there? And how long do you predict this war will go on?
GRASSLEY: I can't predict how long the war goes on because you only go to war to win, and you aren't going to stop a war on a calendar, you're going to complete the mission.
But in regard to the number of troops going, this will be I believe the largest deployment of National Guard since World War II. That's in total numbers.
And there -- and remember, the National Guard, each person that's in the National Guard fits into a slot of what we call the total force, so somebody that's a truck driver with the National Guard in Des Moines is already slotted, you know, years ahead of time, that if he's needed to fill a slot with the full-time military, that's what he's going to do.
So they're part of a total force to make sure that a fighting unit, the brigade, can carry out its responsibilities. And it's going to be for 15 months, is what it's going to be, and hopefully the war's over by then and you don't have to do this anymore. But if it's not, then, you know, they'll come home and other people will go.
One of the things that we have to do, though, to make sure that the Guard is carrying a disproportionate, much more than what was ever anticipated the Guard would carry, we're increasing the number of full-time military people by about 60,000, and that's going to be done over a period of three to four years. But the idea is to get more full-time U.S. Army people so you have to call up the National Guard less often.
Back to Anelia.
QUESTION: Senator, what do you think that the auto recalls story and development is going to do to the markets here domestically, and also to the U.S.-Japanese trade relations?
GRASSLEY: Well, I don't think it'll hurt the trade relations at all. I think that the damage is going to be just to Toyota, and I don't know beyond Toyota.
I think you got to think in terms of it, yes, it's a Japanese company, but most of the cars they sell in the United States are made in the United States. And so to some extent it might affect American people working in the Japanese plants in the United States.
I think it's most to do with the reputation of Toyota, which had pretty high respect until now. I'm sure that, knowing the Japanese as I do, they're going to work overtime to make sure they restore their culture -- or I mean restore their reputation for that car.
And I think right now it's hurt some, but I don't -- can't quantify how much it's hurt. But I don't think it's going to affect U.S.-Japanese relations, either in trade or our military connections or just the friendliness of the two people. It's just a problem for Toyota.
Back to Nikki.
QUESTION: OK. Now, talking a little bit about the economy, now there's some people saying that it's getting better; others disagree. Overall, can you explain?
GRASSLEY: Well, you now, I read regularly economic reports. In fact, almost every day there's some economic report out.
I would say there's much more positive than there is negative, but it's not a very clear picture yet. But I guess I would make a judgment much based upon what the Federal Reserve Board is saying, and they expect to have economic growth in the second half of this year of over 3 percent, and maybe for the first half of the year higher than 3 percent, but, you know, as time goes on those turnarounds tend to moderate. And so in the neighborhood of 3 percent is
what I expect for the year of 2000 -- or 2010...
...Thank you, Nikki and Anelia, for participating in today's public affairs program. This has been Senator Chuck Grassley reporting to the people of Iowa.
Thank you both very much.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you.
END