STAFF: The following is an unrehearsed interview with Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, speaking to you live from Washington. Participating in today's public affairs program 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.
THUNDER: Hi there. Thank you very much for your time. And I was just wondering about the health care reform that's an issue being discussed each day. And my question to you, Senator Grassley, is, how long do you expect the talk and debates to continue regarding health care reform?
GRASSLEY: Yes. Well, they're practically done within the Senate Finance Committee, and both of the -- and the other committee of the Senate back in July. And then the bills have been out of committee in the Senate in July, but there's been -- out of the House in July, but there's been three separate committees over there, so Speaker Pelosi has been putting together those three bills into one bill.
And I'm told that it'll come up in early November in the House and probably the last week of -- last week of October in the Senate. And I would guess that it's going to take about two or three weeks of debate on the Senate floor and probably just a few days in the House of Representatives, because, you know, the House of Representatives has a limit on debate, where the House doesn't have a limit on debate.
And it was meant by the Constitution writers for the Senate to deliberate to a greater extent and, you know, and presumably correct what the House does wrong, but if the House heard me say that, they would reset my saying that.
THUNDER: OK, thank you.
GRASSLEY: Yes.
Anelia?
DIMITROVA: Good morning, Senator Grassley.
GRASSLEY: And I want to say hi to your students there. I'm told that I'm live with your students.
DIMITROVA: Yes. Yes, my students are here, and they're -- they're also sharing in the knowledge and also some questions, of course.
GRASSLEY: Yes. And -- and, also, it's my understanding that you'd like to have me some time be with your class.
DIMITROVA: I would love to have you with my class, since they are learning now about all the issues...
GRASSLEY: Yes. Now, if...
DIMITROVA: ... that are happening in Washington.
GRASSLEY: I'd like to show up in person, but if I can't show up in person, and you're willing to do something by videoconference or by telephone, I'd be glad to do that from here.
DIMITROVA: We can do both. We can do both.
GRASSLEY: OK.
DIMITROVA: Because it'll be very educational.
GRASSLEY: Sure.
DIMITROVA: And it also illustrates democracy in action, I think.
Back to the health care debate, the Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote on October 13th, right?
GRASSLEY: Well, it would be a goal set -- it would only be a goal set by Senator Reid. That's -- that's all that that can be. There's no way he could predict now that he's going to get done at a certain time, because I don't know whether he even knows at this point when he's going to get started.
I'm just guessing, when I answered for Cherokee radio, that it might -- it might be the last week of October, because the -- here's what has to happen, for the benefit of you, as well as the previous questioner, and that is that now we've got the bill out of the Senate Finance Committee almost -- well, it'll be next Tuesday, but there's really no more debate going on between now and then, and then the Health Committee, from what was Senator Kennedy's committee, now Senator Harkin's committee, they have to be what we call merged into one bill.
So I don't -- I don't know whether that process has started now. I don't see how it could start until we get a bill out of the Senate Finance Committee. But I don't know how long that's going to take, so that has to happen first, so it's very difficult, I would think, even for the guy that runs the Senate, when you don't have a limit on debate in our body like the House can.
The House could predict to you without a doubt that they're going to pass a bill on a certain date and time. But you can't do that in the Senate. So I would be somewhat reserved in accepting that.
DIMITROVA: OK, can I have a follow-up quickly?
GRASSLEY: Yes, yes, yes.
DIMITROVA: You have been the main Republican negotiator, and you've said on numerous occasions that you have worked for bipartisanship. Can you briefly tell us, where is -- where in the bill is the spirit of bipartisanship reflected?
GRASSLEY: Oh, it's not now. Well, there might be in -- in a lot of the provisions were things that are still the same as when we broke up, but the reason it's a partisan bill instead of a bipartisan bill is because Senator Reid, the leader, and the White House were anxious to get moving and they didn't want to take the extra two or three weeks that it would take to maybe compromise the things that were still not compromised. And that -- that made it a partisan bill.
Now, I -- that -- that doesn't mean that I'm not saying that there's some good things in the bill, but there's five or six things that are highly controversial that weren't finally compromised. That makes it a partisan bill, and that -- there may be just a handful of things that are left hanging in -- in bipartisan negotiation, but they probably make up 50 percent of the controversy.
STAFF: Back to Nikki?
THUNDER: OK. My -- my next question is, in the recent release of Michael Moore's "Capitalism" movie, "A Love Story," that sparked a lot of discussion, saying capitalism is, like, simply greed or even religious leaders calling capitalism a sin. Can you tell us your thoughts on that?
GRASSLEY: Well, of course, I didn't read the bill, but I can tell you, from what my experience is -- and Russia would be a perfect example. From 1917 to 1989, Russia was under communism. There wasn't incentive to work. Farmers that were working on collective farms went to the fields at 8:00 in the morning and they quit at 4:00 in the afternoon and they left a third of their grain to rot in the field.
And people stood in line for hours to get basic foods that they had to eat. And because there was not any individual incentive that we are known to in the United States -- in other words, the harder the work, the more you get ahead. And entrepreneurship creates jobs, particularly small business creating 70 percent of the new jobs in America. And so communism fell in 1989.
And now you go into supermarkets in -- in Russia, and you see abundance. People are not standing in line to buy things. And -- and even Putin, who kind of turned back some of the free enterprise approach that was in Russia, just last week announced that they're going to go back to further privatization, as an example.
So you compare consumers in -- in Russia not having anything on their supermarket shelves during periods of communism. They would come over -- if they had the good fortune -- not very many of them did have the good fortune -- to come into the United States and going in our supermarkets and seeing the abundance on the shelves of our supermarket. And you know what they thought? They thought capitalist America was just having a show for them. In other words, they couldn't believe that every supermarket in the United States had the same amount of abundance.
So just that example is enough that it ought to convince any student of the United States that free market, and individual liberty, and consumer choice, and return on investment is a heck of a lot better, and individuals making those decisions as opposed to having some bureaucrat making every decision for the 306 million people living in the United States.
THUNDER: Well, thank you.
STAFF: Back to Anelia?
DIMITROVA: Senator Grassley, the Iowa Pharmacy Board has been holding hearings about the benefits of marijuana. And one was just held last -- yesterday in Iowa City. What is your stance on decriminalizing marijuana?
GRASSLEY: I would have to see evidence from scientific studies over a long period of time that it has improved health or has responded to peoples' medical needs in a very positive way. And I've never seen any of those studies.
And -- and I know that there's some very ad hoc information that would indicate some benefits, but I think that I would have to have the same sort of studies that pharmaceutical companies have to go through to show that -- to show that, you know, a new drug has beneficial -- is effective, I guess, is the way to say it, and safe. Those are the two things that the Food and Drug Administration are responsible for.
And -- and -- and until the meantime then, I see the drive towards legalization of marijuana as being a cover for the distribution of marijuana illegally, other than for medicinal purposes.
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.
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