STAFF: The following is an unrehearsed interview with Iowa
Senator Chuck Grassley, speaking to you live from his farm in New
Hartford. Participating in today's public affairs program is Eric
McKay, with KHBT Radio in Humboldt.
The first question will be from Eric McKay.
MCKAY: OK. Senator Grassley, first of all, it sounds like you
had quite the -- the crowd in Mason City yesterday. Health care
reform has been brought up a lot. What were you hearing from the
people there, and how soon do you think that will make it to the floor
in the Senate?
GRASSLEY: I think it will be to the floor in the Senate, our
goal is July. And when I say "our goal," I'm a minority in the Senate
-- Republicans are -- so -- but I seem to have a good working
relationship with Max Baucus, and he and I are working together on a
bipartisan bill. And we have set a timetable for it to come up in
July.
The meeting yesterday was cosponsored by three groups: AARP, the
Service Workers Union and the National Federation of Independent
Businesses, which is basically small, Main Street-type businesses.
And we had about 150, 200 people there. And it was a town
meeting, in the sense of we had a panel of the sponsors and then I had
an opportunity to speak. And we had a questions that were put in
writing.
But I think they boiled down to about the high cost of health
care, people without insurance, insurance being too high, and things
of that nature.
GRASSLEY: And our goal is to establish a health system that is
run by private insurance, where people, if they have -- what insurance
they have right now, if they want to keep that, they can keep it.
It would be also to cut down on cost of health care, because when
you get everybody insured you don't have the waste that goes on when
people have to rush to the emergency room when they don't have health
insurance.
We would want to reimburse health professionals and hospitals on
quality of care as opposed to quantity of care. That's going to be a
tremendous incentive to save money.
We're going to have emphasis upon preventive medicine.
I would like to have lawsuit reform because about 5 percent of
the cost of medicine is because doctors practice defensive medicine,
so they give you a lot of tests that maybe you don't need just because
they think you might sue them. And so some sort of cap on punitive
damages would be very helpful in that area.
And there were a lot of other things discussed, but those were
the really big issues, and the big issues that Senator Baucus and I
have to settle between now and July.
MCKAY: Also, there's been an issue with farm program payment
recipients, and whether or not they're actively involved in farming.
What exactly is the issue there? And what is it that you're
hoping to see in relation to the farm bill?
GRASSLEY: Well, you know, you expect a farm program to go only
to people that are in the business of farming.
But we've had Government Accountability Office reports that
showed that people that had been dead a few years were still getting
farm payments. And then you have situations where people really have
nothing to do with the farm program are still considered farmers.
Now, "actively engaged in farming" is language that was put in a
farm bill 20 years ago but has never really had strict regulation by
the Department of Agriculture.
GRASSLEY: So all we're trying to do, basically, is get the
Department of Agriculture to make sure the farm payments don't go to
people that aren't actively engaged in farming, because it's not
right.
It's part of my program to get it so that the biggest farmers --
and that's 10 percent -- aren't getting 72 percent of the benefit out
of the farm program.
So what I'm trying to do with the payment limitation of a hard
cap of $250,000. Now to most Iowans, that sounds like too big of a
cap. And if I could have it smaller, I probably would. But you're
compromising between farming that's maybe different in other parts of
the country then it is in Iowa.
And so, to get a political compromise, I settled on that. So I'm
still pursuing that effort as well.
MCKAY: OK, Senator, thank you very much.
GRASSLEY: OK.
STAFF: Thanks, Eric.
MCKAY: Thank you.
STAFF: Thanks, Senator.
GRASSLEY: OK, good-bye.
STAFF: Bye.