STAFF: The following is an unrehearsed interview with Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley speaking to you live from Muscatine. Participating in today's public affairs program are Mike Peterson with KMA Radio in Shenandoah and Glenn Schreiber with the Dayton Review in Dayton.
And the first question will be from Mike Peterson.
QUESTION: Senator, President Obama has been pushing for a completion of a compromise health care bill in Congress before his State of the Union address in early February. Do you think that will be accomplished?
And will this version be any more acceptable than the one that, you know, that you were concerned about in the outset?
GRASSLEY: I don't know whether they can reach a compromise before the president gives his State of the Union message or not. But I'm sure for public relations' purposes they want to get it done and they're going to really try to get it done.
But I'm telling you, when you look back at how many months the two committees in the Senate worked on it, and it took Reid six weeks to put a bill together between those two bills, and he did that in the secrecy of his office, and now they're doing it in secret between the House and the Senate, I think they've got a big job.
They may do it, and they may not care if they do it right, just 'cause they want to get it done for public relations' purposes real early.
But I think that you will find opposition from my political party, and that's even considering the fact that I worked with a lot of Democrats and a few other Republicans to reach a bipartisan agreement, but the Democrats decided they didn't want a bipartisan agreement. So that's why it ends up partisan.
But I think we're not in the room where they're negotiating and then, as a result of not being in the room, you know, we don't have any input. So there wouldn't be much reason for any Republican to vote for it.
It increases the taxes. It takes $464 billion out of Medicare. It increases premiums. It's going to bring about rationing. It's not going to bend the curve downward on inflation. And -- and everything that you would expect reform to accomplish, it doesn't accomplish.
And it's a sad commentary that it's not more bipartisan or bipartisan at all, because all social changes in the United States have been very bipartisan. It doesn't matter whether it's Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, civil rights, it's always had bipartisan support. And this one should have, too. And a lot of Democrats know that. But they're kind of in a vise where they have to just move ahead.
STAFF: And, Glenn, go ahead.
QUESTION: Senator Grassley, over the past few years our Dayton and southeast Webster county area has suffered through some job losses in just about every sector. What kind of hope is there for the future? What -- what type of future is there for Iowa and our nation in terms of jobs?
GRASSLEY: Well, I think there's a lot of trade agreements, because Iowa is an exporting state, that the president ought to be pushing that he doesn't seem to be willing to push. And I think it's a mistake, because trade jobs are good-paying jobs, 15 percent above the national average.
And I think another thing is that we'd better get more help to small business, because small business creates 70 percent of the new jobs. And the stimulus bill didn't help small business, just one-half of 1 percent of $787 billion went to small business.
So when we get back, we're going to have to pass some tax legislation that will incentivize small business to -- you know, to open up and start hiring.
And then, another thing that we need to have, the president can do -- and the president can do this on his own -- you know, he campaigned on a platform of increasing taxes and distributing wealth. Well, that uncertainty on big tax increases is -- is really a damper on the economy.
And one year ago, he recognized that. So he said, "Well, we're not going to increase taxes right now."
But taxes are going to increase at the end of this year without a vote of Congress if we don't do something about it. So I hope that he will announce no tax increases and take some uncertainty out of it.
Another thing that's uncertain for business is the cap-and-trade bill. So announcing that that's not going to be brought up this year would help.
And the other one is, business is looking at the big increases in their cost of operation from this health care bill. So if that wasn't going to be passed, it would maybe help get hiring started.
QUESTION: Senator Grassley, several counties in our listening area, including Page county, have been declared state disaster areas because of the recent winter storms, the three we've had in the past month.
And I know at least one community, Shenandoah, is meeting with FEMA officials this week to try to find federal assistance.
Will there be federal assistance available to these counties to help with some of the expenses of snow removal that they're dealing with right now?
GRASSLEY: Well, that's up to the governor, to start with. And if the governor submits such a request for X number of counties to the federal government, I'm going to support that and urge the president to back the governor up.
But the president can't act until the governor acts.
Now, I don't know whether your statement about the governor declaring disaster was just under state law, or he's going to follow through and -- and ask for federal assistance.
If he does, then I think he'll get it. If he doesn't ask, then there isn't going to be any federal
assistance because it's got to start with the governor.
But if the governor wants my help, I'll give it to him.
QUESTION: Senator Grassley, we all know about Haiti suffering this enormous earthquake of epic proportions. What can the federal government -- how can the federal government be involved? What should they do? Does the state of Iowa get involved in any way?
GRASSLEY: I don't think the state of Iowa will get involved, but the United States will get involved in a -- in a big way, I think, and do it partly because we're humanitarian oriented, partly because it's within our hemisphere.
But even when there's something like the tsunami over in the Indian Ocean, happened three or four years ago, we got deeply involved. And we will be deeply involved in Haiti.
Right today, there's going to be a big aircraft carrier go down there with lots of supplies and have the capability of bringing on board people that need medical help. And that's just a start.
QUESTION: Senator, I know you've been critical of the screening security arrangements at airports in the light of the attempted bombing a couple of weeks ago on Christmas Day on the Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
What screening measures should have been in place in order to prevent something like this from happening or stopping it from -- stopping another attempt from happening again?
GRASSLEY: Well, my latest inquiries and crusade is to be one step before people ever get to screening at the airport. And that is, to get the Department of Homeland Security to get personnel in the visa divisions of our embassies overseas to get them ramped up and people hired.
Because in all the embassies in the United States, we only have 12 that have personnel of this nature. And -- and they've been under orders, going back six or seven years. And they just have not gotten the job done.
Now, it sounds like I'm blaming just Homeland Security, and this is the agency that's supposed to put these people in -- in place. But there's also some indication that the State Department has resisted having Homeland Security people policing the giving out of visas.
But the best -- the best point of attack against terrorism is to make sure that terrorists don't get visas in the first place.
QUESTION: In a related question, Senator, there has been profiling at -- for security has been -- been a subject. And can you comment on that?
GRASSLEY: Well, it's obviously one of these politically correct things that's maybe being followed because people are sensitive and don't want to be seen as politically incorrect. But when political correctness compromises the national security of the United States, I think your first obligation is to worry about the national security of the United States and the protection of Americans.
STAFF: Thank you, Mike and Glenn, for participating in today's public affairs program.
This has been Senator Chuck Grassley reporting to the people of Iowa.
END