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 is Jim Magdefrau with the belle Plaines Star Press Union in Belle Plaine. Jim, go ahead with your first question.
QUESTION: Senator, I understand you just got back from the Senate floor. Please explain the impact of the soy biodiesel action -- or inaction?
GRASSLEY: Well, my statistics are based on industry figures, but, already, because of the recession, there's been about 27,000 jobs lost. And then the -- the remaining part of the industry is, right now, employing a little more than 23,000.
But they expect most of these people to be laid off by the end of December because, without the biodiesel tax credit, which is very similar to the ethanol tax credit -- in other words, they help a new industry get started, but they help agriculture to clean up the economy; they help our balance of trade (ph) to, you know, environment jobs, et cetera.
And -- and also, because we don't want to be dependent on foreign sources of oil, that's why we have tax credits for a lot of things like wind energy, biomass, ethanol and biodiesel. And it's going to (inaudible) by the end of the year.
So these plants are figuring Congress hasn't acted yet; Christmas is coming up, so we might not act, and arguably (ph) won't act, and so they're going to shut down, and all these people are going to lose jobs.
And then just think of what ethanol has done for Iowa and agriculture and the environment and our less dependence on foreign sources of oil. We want the same thing to happen for biodiesel and soybeans, but not just soybeans, animal fats and a lot of other places where you get material, raw material that can be made into a bio-product that can be added to petroleum, diesel.
QUESTION: Is the opposition -- is that a regional or a political...
GRASSLEY: Well, right now, it's inaction. It's not opposition. I wouldn't want to say that we might not run into a little bit of opposition. But when you have a straight extension of an existing tax credit, it often is not very controversial.
And I hope this wouldn't be controversial. But, right now, it's just Congress isn't acting. You know, I didn't say this in my speech today, but I could have said, we're spending three weeks in a row on health care reform, and it's a very important issue, but most of it doesn't take effect until the year 2014.
So why shouldn't we be working on some of these things that are more immediate, and particularly when 23,000 people are going to lose their jobs?
QUESTION: On health care debate, will you be home for Christmas?
GRASSLEY: Well...
(LAUGHTER)
... I just discussed that on the elevator with somebody. And I've got airplane reservations for two different times during December 23rd. And I don't know beyond that, and I'd even go home before if I could, but I doubt if we'll have that chance.
The question is, do I get the -- on the seats that I have reserved or do I go home, you know, maybe not get a seat on the 24th or 25th. I don't know. I'm having my staff check on that right now.
But my wife leaves Saturday and four out of our five kids live in Iowa. We have, you know, seven out of our nine grandchildren in Iowa, and we usually get 20 to 25 people at Christmastime and Thanksgiving. So if I'm going to have a Christmas, it's going to be in Iowa, or I'm not going to have a Christmas.
QUESTION: Health care debate -- that's brought out a lot of partisanship, and it's getting a lot of attention. Do you think that's masking some actual bipartisan stuff that's going on underneath the health care debate?
GRASSLEY: Yes, to some extent, because there's a lot of bipartisanship that goes on, but bipartisanship never gets much news because you folks in the media don't like to write about it, only things controversial.
(CROSSTALK)
GRASSLEY: I'm not speaking just about you, but...
QUESTION: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
GRASSLEY: Because I don't -- because I don't know what your -- you know, I don't get a chance to read everything you write. But, you know, generally speaking, when you say you learned in journalism that controversy makes more news than people being buddy-buddy...
QUESTION: Yes.
GRASSLEY: ... and so, consequently, you don't hear about it as much. But there's a lot of it that goes on. For instance, there's some things in this Defense appropriation bill that deal with the stuff out of my Finance Committee. And even though Senator Baucus and I are on different sides of the fence on this health care reform, we work together to get those things passed that need to be passed before the end of the year.
But we haven't gotten -- he also agrees with me on these biodiesel tax credits. But there's people that -- that just want to slow things down here and not get some things done. Maybe they aren't even against what they don't want to get to get done, but they've got other motivations.
QUESTION: We're coming up on the first year. How do you rate Obama's presidency so far?
GRASSLEY: Well, I suppose you'd take it section by section. But changing policy from what he said during the campaign, you'd have to give him a very low score.
What he's done in regard to Afghanistan and the war on terror and, just recently, making a very important decision there, I'd give him good grades on.
But, maybe, in a lot of rhetoric on foreign policy, I think he's got good intentions when he's trying to get along with everybody, but he's done it with words that tend to send a signal that, maybe, he's ambivalent about things or going to not be tough-nosed when our national security's at stake. And I think it does -- gives some encouragement to enemies.
So I'd just give him an average on foreign policy, generally.
But one thing that, in regard to health care, you know, you've seen on television, very recently, running clips of him saying, during the campaign, that all the negotiations on health care were going to be bipartisan and they we're going to be on C-SPAN, open to the public.
Well, it's just the opposite. They aren't bipartisan and they are done in the secrecy of Senator Reid's office. Even Democrats don't know exactly what's going on. So I think you'd have -- on transparency, you'd have to give him a very low score.
QUESTION: OK. Well, how's your general rapport with him?
GRASSLEY: Personally, very good; on policy, a lot of differences. I got a lot of attention from him when I was working to get a bipartisan bill. But now that he pulled the rug out from under that effort and decided to go partisan, it's been -- we haven't talked a whole lot.
But every time we've seen each other -- I was down at the White House last week -- he's always been friendly with me.
QUESTION: Well, good. Anything on the table for veterans' health care?
GRASSLEY: Well, let me tell you one thing that's not on the table, people that are in the military under TRICARE and people that are in the V.A. system are worried about destroying their health care or affecting it in some way.
And I can tell them, flat-out, that there's nothing in these bills that deal with TRICARE or health care at all. Oh, there's one little technical change on TRICARE, but it isn't going to affect the delivery of health care under TRICARE.
So I want you to tell the veterans, if you would, please, that there's nothing in health care reform
affecting V.A. or TRICARE.
QUESTION: Yes, I just talked to one this morning, in fact. Good people.
What's your goal for next year in the Senate?
GRASSLEY: Well, my goal for next year would be, if -- if they don't push ahead with a bipartisan -- or if they don't push ahead with a partisan bill, getting it passed with 60 votes that Democrats can provide it, if they all get together, then I'm hoping, next year, we'll be able to go back to some bipartisan approach.
And there's a lot of stuff in this bill that, quite frankly, are kind of consensus.
They aren't Republican or Democrat or bipartisan, just kind of consensus.
We ought to take those things, and we -- and I'll give you an example on one of those, doing away with the preexisting conditions not getting insurance.
And we need to get some things like medical malpractice reform in there. We need to get the selling of insurance across state lines, so there's more competition in buying health insurance, things of that nature.
And -- and -- and that would fall in the area of health care.
Then I think, even more important than health care, has to be a policy that creates jobs. In my speech today on biodiesel is a little bit along that line.
But I think we're going to have a lot of opportunities to offer tax incentives for small business, because small business is the issues -- is where new jobs are created; 60 percent to 70 percent of the net new jobs are created in small business.
And there's one thing there where definitely -- I'm on -- I'm on the same track that the president, Obama, is on. And he wants a -- a -- a zero capital gains for people that start a new business and create jobs and leave the money invested for at least five years.
Then, lastly, is a whole -- get a whole bunch of trade agreements approved, because they create jobs and things of that nature.
So I think those are -- and trying to get the national debt down is another one, because if I'm back at home, the thing I hear from people is "I'm scared." And it usually is associated with an issue like health care, but health care is kind of an issue that the straw that broke its camel's back: They saw this big deficit. They saw $2.5 trillion being spent on health care. And with the word reform in it, it seemed like an anomaly.
And -- and people are just -- just very much afraid about the future of our country. And most of that's related to the big increase in the national debt.
Thank you, Jim, for participating in today's public affairs program. This has been Senator Chuck Grassley reporting to the people of Iowa.
END