Many Americans look forward to a fresh start with each new calendar year. After weathering troubling times in the last decade, from terrorism attacks to sky-high taxpayer-financed bailouts and stimulus spending, high unemployment rates, catastrophic natural disasters, meltdowns in the mortgage markets, fears of a flu pandemic and runaway federal deficits, it’s understandable why many people are ready to turn the page.
On a lighter note, at least the New Year got kicked off to a good start for Iowans thanks to a pair of college football victories. The wins in their respective postseason bowl games warmed the spirits of Cyclone and Hawkeye fans despite the sub-zero temperatures at home.
As Iowans look forward to thawing out from the deep winter’s freeze, Congress opens the second session of the 111th Congress in January.
Considering the secretive efforts underway to blend the Senate and House of Representatives’ respective health care reform bills, the Democratic leadership of Congress is dead-set on advancing its version of health care reform.
But the long-term toll to taxpayers and likelihood of causing more harm than good are serious arguments deserving of a full and transparent process by which the American public can hold elected representatives accountable.
Despite a many months-long effort last year to achieve a bipartisan approach that would help drive down health care spending and expand health insurance coverage to more Americans, the final product resulted in a 2,000-page partisan bill that squeaked through the Senate on a rare Christmas Eve vote. According to the Chief Actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the bills under consideration would cause national health care spending to jump by $222 billion over the next decade.
History shows the voting electorate tends to take exception to the “my-way-or-the-highway” approach to governing. Representing Iowans in the U.S. Senate, I make it a priority to keep the lines of communication wide open with my constituents. In January, I started my 30th year of holding face-to-face meetings with Iowans in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. I often refer to American democracy as a two-way street. I have a responsibility to listen to the concerns of Iowans. Likewise, Iowans have a civic duty to share their views with their elected representatives. I appreciate and very much depend upon the feedback I receive through my in-person town meetings, phone calls, letters, e-mails, social networks, regular constituent Q&A online via my website, tele-town hall meetings with Iowans and cable TV call-in program for Iowans.
In fact, due in part to the overwhelming input I received from Iowans last year, I fought to secure an amendment in the pending health care reform bill that would require members of Congress and staff members to use the same insurance exchanges that the general public would use to purchase health insurance.
In addition to health reform legislation, Congress has other important policy items on its plate in 2010. To name a few:
• National Security: America was served another wake-up call on Christmas Day when the so-called “underwear bomber” attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound jet. I’m pushing the Department of State for information about its policy to allow foreign nationals classified as “possible terrorists” to travel to the United States. No stone can be left unturned when it comes to national security and protecting the traveling public.
• Government Oversight: Congress has unleashed hundreds of billions of tax dollars to stimulate the economy and to rescue Wall Street and the U.S. automobile industry. As a longstanding taxpayer watchdog, I take seriously my oversight responsibilities to protect tax dollars from being lost to waste, fraud and abuse. Unfortunately, the federal government doesn’t have the best track record for keeping tracking of how and where tax dollars are spent. In 2010, I will continue my oversight crusade to bring greater transparency and accountability to government spending. As one example, I’m tracking down administrative costs and criteria used to select contractors for the $3 billion appropriated for last year’s “Cash for Clunkers” program. Taxpayers deserve a full accounting of how $3 billion was spent, especially if a similar program is enacted in the future.
• Rural America: Iowa agriculture maintained its first-in-the-nation status for the 2009 corn and soybean harvest. From writing tax policy, to overseeing environmental regulations, influencing international trade agreements, tracking farm subsidies and exposing anti-competitive practices, I will keep my legislative iron in the fire to work on behalf of those who live and work in Rural America.
As we make a fresh start in the New Year, I encourage Iowans to keep in touch. I’ll do the same and keep hammering away in Washington to hold the federal government accountable and help get the economy back on track. With the right tools to foster economic growth and competition and incentives to encourage innovation, creativity and risk-taking, Iowans have plenty of brains and brawn to make this the greatest decade yet.