Senator Chuck Grassley (R) made a stop in Osceola on July 1 as part of his annual 99-county tour of the state. He spoke to a gathering of people at Clarke County Hospital, and after a two-minute opening took questions and comments from those assembled, speaking on former-president Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, immigration concerns and more.
Debate concerns
One question asked of Grassley by an audience member was why the Republican Party doesn’t seem as concerned with Trump following the debate on June 27 as the Democratic Party did with Biden, and what the plan was in regards to a nominee. Grassley responded that by looking at primaries held in various states, one could see the dissatisfaction for the potential Republican nominee, but also pointed out that there had been many other opponents against Trump who ultimately didn’t prevail.
“There was plenty of opposition to Trump, but other people lost out in the final analysis. So, you accept the will of the voter even if you disagree with it,” said Grassley. He added the election gives people the chance to vote for whomever they want for president.
2020 election, Jan. 6 incitement, false claims
When questioned if Grassley thought the 2020 election was stolen, Grassley replied,
“No.”
When asked if he agreed with Sen. Joni Ernst’s statement from her Osceola town hall on May 28 that the people who broke into the capital were “idiots,” Grassley said,
“I agree that it’s wrong to break into a building particularly when there’s barriers up to keep you from going there.”
On a follow-up asking if he thought the capital rioters were trying to overturn the election, Grassley said he didn’t think he had spoken or visited with any of the accused, but that it didn’t make much difference to the motive as they were breaking the law. He also said that he has a full-time job dealing with problems that Iowans bring to him, or problems that he sees in the United States, and is not focused on something that happened three years ago. He said he made his statement after the event, and didn’t have anything else he could add to it.
Ukraine
A concern was expressed about Ukraine, and the domino effect and safety the United State’s presence there might have here at home. Grassley said stopping at Ukraine was one thing, but Biden has expressed concerns for Russians in Moldova, Lithuania and other Baltic States, and Grassley worried that it would trigger a naval movement if one country was attacked and everyone else had to go on defense. He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had stated back in 2005 that he planned to reestablish the Russian Empire, and has already violated the 1993 Budapest Agreement.
A later commenter said that the United States should be focused on securing its own borders and not on Ukraine, especially when it comes to stopping drugs crossing the border.
“Who do you serve if you do not protect your own people? Border and freedom of speech, everything else is a distraction,” was commented.
PBMs and 340B
Questions were raised about pharmaceutical drugs and practices. One topic discussed was PBMs, or “Pharmacy Benefit Managers,” which are third party companies that work as intermediaries between pharmaceutical manufacturers and insurance providers.
Two Clarke County pharmacists who spoke about PBMs shared the dysfunction of them, which takes away provider control and will often take money back at the end of the year that PBMs had previously paid pharmacies. This creates pharmacy deserts, and is going to be detrimental to pharmacy services if the practice continues.
Grassley replied that when he brought up PBMs a few years ago and that there wasn’t much interest at the time, but now there are four bills in Congress related to them - three in the Senate, and one in the House.
When talking about the 340B program, which is a program that allows certain entities to use federal resources as far as possible, which in turn reaches more patients and provides more services, Grassley said the 340B program is not in jeopardy, only how the contract pharmacies have kept the program from serving its original purpose.
Immigration
When discussing immigration and bills, it was asked why the Republicans can’t all sign a bill to ask Sen. Chuck Schumer to bring certain bills up for discussion, Grassley explained that anyone can go on the Senate floor, but that there will be Democrats who object to it.
Bill HR2, “Secure the Border Act of 2023,” was discussed, which Grassley’s chief of staff Jennifer Hein said that Sen. Ted Cruz was a leading sponsor of the bill and has tried to attach pieces of it to different pieces of legislation, but the Democrats continue to object to it. The bill would address issues about immigration and border security.
“Congress passes laws, the president enforces them. This president has decided not to enforce the law,” said Grassley, who is welcoming of immigrants within the constraints of the law.
When asked when the government will be held responsible and why there is a border if it’s not going to be enforced, Grassley repeated his statement about the president enforcing laws. He said the only thing to do would be to impeach the president, but that wasn’t going to happen.
“That’s why elections are held from time to time - elections have consequences,” said Grassley.
National debt, CRP, natural energy
Grassley said the national debt is on track to be 125% of the GDP over the next 10 years if no policies change it, increasing the total to 16 trillion dollars. A bipartisan agreement between Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Biden in 2023 said the government would spend no more in 2024 than they had in 2023, and no more than a one-percent increase in 2025.
“If you can limit it to one-percent, [it] accomplishes quite a bit,” said Grassley.
A question was poised about CRP and if anything was being done to reduce payments or practices to help out farmers. Grassley replied that an amendment by both himself and Sen. Cory Booker would reduce the number of CRP acres from 27 million to 22 million, and set the average county payments at 70% instead of the 85% that was in the 2018 Farm Bill.
In speaking of the elimination of natural energy sources, Grassley said that while the regulators are often blamed, it is that Congress passes general legislation and the regulators then fill in the details.