Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Editor’s Note: This post refers to a Research 2000 poll. A report shows that Research 2000 fabricated a substantial amount of its polling on State of the Nation polls; however, The Iowa Independent no longer has confidence in any of the polling done by the firm.
The latest Research 2000 poll of Iowa voters found that 66 percent would favor using reconciliation to pass a health care reform bill that they felt benefited their family.
The poll was commissioned by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), Democracy for Action and Credo Action, three groups pushing for passage of a public insurance option using reconciliation, a procedural move that precludes filibusters and only requires a simple majority to pass bills.
After describing what reconciliation is, the poll asked “If the Senate passes a health care reform bill that you consider to be beneficial to your family, would you object to the Senate’s use of ‘reconciliation’ rules to pass that bill with a majority vote, or not?”
Sixty-six percent of Iowans polled said they would favor reconciliation, including 83 percent of independents and 77 percent of “Obama voters.”
The poll included 600 likely general election voters and has a margin of error of 4 percent. Polls were also conducted in Nevada, Illinois, Washington, North Dakota, Missouri and Virginia.
The overall point of the poll is clear: If voters like the bill they want a simple up-or-down vote on it. And if previous polling is any indication, Iowans are supportive of health care reform with a public insurance option. Wednesday, on the eve of President Barack Obama’s health care summit, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin told Salon.com that the public option was likely dead for the year. The statement was in stark contrast to a speech he gave to a group of state Democrats last month where he promised to use reconciliation to pass certain aspects of health care reform, including a public option.
“Iowa voters overwhelmingly favor passing a good bill through reconciliation. The current Senate bill only has 35 percent approval in Iowa while the public option has 62 percent approval,” said Stephanie Taylor, PCCC co-founder. “So it’s in the best interest of Senate Democrats like Tom Harkin to embrace the public option vocally, own it, and make health care reform synonymous with the public option in voters’ minds.”
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