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.
Harkin said he has met a number of Republicans who are planning to vote for Democrats this year.
“We can complete the process this time, and we’re going to do it.”
“This year is just one of those seminal years where you just have to start a new beginning.”
“It’s been kind of a tough week in Washington… We had some tough choices to make. I gotta tell you, I voted for that package — that rescue package — with great reluctance. It was one of those kind of ‘hold your nose and vote for it’ kind of bills.”
“We added to that bill in the Senate a tax package” which has tax credits for renewable energy sources and Iowa businesses hurt by floods, Harkin said. But he was critical of the philosophy driving the bailout plan as a whole.
“Better we take this money and put it at the bottom” rather than the top, Harkin said.
Harkin also said he has spent time recently reflecting on former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal economic plan. “We need another, newer deal for the American people” under a President Barack Obama, Harkin said.
“And so I’m here to tell you that I am running for my fifth term, more determined than ever” to fight for Iowans, Harkin concluded. “I take nothing for granted.”
After spending the past week in Washington, D.C., Harkin said “It’s great to be back here [in Iowa], where people are sane.”
“I feel a very deep sense of responsibility. You have invested in me a lot of seniority in the United States Senate.” He said he plans to use the seniority to work with Obama, should he become president, and to make sure Iowa gets the federal dollars that it needs.
Concluding, Harkin blamed the country’s problems on “our guest speaker,” former Vice President Al Gore. Conservatives, Harkin said, predicted economic trouble if Gore won the 2000 presidential election. Harkin then joked that they were right, because Gore did get win the election, and all of the conservatives’ predictions came true.
“I remember when Al Gore first came to congress,” Harkin said, “And I found myself on the same committee with him — the Science and Technology committee” in the U.S. House. “Al Gore was one of the key leaders at that time in moving this country towards alternative energy.”
“It’s said that a true leader is a visionary who can see 20 years over the horizon,” Harkin said. “In 1981, Al Gore held the first hearing on global warming.”
“He was looking ahead,” Harkin said.
“Modern-day historians are kind of all agreed now that Al Gore is the most accomplished, successful, and he’s had the most impact on America of any Vice President in our history,” Harkin said.
“I gotta tell you, Al Gore has had a much better last eight years” than the current president, Harkin joked.
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