Roxanne Conlin Visits Cedar Rapids, Iowa

“…there ought to be a rule that you
can’t make stuff up.”

The story Roxanne Conlin told Wednesday night at Waypoint Services in Cedar Rapids, Iowa boils down to this: the senior senator from Iowa is not listening to Iowans or doing things that represent our best interests. This town hall meeting was one of a series Conlin hosted this week with the theme, “Protect Main Street not Wall Street.” Implicit in this theme is that the senior senator supports Wall Street, not Main Street. Less than two hours before the beginning of the meeting, Senator Chuck Grassley released an “Action Alert” that explained his no vote on the financial reform bill in the Senate.

Others in the audience had received Grassley’s email, and when asked about it, Conlin, who had also read the memo, said that his arguments were an excuse to avoid financial reform.  Grassley questioned the recycling of TARP funds, weakening of regulation of the derivatives market proposed in the Senate version of the bill and a need for independent assessment by credit rating agencies by security issuers. Whenever the word “derivatives” is mentioned, people’s eyes start to glaze over, and few realize that it is a complicated mechanism for those on Wall Street to make bets on financial outcomes. These derivatives and the related credit default swaps were a key reason for the failure of Lehman Brothers, which precipitated the financial meltdown in 2008.

By getting down in the weeds in his explanation of his no vote, Grassley obfuscates the fact that rather than doing something now regarding financial reform, he feels we are better off doing nothing. He would avoid this opportunity for financial reform, saying the reforms are too watered down. Conlin responded, he “is not paying attention to what the people of Iowa need.” She also said, “there ought to be a rule that you can’t make stuff up,” with regard to Grassley’s explanation of his no vote in the context of derivatives reform.

The topic that garnered the most applause at the town hall meeting was the notion that when it comes to economic recovery, Iowans need to get back to work first. Conlin’s said there should be a focus on infrastructure projects, “green energy,” and a tax incentive for capital investments in business. Her idea is to waive the current tax credit schedules to enable businesses to take more of the tax credit for capital investments sooner. This would have the immediate benefits of investment in equipment that would create jobs.

This week Conlin proposed a series of twelve debates with the incumbent around the state. It came as no surprise that Grassley would not agree, saying he “could see maybe two debates.” Conlin pointed out that instead of talking about issues in formal debates, much of the campaign positions would be asserted in 30 second television commercials. She said, “This is Iowa. We are better than that. We deserve better than that.” Having the debates Conlin proposed would help Iowans understand the issues that are at stake in this election, but since the advantage would be Conlin’s, Grassley’s response was predictable.

The event closed with State Senator Bob Dvorsky reminding us of the importance of early voting and that the first day to cast a vote in this election is September 23rd at the auditor’s office. Conlin committed to “challenging and changing the upside-down priorities” of the incumbent.

~Paul
Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend
editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul
Deaton