On Wednesday, the 22nd, I went to Senator Grassley’s town hall meeting in Iowa Falls. It was very interesting to listen to our neighbors' concerns and the Senator's answers.
The truck driver said that there were so many regulations he'd have to quit if the government created any more--he could barely load and unload his pigs for market without violating a regulation.
The doctor complained of too many regulations: it's illegal for him to let his housekeeper clean his office; he has to sign and date each documents 3 times, and he has to keep track of every pill in his office--if he is not able to account for each and every pill he will get a $30,000 fine.
The home health-care provider complained of a mountain of regulations: her patients must have a doctor-signed statement 30 days before they need care if they want home-health care provided.
The egg farmer complained of unnecessary regulations: "They want me to be nice to my chickens; of course I'm nice to my chickens. I have to be if I want them to produce eggs, so I can stay in business, but the government..."
Then, there were several people complaining of problems with Social Security and Medicare. I asked Senator Grassley if, considering all the problems of Social Security, he would work to make it possible for young people (me!!) to opt-out. He said that if they let me opt-out, everyone would opt out; and no one would be left to pay for the old people. I said that if everyone would opt-out it must be a really bad system, and that maybe we could take care of the old people by cutting a few departments and bringing troops home from some of the 130 or so countries. The Senator said that we could use the money from those cuts for a lot of things...
There were also a couple people very concerned about the national debt, and the government's spending problems.
I think the senator answered the questions well; his most basic answer was "If you think you're frustrated, think of how frustrated I am in Washington!"
Of course, Senator Grassley’s politics aren’t perfect--scarcely anyone's are--but if we sent more politicians like Senator Grassley to Washington--and if more politicians would listen to the simple wisdom of these good Iowa farmers asking for a little freedom and a little less regulation--I think Washington, D.C. and this whole country would be a much better place.
