News : Grassley discusses Senate, politics with VSHS seniors

VSHS seniors had many questions for Sen. Charles Grassley.

“What do you think of President Obama?”

That was one of the first questions that members of the Vinton-Shellsburg Class of 2013 asked U.S. Senator Charles Grassley during an hour-long Q & A session last week.

Grassley, who has held political office since being elected to the Iowa Legislature in 1958 and has served in the U.S. Senate since 1981, answered a variety of questions from students who had spent time researching issues. The students had more than enough questions to last the entire hour.

Government teacher Kyle Engdahl invited Grassley to speak to his students; eventually the invitation was extended to all seniors as well as the students of the Alternative High School.

The Senator began the event by discussing his college internship program and inviting the VS students to apply. Every year approximate 30-32 college students serve for six weeks in his office in Washington, D.C. About of Grassley’s former interns went on to work for him on a full-time basis.

“It’s a good opportunity to experience how government works,” he said, adding that those who apply but are not accepted should keep applying until they do get accepted. He encouraged the audience to learn more at his web site: grassley.senate.gov

‘Keep communicating’

Grassley told the students that the best way to communicate with political leaders is to attend such meetings. But, he said, that should just be the beginning of the conversation.

“It doesn’t do much good if you don’t keep up communications,’ he said. “Contact me by email, mail or phone. Share your opinions and I promise to respond. And if I don’t respond, write me a nasty letter to ask why I didn’t reply to you.”

Questions and Answers

After a short introduction, Grassley asked the students if they had questions. One of the first students who raised his hand asked about Grassley’s opinion of the president.

“He is a very intelligent man and when he talks to you, he makes you feel like you are the most important person in the world,” said Grassley, who added that as a Republican, he disagrees with the President on many policies. He also said he believed Obama was “in over his head” as a new President; the Senator said he believes the failure of the stimulus plan is evidence of that.

One student told Grassley she has a relative who had his military college funding cut because of the sequester. Grassley said that the budget cuts forced military commanders to choose between spending that money to train current soldiers or to help former soldiers with college costs. He said he agreed with military leaders who say the priority is training current soldiers, but said leaders continue working on the sequester-related issues that resulted in that college funding cut.

Grassley also blamed the President letting the budgetary issue known as the sequester take place.

“He had 18 months to fix it, but did nothing until he spent January and Februrary blaming Republicans,” said Grassley.

Many of the students’ questions came from current news headlines.

Gay marriage, Grassley should be a “state issue.”

On abortion, Grassley said that the Supreme Court has taken the decisions from the politicians. Only a constitutional amendment could change that, he said.

Concerning the death penalty, Grassley said that is one issue on which he has changed his mind.

“As a member of the Iowa Legislature, I helped abolish the death penalty in the 1960s,” he said. But the continued violent nature of crime, he added, has made him believe that in some cases the death penalty would be both a deterrent and an appropriate punishment.

Yet, adds the Senator, if he were a governor who had to make the final choice on whether to allow a death row inmate to be executed, it would be very difficult to make the choice that someone had to die.

Concerning the legalization of marijuana, Grassley said that issue is divided into three parts. Medical marijuana, he said, would need to be evaluated by the FDA to see that it is both safe and effective. Industrial marijuana (hemp) and recreational use of marijuana are also issues that state leaders must deal with separately, he said.

Another student asked a question that Grassley said he has been asked at every meeting recently: Why has the Department of Homeland Security recently purchased 1.3 billion bullets?

“I do not know – its sounds absolutely phenomenal that they would need that many bullets,” said Grassley, adding that as a Senator, it is his job to find out. He said he has written letters to DHS officials asking for an explanation, but has not yet received a reply.

“When I get an answer, I will share it on my web page,” he said.

Concerning gun control, Grassley said that as a Second Amendment supporter, he is not in favor of more restrictions. Automatic weapons have been banned in the U.S. since the 1930s he said. Also, he adds, the proposals now in Congress would ban certain rifles but not handguns with the same capabilities; that is not fair, he said.

Grassley said there does need to be a better system of screening for mental illness to keep guns away from people who shouldn’t have access to them.

On environmental issues, particularly global warming, Grassley said that a global program that involves nations like China and Brazil is the only solution that fairly addresses those concerns.

A few of the students asked Grassley to explain his history as a politician.

He said that in high school he loved to study government. He was still in high school when he decided that one day he would try to run for the Iowa Legislature. However, he said, that was his only plan; he did not at that age consider a career in Congress.

Grassley’s parents were not involved in politics themselves, although they voted and discussed it, he said.

He majored in government at UNI and first ran for the Legislature while in his early 20s.

“Back then, it was very much a part-time job and salary,” he recalled. “I think the pay was around $3,000 every other year.”

After serving in the Legislature for 16 years while farming and also working at a Cedar Falls factory, Grassley was elected to the U.S. House in 1974, and to the U.S. Senate in 1980.

In 1980, Grassley defeated John Culver, the father of former Governor Chet Culver. Grassley’s last Senate election occurred in 2010, when he defeated Democrat Roxanne Conlin. Conlin had run against Terry Branstad in 1982, when Branstad, who defeated the younger Culver in 2010, first became Governor.

It was not difficult, said Grassley in response to a question, to make the jump from the Iowa Legislature to Congress. It would have been much more difficult to run for Congress without first serving in the Legislature, he added.

Yet, he said, Congress and the state legislatures deal with very different issues.

One student asked Grassley, “What percentage of your opinion vs. public opinion goes into your decisions?”

Grassley said that a variety of factors affect each issue, and that such percentage varies.

Sometimes, he said, Senators voting on military issues are basing their decisions on classified information that the public does not know.

On about 98 percent of the votes, said Grassley, there is no major controversy. Grassley told the students he is proud of his record in the Senate. He has not missed a vote in the U.S. Senate for many years, casting 6,500 votes without recording an absence. He recorded his 11,000th Senate vote in November 2012.