The democrat running against Republican Senator Charles Grassley says Grassley should be held accountable for being the “architect” of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Art Small says he redeveloped a building in Iowa City once, and if the architect he hired had designed a building that “leaned way too the right,” Small would have gotten a new architect. Small says the new prescription drug discount cards available through Medicare do benefit poor people but most people don’t get much of a break, and it’s all costing taxpayers an extraordinary amount of money. Small says the big beneficiaries are companies that sell prescription drugs and health insurance. Small says drug and health care companies have contributed about half a million dollars to Grassley’s reelection campaign. Small says he hasn’t gotten a dime from the pharmaceutical industry or from insurance companies. Small says “they haven’t called, they haven’t written, they haven’t done anything.” Small says he’s joking about that, since he would refuse campaign contributions from the industries’ political action committees. Small, who lives in Iowa City, is a former state senator and the only democrat to step forward to challenge Grassley’s reelection. Small says he’s raised about eight-thousand dollars, and he’s developed a campaign slogan — “Think Big. Vote Small.”
