Ben Carson (file photo)
Republican candidate Ben Carson says he’d like to see all subsidies for the biofuels industry done away with if he wins the White House.
Support for ethanol has become a flash point in the race. On Monday Governor Terry Branstad saying he hopes Iowa Caucus-goers make support for the subsidy a “voting issue” and a group for which Branstad’s son, Eric, works is airing ads attacking Ted Cruz for his opposition to the Renewable Fuels Standard.
Carson today said he realizes that while some subsidies for ethanol and biodiesel are guaranteed through 2022, the government should not be in the subsidy business.
“I don’t believe that we should subsidize anybody,” Carson said. “We should let everybody rise and fall on the merits that they have.”
About 250 people were at Music Man Square in Mason City this afternoon to hear Carson, who is a retired surgeon. Two other GOP candidates campaigned in Iowa Thursday. Florida Senator Marco Rubio went to Knoxville to deliver a speech about manufacturing. Rubio said there’s been a “fundamental restructuring” of the nation’s economy.
“We will never restore American manufacturing by attempting to wish away the economic changes that have occurred,” Rubio said.
Rubio, who was speaking on the floor of a plant that makes paving equipment, said there’s no way to turn back the clock before robots and technology in American manufacturing plants replaced workers, but Rubio said there now are higher-paying jobs available for the technicians who run that equipment. Americans need to “embrace…the rise of new technologies” that make things like rockets and consumer electronics, according to Rubio.
“In the 21st century, we don’t want to be the country know for manufacturing toothbrushes and toys,” Rubio said.
Rubio is also calling for an end to the “double-taxation” of corporations that make money in another country and have those profits taxed if they’re brought back into the United States.
Ohio Governor John Kasich will hold a town hall meeting in Waterloo tonight. Rubio, Carson and Carly Fiorina have campaign events scheduled in Iowa Friday.
(Reporting in Mason City by Bob Fisher of KGLO)