May 23, 2012

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Congressman Braley: Obama didn’t start the debt fire, it was already burning

May 16, 2012 By

Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, has signed on to legislation that would amend the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced federal budget. Braley was asked if the legislation isn’t premature since congress has not passed a budget in three years.

“One of the reasons why we haven’t been able to pass a budget and spending plan is because of the toxic partisan environment that we’ve been facing here in Washington. And the inability of people in leadership to try to get a broad bipartisan consensus on a budget deal,” Braley responded. “With this balanced-budget amendment, it puts into place a framework that has real consequences.”

Likely Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, was in Iowa Tuesday and said President Obama has put off budget decisions and “created a prairie fire of debt” that’s swept across the country. Braley says he takes offense to Romney’s characterization.

“That prairie fire started long before President Obama took the oath of office. Because before I got to congress in 2007, — Republicans who controlled the House and Senate and the White House — paid for a Medicare prescription drug benefit that costs hundreds of billions of dollars, they did it off budget, and it added to the deficit. They paid for a war in Iraq and Afghanistan that were not part of the budget process.”

Braley says there is plenty of responsibility to pass around for the budget problems and we should talk about how to fix it, not about who started it. The congressman made his comments during his weekly conference call with reporters.

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Romney says Obama’s policies are “old” rather than “bold” (audio)

May 15, 2012 By

 

Mitt Romney in Des Moines.

Mitt Romney, the Republican Party’s likely presidential nominee this fall, used a speech this afternoon in Iowa to blast President Obama as an “old-school liberal” whose economic polices are damaging the country.

“What President Obama is doing is not bold,” Romney said. “It’s old.”

AUDIO of Romney’s 20-minute speech in Des Moines.

Romney suggested Obama has put off critical decisions about government spending and debt.

“A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and across the nation,” Romney said. “…This is not solely a Democrat or a Republican problem. The issue isn’t who deserves the most blame. The issue is who is going to do what it takes to put out the fire.”

Romney promised the crowd he wouldn’t shy away from so-called entitlement reform, meaning changes for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And he pledged to make the U.S. government “smaller, simpler and smarter.”

“I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno,” Romney said. “We will stop borrowing unfathomable sums of money we can’t even imagine from foreign companies we’re never even going to visit. I will work with you to make sure we put out this spending and borrowing fire.”

Standing under a banner that said, “CUT THE SPENDING” Romney suggested the “kitchen table values” of the heartland would guide a Romney White House.

“These aren’t the values that lead to out-of-control spending sprees or to piling up debt that you know your children and your grandchildren will have to pay off all the days of your lives,” Romney said.

The appearance was staged in the same room where Romney spoke on Caucus Night. The speech marked Romney’s first visit to Iowa since the Caucuses. Brian Kennedy, Romney’s Iowa campaign chairman, told reporters the economy will be a drag on President Obama’s reelection campaign, even if economic signals improve before November’s election.

“I think folks have given up hope that much will change over the next few months, sadly,” Kennedy said. “Barack Obama simply hasn’t done what’s necessary to turn this economy around.”

Three Iowa GOP officials who created a ruckus at a recent national meeting by refusing to sign a pledge to support Romney in the general election all attended Romney’s speech this afternoon. Iowa GOP chairman A.J. Spiker, a Ron Paul backer, and Steve Scheffler, one of Iowa’s representatives on the Republican National Committee, stood near the back of the room. Kim Lehman, Iowa’s other representative on the RNC, endorsed Rick Santorum before the Caucuses and she attended Romney’s speech as well.

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Union leaders attack Romney’s record in advance of his Iowa visit (audio)

May 15, 2012 By

Ken Sager speaks while fellow union members look on.

A coalition of groups blasted Mitt Romney’s business record in a press conference this morning in Des Moines.

Iowa AFL-CIO President Ken Sager said Romney, as an executive at Bain Capital, turned a hefty profit by raiding companies, laying off workers and forcing them into bankruptcy.

Sager said Bain purchased the clothing store chain Stage for $5 million, but made $100 million on the deal before Stage went bankrupt. Stage stores in 11 Iowa towns were closed.

“The bankruptcy occurred in 2000 and all these stores in Iowa were shut down in 2000 and 2002,” Sager said. “Those are not the kind of economic policies we want to see established here in Iowa or across the nation.”

Romney, the likely Republican nominee for president, is due to speak about the federal deficit this afternoon at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. Sager said Romney’s economic policies would hurt many Americans. “This election draws a clear contrast between Mitt’s vision for the economy, which is very familiar and troubling to us,” Sager said.

“It’s more budget busting tax cuts for the wealthy and fewer rules for Wall Street. This is the same formula that crushed our economy in ’08. It punished the middle class.” Sager said it’s “ironic” that Romney is worried about the national debt when he “loaded up companies with debt” while working for Bain Capital.

“Most American find something wrong with that, but Mitt seemed to be okay with that. As long as he got his paycheck, he didn’t seem to have a problem with hurting hard working, middle class Americans,” Sager said. There were several other speakers, in addition to Sager, at the press conference this morning.

Audio: AFL-CIO news conference 25:20.

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Party official warns without “media buy-in” Iowa Caucuses a non-event (audio)

May 15, 2012 By

A member of the Iowa Republican Party’s state central committee suggests party officials need to ensure the results of the party’s presidential caucuses are shared equally with all media.

The former chairman of the party decided in January to release the certified Caucus results to The Des Moines Register a day before releasing the results to other media. Iowa GOP state central committee member Wes Enos suggests snubbing the national media could damage the future of the Caucuses.

“For the party itself, conspiring to give exclusive election results to one outlet over another, I think, is unfair and I think it does actually hurts our process across the board because it makes different media outlets think they can’t play here unless they are, you know, part of a ‘good old boys club.’” Enos said this morning. “We don’t want to see that happen because the Iowa Caucuses without the media buy-in, without the media input, the Iowa Caucuses wouldn’t be what they are. People would pay no attention to them.”

Preliminary results announced on Caucus night showed Mitt Romney as the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucuses, by eight votes. Certified results released in mid-January, though, showed Rick Santorum the victor, by 34 votes. Jamie Johnson of Fort Dodge, a Santorum supporter, said this morning that releasing the results to one media outlet first was a “stunning” mistake by the former Iowa GOP chairman.

“One of the things that is going to come out of the Iowa Caucus Review Committee is a pledge to never allow that to happen again, where one media agency, be it print media or electronic media or broadcast media, be able to get the jump on an official release of Caucus results,” Johnson said.

Johnson and Enos are two of the members of a panel the new Iowa GOP chairman appointed to review what went right and what went wrong with the 2012 Iowa Caucuses. Dave Busiek, news director of KCCI TV in Des Moines, testified before the panel this morning.

“Please note that I do not blame The Register. Any of us in journalism would try to get an exclusive like that, but I do fault those in the party who made this decision,” Busiek said. “…I didn’t then and I don’t know understand how the party could play games with election results like this.”

Carol Hunter, an editor at The Register, suggested Busiek and others in the media are just jealous of good reporting.

“At times there can be some competitive juices at work,” Hunter said, turning to look at Busiek, “and at times no one of us likes to be beaten on a story and I would humbly suggest that, perhaps, some of the complaints might have to do with that.”

Hunter told the four-member panel of Republican activists “there should be no question about the ethics of The Register’s procedures” in obtaining the results and she urged party officials to avoid an edict that would prevent a party official from providing a media outlet with exclusive Caucus results before those tallies are released to others.

AUDIO of 21-minute hearing

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Grassley expects Romney’s visit to be the first of many in the campaign

May 15, 2012 By

The likely Republican nominee for president will make his first stop in Iowa today since the January Caucuses. Mitt Romney will be speaking in Des Moines this afternoon. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, says Romney is expected to focus on the president’s handling of the federal debt.

“I don’t think he has to communicate anything other than the economy and job creation and maybe too much regulation,” Grassley says. “He doesn’t have to bring it up, but if he’s asked about it, he’s gotta’ show his sympathy towards agriculture and biofuels.”

Grassley says Iowa is “a battleground state without a doubt,” and he says Romney hasn’t done as much grassroots work here as President Obama. “Now that’s partly Romney’s strategy,” Grassley says.

 ”He wasn’t going to spend $12-million in Iowa on the caucuses like he did four years ago and not be a winner. He came in and you can say he either won or he had a tie, but he did very well in a short period of time and the amount of money he spent.”

While it’s been more than four months since Romney has campaigned in the Hawkeye State, Grassley predicts we’ll see much more of the former Massachusetts governor in the coming six months prior to the general election. Grassley says, “He’ll have to spend a lot of time in Iowa and I believe he will spend a lot of time in Iowa and I believe we will be able to carry the state for him.”

While there was much discussion after last week’s North Carolina vote against same-sex marriage, including President Obama voicing his support for such unions, Grassley says it’s not likely a topic Iowans will hear addressed by Romney today.

He says, “Social issues might be in the top ten but it’s not in the top five of things that people are interested in that we ought to be working on, I mean, that they expect the president to be working on.” Romney is scheduled to speak at the Hotel Fort Des Moines at 2 P.M.

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Paul shifts focus, to ensure his backers elected as delegates to RNC

May 15, 2012 By

Texas Congressman Ron Paul — the third-place finisher in Iowa’s Caucuses this past January — will no longer campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in states that have yet to hold primaries. Campaign aide Jesse Benton says their focus is on getting Ron Paul delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer. The Iowa Republican Party’s delegates to that national convention will be elected at the party’s state convention on June 16.

“I think we’re going to spend money and campaign time in Iowa making sure that we have ID’d every single delegate to the state convention and that we turn out all of our delegates to the Iowa state convention to make sure that they vote and get their voices heard,” Benton says.

The man who was elected chairman of the Iowa GOP in February is a Ron Paul supporter and former campaign aide. Ron Paul supporters now hold a majority of seats on the Iowa Republican Party’s state central committee.

“We want to get our people involved in the process,” Benton says, “and we want our people in positions of influence.”

Mitt Romney — the man likely to be the Republican Party’s nominee for president in 2012 — will be in Des Moines this afternoon to deliver a policy speech. It’s Romney’s first visit to Iowa since the Caucuses and a signal Iowa is among the toss-up states for the fall election battle between Romney and President Obama.

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Mitt Romney to deliver policy speech in Des Moines (Audio)

May 14, 2012 By

Mitt Romney (file photo)

The front runner for the Republican presidential nomination is due in Iowa Tuesday. Mitt Romney is set to deliver what his campaign is calling a “major policy speech” at Drake University in Des Moines.

The Republican Party organized a conference call this morning with a couple of prominent G.O.P. elected officials in the state to preview Romney’s visit. Iowa Congressman Steve King said when Barack Obama took office, the national debt was $10.626-trillion.

Today, it stands at $15.689 trillion.

“Our debt was 80% of the (Gross Domestic Product) when he was elected. The debt is 105-percent today,” King said. “To give you an example, Greece is at 152% now and if you project Barack Obama’s $1.33 trillion (added debt) per year…we’re going to be approaching the conditions in Greece if we have a second Obama term.”

King is running for reelection in Iowa’s fourth congressional district. State Auditor Dave Vaudt said for every dollar of state revenue spent, Iowa spends another dollar of federal revenue to provide general fund services.

“The sustainability of federal revenues coming to the states is a big problem and it has really grown over the past few years during the Obama administration. Eventually, the federal government will either choose to decrease its spending or, like Greece, it’s going to be forced to cut its spending. Either way, when that happens, Iowans will be directly impacted,” Vaudt said.

Details on the exact time and location of Romney’s speech in Des Moines tomorrow have not been released. It will be his first visit to Iowa since the G.O.P. caucuses.

Audio: King/Vaudt news conference 6:01

The Obama campaign released this response:
“Mitt Romney knows a lot about out-of-control spending and debt- it was his record in Massachusetts. During his four years as governor, state spending increased by 6.5% per year, government jobs grew six times as fast as private sector jobs, taxes and fees went up by $750 million each year, and debt increased by 16%. In fact, he left Massachusetts with the largest per-capita debt of any state in the country. Now, while President Obama has a plan to reduce the national debt by $4 trillion, Mitt Romney’s would give $5 trillion in tax breaks weighted to millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the middle class—without saying how he’d pay for it. Helping the wealthiest prosper by any means necessary, even if it means undermining workers and middle class families, was Mitt Romney’s record in the public and private sectors and it represents the values that he’d bring as President.” –Erin Seidler, campaign spokeswoman

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