GRUNDY CENTER- Several of the attendees at U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley’s town hall meeting in Grundy Center on Monday morning shared similar reflections on their personal histories with the long-serving politician, who is widely considered an Iowa institution. They’ve voted for him ever since they can remember, but they weren’t sure how to feel about his support for an infrastructure bill that allocates $1.2 trillion in additional government spending.
At least 70 people filed into the Kling Memorial Library for the public event, the first that Grassley, a Republican, has held since casting the vote—his fellow GOP Senator from Iowa, Joni Ernst, voted against the infrastructure package. He noted that he opposed a separate Democrat-backed budget resolution that passed by a 50-49 vote along party lines, but the mostly conservative audience still took him to task for what they perceived as a perpetual expansion of the size of government during his 45 plus years in Washington.
Grassley defended his position as a vote for roads, bridges, locks and dams and a long-term investment in the future of the country but added that he opposed what Democrats called “human infrastructure.” In an interview with reporters after the town hall, he compared the hostility to the environments at meetings after the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as “Obamacare,” and his decision not to hold hearings on the potential appointment of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016.
One man in the crowd, who identified himself as a Vietnam veteran, lamented that continued spending programs could spell doom for the U.S. as a nation.
“If you put it all together, we’re over $100 trillion in the hole. I think anybody in this room can spend money. What we need is some type of listener,” the man said. “As we talk about all the money being spent, I’m in my last season, and so are you. But what kind of legacy are we going to leave behind for this country? You and I both know you’re destroying the dollar as a world currency. It will never be the same… You’re on a road to total destruction for the United States of America.”
He concluded by informing Grassley that he had started out strong and wanted him to end strong.
“But right now, you’re lukewarm,” the man said before receiving rapturous applause. “Lukewarm is not the place to be. You have to stand strong.”
Concerns were also raised about photos showing an airplane carrying migrants who had been apprehended at the southern border and transported to Iowa, and State Senator Annette Sweeney (R-Buckeye), who was in attendance, encouraged constituents to contact her with further questions.
A questioner from Grundy Center drew applause when he pressed Grassley on electoral integrity, the national debt and the looming threat of China taking over as the world’s superpower, calling all of those issues more important than infrastructure and worrying that Americans were losing their freedoms.
The man’s son then more aggressively grilled the Senator on whether he had even read the legislation, which he opined was not actually an infrastructure bill at all.
“You voted yes for that. That bill is a leftist’s wet dream,” he said. “If you asked the people in this room and the entire state of Iowa, I would bet my entire life savings and everything that I’ve ever earned that they would not even put a real infrastructure bill on the top of their list. Stolen election—Boom. Number two—January 6 insurrection: fake, staged, set up, we have the proof. Three—you are touting a vaccine that since its inception, approval and mandates has killed more people than since 1990 all added up together… I have respected you my entire life. I respected what you stood for. The recent events that have happened in our country with you as a U.S. Senator have changed my belief system in what you are inside and what you stand for.”
He did conclude, however, that he would retract his statements if it was found that Grassley was part of “something bigger in the background” to improve the direction of the country. The next questioner touted the benefits of hydroxychloroquine and opined that it could’ve prevented lockdowns, business closures and mask mandates, and another asked what it would take to bring the production of prescription drugs back to the U.S. from China.
Dolores Mooty then called for the firing of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the impeachment of current President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and the removal of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and argued that Republicans don’t stand up and fight, while Democrats don’t fight fair.
“We need to get that out of there. They need to go because they are the ones that are selling us down the river, and we have got to have a clean sweep there,” Mooty said. “I don’t know what can be done, but they all need to be brought up on charges of treason.”
She also offered to travel to the southern border herself to help build a wall. Not all of Grassley’s interactions were as controversial or confrontational, as some exchanges centered on topics like expanding broadband, and a constituent told the 87-year-old that he hoped he ran for re-election in 2022 while reminding the audience that it took more than one Senator to accomplish legislative goals.
Social media censorship was another frequent cause for consternation, and Grassley agreed with multiple audience members that conservative posts should not result in suspensions or removal from the platforms. One of the only comments that seemed to unite the crowd came when the Senator said that the right to have debates and discuss difficult topics makes the U.S. the greatest country on Earth.
Marty Rouse of Grundy Center asked why businesses owned by racial minorities were given first priority for COVID-19 relief funds and called the practices unfair, and Ted Junker of rural New Hartford asked Grassley, who has referred to himself as the father of the wind energy production tax credit, why he still supports the program and hasn’t voted against it.
Somewhat surprisingly, the topic of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent Taliban takeover did not come up until almost an hour into the event, when a Vietnam veteran in the crowd called the situation a tragedy. During the interview with reporters, Grassley said that his chief concerns were getting refugees out of the country and the future for women and children under an Islamist caliphate.
When one woman attempted to ask a question while wearing a mask, explaining that she had a compromised immune system, she was told to take it off and that she couldn’t be heard. She commented that she trusted the established science and guidance of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) on COVID-19 precautions, and that children who cannot be vaccinated should be protected from the possibility of contracting the virus.
Grassley fielded inquiries on the Keystone XL pipeline, impeaching President Biden and inability to receive stimulus payments before interviewing with reporters and headed off to his next meeting in Iowa Falls.
