For Immediate Release
January 8, 2009

 

   The following is an unrehearsed interview with Iowa Senator Chuck

Grassley speaking to you live from Washington. Participating in

today's public affairs program are Eric Mandel with KIFG Radio in Iowa

Falls and Mike Hohenbrink with the Independence Bulletin Journal in

Independence. 

 

   The first question will be from Eric Mandel. 

 

   QUESTION: Hi, Senator Grassley. Do you anticipate some sort of

federal bailout in the ethanol industry? And do you think that would

be the right move? 

 

   GRASSLEY: I believe right now that everything -- when you stop

to think of everything that the ethanol industry has been provided as

government incentives -- and I'll name two or three things -- one, the

tax incentive now almost 30 years old; number two, what we all the

IRFS standard where it's a mandate that the oil companies have to use

-- like, for instance, a mandate for this year, I think, is nine and a

half billion gallons. 

 

   And then we have an import duty on so that we're protected from

all the imports coming in from other countries. And those things have

been the genesis of the ethanol industry and the expansion of the

industry to where it is today. 

 

   And I believe, from the standpoint of what we have done

maintaining it is a very important thing; that we can't give anything

up. And some of those things, we may have to fight for. But I

believe we'll be successful because even in this stimulus bill, there

is going to be a component for not just ethanol but wind, biomass,

what we call Section 45 type tax incentives, including, even

biodiesel. 

 

   So we're going to continue what we are doing and need to continue

what we're doing and work our way out. And -- now, you may be also

asking the question because there's something come up about the U.S.

Department of Agriculture giving some low-interest loans, things of

that nature, to help. And I think people thought that that was

something now just for ethanol. But ethanol has gotten some help out

of that program -- I could have just as well mentioned that as a

fourth or fifth thing -- gotten some help. Not a great deal of help.

And they could come back to get some help out of that program. 

 

   But that program is for rural economic development. It has

nothing to do just for ethanol. Almost any sort of business or start-

up business could seek help from that fund. 

 

   Let's go now to Mike. 

 

   QUESTION: Thank you, Senator. 

 

   Moving from ethanol to more traditional fuel, gas tax has been

getting a lot of headlines. Where we see a gas tax increase this

year? And do you support it? 

 

 

   GRASSLEY: Well, right now, I do not support it, although, I'm

probably not in as firm a position on that as I was when gas was at

$4. But I do expect gas to shoot up here again quickly. When I say

"quickly," you know, maybe not to $4 right away, but if anybody things

gas is going to stay at $1.50 or $1.60 or, I guess the last time I

put it in it was $1.59 in Des Moines, Iowa, we -- you'd be -- well,

you'd be just fooling yourself. 

 

   It's not going to go up because at $1.59, it's cheaper than it

was, probably, when I first bought gas for my 1950 Studebaker for 24.9

cents a gallon. 

 

   Anyway, if there is some increase in the gas tax -- and I know

they're talking about it in Des Moines as well as here at the federal

level -- I think at least at the federal level you've got to consider

any increase in the gas tax as a short-term deal. And the gas tax as

a whole is a short-term deal because we're going to have to look for

new sources of funding, not unrelated to people's use of their

automobile. But when you have some cars getting 40 miles to a gallon

and other cars getting 14 miles to a gallon and people driving less,

the gas tax is not going to bring in the amount of money that it takes

to keep our roads up. 

 

   So we're looking at things like Oregon's doing where they're

paying so much per mile. So whether you drive a very small car that

gets 40 miles to the gallon or you drive a car that gets 15 miles to a

gallon, you know, presumably, you're getting use of the highway the

same way. We need another way of deciding how people are going to

support their use. And the gas tax, in a sense, is a use tax. 

 

   What sort of -- how are you going to pay for the use of the

highways in the future. And some of that, I suppose, could include

tolls. But you've got to go even beyond that to something new over

the long haul. 

 

   QUESTION: OK. Thank you. 

 

   GRASSLEY: Let's see. Next? 

 

   QUESTION: Yes. You mentioned the stimulus package as far as

ethanol. 

 

   GRASSLEY: Yes. 

 

   QUESTION: How else do you think that an Obama stimulus package

would effect the economy in rural America? 

   GRASSLEY: Well, you know, I was reminded by one of the senators

from one of the most populous states when we were talking about making

make sure we help rural America in the stimulus package. He informed

me and all the other people on the Finance Committee that 70 percent

of the people live within 50 miles of both coasts and there's a lot of

country in between and you've got to remember where all the people

live. 

 

   But I also have to remind somebody like that that we don't have

alternatives to transportation like they have in New York and Chicago

where if you don't want to drive your car, you can get on a train or

get on a subway or get on a bus. And so, you know, if you're going to

keep the infrastructure of this state up, I mean, the infrastructure

of America up, you're going to have to not forget about rural America.

 

   So those of us from rural America are going to have to push and

push. And I think with a Democratic Congress and a Democratic

president, cities are going to get more than their usual consideration

by the Congress. And I hope that we Republicans, under a Republican

president, Republican Congress, were not unfair to cities. They might

think so, but we tried to bring balance. And we're going to have to

fight to maintain that balance. 

 

 

   GRASSLEY: Now, some of the things we're talking about would be

the extent to which we spend more money in the stimulus package on

highways. That's one way. The extent to which we spend money on

infrastructure that we call, you know, for the Internet, would be very

helpful because rural America needs that sort of help. 

 

   Then we're looking at something coming out of the agriculture for

helping rural economic development, which is a program within the

Department of Agriculture as just some examples where we're trying to

do something for rural America as well as urban America. 

 

   QUESTION: Thank you, Senator. 

 

   GRASSLEY: OK. Next person? 

 

   QUESTION: Senator, a lot of talk right now about the proposed

federal jobs program by the president-elect.  The idea of creating

600,000, approximately, federal employees -- kind of a New Deal

program. Is this a good idea? 

 

   GRASSLEY: Short term, if it's 80 percent private sector, 600,000

people otherwise, and it's very short term like the two years limit on

the program is one thing. And I made this point at this -- I didn't

tell you that I just came from another meeting where I discussed the

previous question. That's what I was referring to -- referring to

that same meeting. 

 

   I had read this morning where Biden -- Vice President-elect Biden

had said that we've got to consider the economic situation and helping

it -- a war situation just like you would a national security

situation. Well, part of any military adventure is what's the exit

strategy. 

 

   So in answering your question about public employees, if it's a

two-year program, do we have an exit strategy so that we're only

creating these jobs for a short period of time to do some good but

they aren't built into what we call the baseline of the budget where

they're going to be recurring? Because then that would be very, very

bad. 

 

   As a pointed out to my colleagues, government consumes wealth.

They don't create wealth. And what we need in a stimulus package is

to make sure that we encourage investment because investment is a

necessary forerunner to creating jobs. And those sorts of jobs are

long-term jobs. And so the stimulus should be a very short period of

time, not built into the baseline and nothing permanent coming out of

it. Otherwise, it's not a stimulus; it's a new federal government

program. 

 

   Thank you, Eric and Mike, for participating in today's public

affairs program. This has been Senator Chuck Grassley reporting to

the people of Iowa. 

 

   Does that take care of both of you because I can maybe answer

another question outside of the ten-minute recording? 

 

   QUESTION: That does pretty well for me, Senator. Thank you for

your time. 

 

   GRASSLEY: OK. 

 

   QUESTION: Appreciate it. 

 

   QUESTION: Take care. 

 

   GRASSLEY: OK. Bye-bye. 

 

   QUESTION: Bye-bye.