Loebsack live town hall

Loebsack live town hall

10:02 and hi from the Iowa City library. It's less crowded in this room than it was caucus night, just a couple dozen folks here for Dave Loebsack's town hall. We're going to live blog for now, then polish it off for Iowa Indy tomorrow.

Dave's looking back on one year in office, jokes that he's had to upgrade his footwear. No other press here so I guess I have an exclusive. You'd think the press corps would be hustling for stories in the post-caucus era.

Loebsack reviews House accomplishments of `07. Education and Labor got minimum wage increase through, Head Start reauthorization for first time in a decade "We put significantly more resources into it. These are bipartisan efforts, folks. That's how we have to get things accomplished." Got about 390 votes. He served on the conference committee for that bill. College Cost Reduction and Access Act: "It's the single largest investment in student aid since the GI Bill." Cuts interest rates, provides loan forgiveness for students who go into certain careers (nursing, etc.)

Armed Services has helped pass "biggest increase in history of VA." "When I went to Iraq the second time, one of the things I focused on was health care. Whether we agree on the war or not, we need to treat the troops with dignity when they come home, and we have not been treating them the way they should." Has visited Walter Reed several times. (Crowd up to about 40 now) Also need to take care of PTSD for vets of earlier wars especially Vietnam -- some people from that era are just showing up now with symptoms. Cites high numbers of traumatic brain injury in Iraq. People physically survive attacks, but symptoms are delayed; need to put $ into brain injury research.

Public Q & A. Questioner cites congressional unpopularity, blames press for not looking into how Congress runs, also cites earmarking. (More of a statement than a question here.) Loebsack: "I have differences with leadership on a number of issues, but I'm going to keep doing the job I'm doing for the 2nd district and the country. Tell me how I can do a better job, and I'll do the best I can."

"I think a lot of things we have done in congress, you just haven't been made aware of them. We're trying to get the word out. Those of us who are trying to change the country, like you told us in 2006, are at least as frustrated, because we're a part of it."

Says earmarks cut in half this year. "If it all got put into the regular budget, I'd be more than happy with that." But cites some specific examples like $600k for a CR entrepreneurial center and several million for UIowa. "But there are the bridges to nowhere and those we don't need."

Next questioner is a combat vet and physician. "The VA's busted." Particularly in transition from service to civilian life. "It's time to cut the chatter. Not that many people seem to be interested in solving the problem. It's an issue of funding the programs, and there's a major disconnect." Can't tell vets to fend for themselves.

Loebsack: everyone in both parties wants to put more into vets; differences on how to pay. "All the president has to do is ask for it."

Clean Water Authority Restoration Act. DL: "I'm not on that yet, I'm looking at it."

Barbara Beaumont: Military Commissions Act. DL: "I wouldn't have voted for it" in `05. On habeas corpus, Ike Skelton has legislation to restore, I cosponsored. "We have to do more, a lot of us are trying to make changes."

Maria Conzemius: "It almost sounds like you're trying to roll a boulder up hill. Maybe we should have a strategy for a veto-proof congress in terms of targeting." Specifies McConnell. "We need to send $ to these campaigns and make ourselves feel better like we are doing something for change. The media's not very honest about what the problem is. They don't mention that Huckabee was under court order when he raised taxes."

DL: demurs on political comment as he's wearing the congressman hat not the candidate hat but "I haven't given up. I got elected, I think, to try to change the direction of the country."

Questioner: "We never have enough money for everything. Philosophically, how to you balance the highest priorities?" Loebsack looks eager to answer. "I'm doing the best I can to reflect the priorities I'm hearing from the people of the second district. We have a finite budget pie, and that could be expanded by repealing tax cuts on the wealthiest. We're doing a pay as you go system in Congress now. The College Cost act, we paid for that. While there's a certain limit on what's being spent, we managed to reprioritize things in at least a small way. Not nearly enough, we want to keep pushing on that in the next year. For me it's about making the choices you tell me to make."

Next questioner has a list, starts with Fallon. "I wish Ed were in this district -- but I'm very grateful for you." He continues: "Dave is every day in the hornet's nest with the rest of the hornets. He's up against a constituency that's very interested in continuing the current agenda." "China could blackmail us economically if they wanted to." Going through the laundry list faster than a candidate in a debate with the red time light flashing, throws the NH voting equipment in too. Closed with the war.

Loebsack: "Leonard Boswell's been very good to me as a freshman, I think I'll leave it at that for now." "We did try to put a timeline on the war, it passed the house, we didn't have enough votes to override." Cites amendment he passed, every three months the Administration has to account for war. "It's a small victory, but at least it's a small measure of accountability."

Ethanol and "state leadership's unrealistic presentation" and environmental degradation from ethanol production. Loebsack: "Ethanol is the beginning of the process, there are all sorts of other things we could be doing. Obviously, to the extent ethanol plants have been built in Iowa, they've done some good things for the farmers and creating jobs." Next year he wants to add electricity standards which he hopes will lead to more wind and solar production. Signed on to Safe Climate Act.

Next questioner has "a Johnson County laundry list." Green building techniques, coal plant limits, national debt, vets, election reform.

Loebsack: "green buildings make perfect sense." Introduces a green standard for school construction. "To the extent we have the resources, at the federal level we can provide some incentives." Rush Holt paper trail bill has not moved forward, he hopes it will.

Recession relief. DL: "It makes sense to repeal the tax breaks for the wealthy, it makes sense to give relief to folks on the lower end." A lot of this is in Federal Reserve hands. "For me a lot of this goes back to something longer range, and that's education. That is important for the economy, it's the single largest contributor to economic development. As far as fiscal policy, we already do deficit spending and I'm not sure we want to a lot more just to stimulate the economy." Audience member: "just print more money, Dave!" Original questioner asks again about tax cuts: "there's no need to give the wealthy tax cuts if we don't create one new job."

Jeffrey Lauer, says his mom has brain injury. 12,000 people in 2nd CD have brain injury. Loebsack says he's on Brain Injury Task Force.

Mae Schatteman praised Dave and gets applause. Particular interest is education and the college cost bill. Dave: "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for those financial aid bills, and I can't go to Congress and not fight for those things myself."

Impeachment. "It will not go away when we get a new president, all those tools will go into the toolbox and another president can do the same things Bush is doing. Our democracy is slowly being eroded away, I fear our government more than the terrorists." Also cites need for FCC reform re: media consolidation. "The only way a democracy can survive is when everybody's viewpoint s represented." Says second tier candidates (Kucinich especially) were shut out.

Loebsack: "on media consolidation I couldn't agree more. The rise of the internet has helped us in many ways. Net neutrality is an important issue." But media consolidation isn't on his committees. "Folks are concerned about this on both sides of the aisle." As for impeachment: "There is a lot more accountability happening now then people are aware." Cites Waxman's committee. "The question is whether people will be held in contempt or not. At the same time it's important to keep in mind that congress has only so many days in a week so many hours in a day and we want to legislate. Oversight is a part of that. We freshmen have an Article One group trying to reassert the authority of Congress."

Linda Fisher asks about Iowa City-Cedar Rapids rail service. "Iowa City is in the process of becoming a parking lot." "Amtrak is being starved to death."

Loebsack: passenger rail makes a lot of sense, esp. Chicago to Quad Cities. "We've all witnessed the traffic on 380. Gosh, it's not quite like Washington, but the number of vehicles is amazing."

Public Q and A winds down; staffer encourages one fellow but her prefers a private cat with the congressman. That's private CHAT, but I find the typo amusing.

That's it from the library. Got a short one on one interview; check back tomorrow.