Feisty crowd of 70 attends Senator Grassley's Town Hall meeting

There was no lack of topics to discuss at U.S. Senator Charles Grassley's Town Hall meeting in Decorah Tuesday afternoon.  The federal budget deficit, the defense budget, health care reform--all of them were discussed along with several other issues.

But the overriding issue was the need to cut the federal budget.  In response to a question, Senator Grassley said he did not favor raising taxes because the current budget deficit was caused by overspending, not by undertaxing.  Grassley said the more money raised through taxes, the more money that Congress spends.

But several people in the audience called for cuts in the military budget to balance the budget.  Decorah resident Craig Mosher said the defense budget is much larger than other budgets, so it has more rom to cut.  Grassley replied that he supports Defense Secretary Robert Gates' efforts to trim money from the defense budget by changing military spending away from old weapons system in favor of the kinds of resources the military needs to fight new wars.  Grassley said a strong defense can be "a stabilizing force in the world."

The health care reform bill was also mentioned by several people at the Town Hall meeting.  Grassley told the group all 100 senators know the American health care system needs reforms.  But he says some ideas are good ones--such as an emphasis on quality medical care instead of high quantity medical care--while other improvements still need to be made to the legislation, such as allowing health care insurance to be sold across state lines.

Grassley stopped in Decorah as part of a swing through Northeast Iowa that also included stops in Waukon, New Hampton and Cresco.