First stop today is the VFW hall in Dakota City, about 70 minutes north of Ames. 33 people are here to meet JDpic.twitter.com/yQ87163rQj
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First stop today is the VFW hall in Dakota City, about 70 minutes north of Ames. 33 people are here to meet JDpic.twitter.com/yQ87163rQj
JD mentions an issue I hadn’t heard about—Iowa is 51st out of the states + DC in the ratio of state psychiatric beds to residents. People in crisis end up in jail or the ER, two of the highest cost outcomes
Out of 1400 students in technology who graduated from Iowa State last year, 258 stayed in the state. Everyone else had to look for jobs elsewhere
JD on trade wars: we’re borrowing money from China to give to farmers to not sell their products to China. His speech is interrupted by a “Who Let The Dogs Out” ringtone
First question is about raising the minimum wage. JD is for it, but also wants to see 55,65,75K jobs moving into the district. Doesn’t want to see Iowa divided into Des Moines and “other”
One of Scholten’s political heroes is Berkeley Bedell, who I agree the Democratic Party could use more ofhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkley_Bedell …
Next question: China is leading in green technology. How do we take over as the innovators in this new economy. JD ties it to climate change and the need to address it head on in Congress
Indignant question about the role of corporate PAC donations to politicians. “How is that not legalized bribery?” That’s exactly what it is.
Nobody wants open borders. But this district—Steve King’s district—is absolutely reliant on an immigrant workforce. One nearby grain elevator needed 39 seasonal workers last harvest, not a single US citizen applied
Last question is on water quality and we go deep into agriculture arcana: buffer strips, bioreactors. JD says rural water quality should be part of a broad Federal infrastructure initiative that could hopefully heal some partisan divisions
(I'll add as a final note that the word Trump was not spoken by anyone during this entire event, which is very typical for rural town halls that I've attended. Three questions each on health care and campaign finance reform, two issues the national Democrats refuse to run on)
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