Iowa senators agree on seriousness of debt crisis, differ on solution

Although he calls Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's debt ceiling plan a joke, the continuing impasse is no laughing matter to Sen. Chuck Grassley.

The Iowa Republican thinks Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's solution is “smoke and mirrors … intellectually unsupportable … kind of a joke.”

However, as countdown clocks tick down to the presumptive Aug. 2 debt ceiling deadline, there is a consensus something needs to be done even if there is no consensus on what that is, Grassley said.

“Everybody knows it's going to be bad if the United States defaults,” Grassley said.

Even those who want to hold out in hopes the “president's going to cave or the Democrats will cave … they know that default is bad,” Grassley said. “Everybody knows there significant downside to continued inaction on the debt.”

Meanwhile his Iowa colleague, Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin, said his office has been flooded with calls and emails from Iowans. By overwhelming margins, he said, they want Congress to “embrace a reasonable compromise.”

“A growing majority of people understand that a default would be a catastrophe, driving up interest rates on everything from mortgages to car loans, student loans, adding tens of billions of dollars in annual interest payments on the national debt,” Harkin said July 28.

Harkin didn't say how many calls his offices have received. Grassley's Washington office has received a few hundred calls and his district offices have received dozens, not the thousands they received when Congress was considering the bank bailout or the federal stimulus. Most have supported the presidents' position, which shows, Grassley said, the power of the president's bully pulpit is greater than House Speaker john Boehner's.

A “significant minority” of callers just want Congress to get to work and reach an agreement.

Although Congress has a recent track record of 11

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-hour decisions that have involved working weekends and even over holidays, Harkin hopes it's not becoming the new business-as-usual.

“I hope we don't get into this mode every time we try to something around here,” Harkin said. “I just hate to think this is the new norm around here.”

The controversy over the debt ceiling has strained the usual collegiality of the Senate, he said.

“No doubt about it,” Harkin said. “Both the Senate and the House.”

“You don't see a wringing of hands or speeches of desperation in our private meetings,” Grassley added, “but there is great concern.”

However, Congress waiting to act until it's up against a deadline seems inherent in its nature, he said. Deadlines can be something “very positive because I see Congress finally making decisions.”

He compared the situation to the Iowa Legislature going right down to the end of the fiscal year before approving the state budget.

“It's just something characteristic of legislative bodies,” Grassley said.

The senators agree there is a certain amount of political posturing going on.

“The president's decision is based on the politics of getting through the next election and we're looking at what we can get done now to avoid default and what we can get done to show significant savings to show that the people who won the election in 2010 are delivering,” he said.

Harkin criticized the 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls who have taken a hard stand against compromise.

“Compromise is inherent in our jobs,” he said. “If you're an elected official in government, compromise is what your business is. You can't have it all your way all the time, so you do compromise.”