Grassley owes public a few explanations

Questions for Sen. Chuck Grassley:

1) Please explain your being named the “Third Insurance Puppet“ by the Public Campaign Action Fund, a national non-partisan group dedicated to holding elected officials accountable for the special favors given to wealthy campaign donors. (www.insurance

puppets.com) They named Democrat Max Baucus (Montana) the first puppet, so they are not just harassing Republicans. You received 23 percent of your campaign funds, $2.3 million, from the health care interests, which I am sure has not influenced you (www.mtstandard.com).

2) Please explain why you voted for the Medicare doughnut hole. Who benefited from the 2003 Medicare drug legislation, under which elderly consumers were shifted from Medicaid to Medicare, from a program where the government could negotiate with drug companies over prices, to a program where the new legislation prohibited such negotiations. How concerned were you about elderly Iowans when you voted for that?

3) Why is the health care industry not subject to antitrust laws?

4) You voted for every budget submitted by George W. Bush. You supported every tax reduction for the super wealthy. You did not vocalize concern about the expenditures of Bush's administration, which resulted in our current recession. So obviously you don't care about debt. Yet you cannot support health care reform, which is something that will truly help the common man.

So Senator, have you been bought?

Linda Sprengeler

Cedar Rapids