Bernie Sanders coming to Cedar Rapids to rally support for $3.5 trillion spending plan

CEDAR RAPIDS — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders carried the Linn County Democratic caucuses in February 2020, but he’s coming back because of Donald Trump’s strong performance in Linn County in the November election.

Sanders is coming back to Cedar Rapids to rally support for his $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation proposal. It’s one of the Senate Budget Committee chairman’s stops on a town hall tour of congressional districts where Trump increased his vote total between 2016 and 2020.

Trump carried Iowa in 2016 and 2020, increasing his vote total by nearly 97,000 votes statewide en route to an 8.2 percentage point win over Democrat Joe Biden. He also increased his vote total in the 1st Congressional District, which includes Linn County, by about 20,000 votes from 2016 to 2020.

“While it will have no Republican support in Washington, Democrats, independents and working-class Republicans all over the country support our plan to finally invest in the long-neglected needs of working families,” Sanders said in announcing an Aug. 29 town hall at the NewBo City Market Bankers Trust Stage, 1100 Third St. SE starting at 2 p.m.

He’s planning a similar event in Indiana’s 4th District, where Trump increased his vote total by about 30,000 votes in 2020.

However, Sanders points to a Data for Progress poll that found support from across the political spectrum for the $3.5 trillion package broadly and the policies in the proposal specifically.

First District Rep. Ashley Hinson thinks it will be hard for Sanders to justify a “spending spree that will make life even less affordable for working families.”

The Democratic budget proposal touches nearly every aspect of American life, Sanders said.

It calls for the wealthiest Americans to pay what Sanders calls their “fair share” of taxes, extends the historic expansion of the Child Tax Credit, guarantees free prekindergarten for all 3- and 4-year olds and ensure no family pays more than 7 percent of its income for child care.

The proposal also would make community college tuition-free, combat climate change, create millions of good-paying jobs, make housing more affordable, expand Medicare to lower the eligibility age and cover eyeglasses, hearing aids and dental care, and make home health care more affordable.

Iowans, Hinson said, “are just appalled that the administration and radical Democrats want to spend 3.5 trillion more dollars we don’t have on policies Iowans don’t want — including paving the way for the death tax and other tax hikes — while inflation is soaring and they are already paying more for everyday life.”

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