This week with the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids ...

The Good News at the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids for the week of January 11, 2009 ...

This week's program and news from "Ripples from the Rapids" ...

• CLUB SOCIAL ANNOUNCED for March 3, 2010
• Speaker and program was Senator Charles E. "Chuck" Grassley (Rep. -Iowa)
• Nick Gearhart Accepts Sergeant-at-Arms Position
• Ripples Rotary Week - Rotarians in the News and Area Rotary Calendar

Highlights from U.S. SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY program ...

It has been a number of years since Iowa Senator Charles Grassley has addressed The Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids. He did so Monday before the largest Rotary audience since Steve Alford spoke in April 2001 at the conclusion of his second season at The University of Iowa. Senator Grassley is completing his 5Th term as a senator and is running for election to an additional six-year term to be decided in November 2010.

Senator Grassley is a member of the powerful Senate Committee on
Finance (Chairman from January 2003 until January 2007), He is a member of
the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, the Judiciary Committee,
Budget Committee, Caucus on International Narcotics Control and Joint Committee on Taxation.

Senator Grassley emphasized his continuing concern with security
issues confronting the nation including the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a
passenger jet headed for Detroit as well as the 2009 Fort Hood, Texas
slayings. He feels that we have tended to become complacent about security
since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

He is opposed to the President’s plan to close the prison at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and bring prisoners to the United States, but supports the
military efforts the Obama Administration is making in Afghanistan.

Although Grassley said he was not raising the security issue for
political purposes; it already appears it will be an issue in the 2010
election. He endorsed measures to improve airport security and expand the
list of people with possible terrorist connections to be flagged if they
attempted to enter the United States. He also supports increased scrutiny
of Yemen and terrorist support from that country.

Senator Grassley said that the economy and jobs remains “first on
everybody’s mind” and business owners, especially small business owners, won’t
start hiring again until the nation’s future is clearer. Uncertainty about
taxation issues, cap and trade legislation and increased financial regulation
all affect the business climate and our ability to lower unemployment
levels.

Grassley said that health care legislation that has passed the House
and Senate contains some good elements, but is anything but bipartisan. In
order to have achieved that objective he feels consideration needed to be given
to tort reform, how immigration is addressed and not requiring every American be
covered by health insurance (the individual mandate).. He feels the health
care bill that is emerging does not meet expectations and hopes it will not pass
unless the above changes are incorporated.

Senator Grassley was also critical of the “bad” stimulus bill
passed by Congress in an attempt to shore up a plunging economy. To a
question of the tone of politics today Grassley said he does not think politics
is as nasty as what is portrayed in the media where disagreement is what makes
news. - - - from Ripples from the Rapids for January 11, 2010

Next Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids program:

Monday, January 18, 2010

Remembering Martin Luther King Luncheon

20 local students from local middle and high schools will be honored

Co-sponsored by Rotary and the United Way of ECI

Upcoming Rotary Club Of Cedar Rapids PROGRAMS & EVENTS ...

• January 25, 2010 - Dr. John Thomson, Dean of Veterinary Medicine, ISU.
• February 1, 2010 - Ted Townsend, President & CEO, St. Luke's Hospital - Healthcare - National Update.
• February 8. 2010 - Nancy Quelhorst, President, Iowa City Chamber of Commerce.

Robin Tucker