(HOLSTEIN, IA) Christie Vilsack stopped in Holstein, Iowa today. The Democratic candidate for the new 4th Congressional District visited Holstein Ag Services to share her ideas for creating jobs in small towns.
One of the pressing issues she talked about was the 2012 Farm Bill. We caught up with Iowa's former first lady before the event, to see what she had to say about the bill.
"We live in small towns, and those of use that live in small towns know that you have to get along or you don't get anything done," Vilsack said.
She says Republicans can't seem to come to an agreement within their party on the Farm Bill, which passed committee with bipartisan support but hasn't come up for a full vote yet. She says it needs to be passed immediately.
"We're right here in the middle of some of the richest farm land in the world and the most important bill in Congress, is for rural people and for people who live in this state and all over the country, is the Farm Bill," she said.
Pat Forristel agrees that Congress needs to bring this bill to the House floor.
"It's very important to this area and it's going to be important to the Midwest, and I really think that something will happen, that we will get a farm bill, when is going to be unclear because in an election year nobody wants to do something that might help the other party," he said.
Pat, who came to the event to listen in on Vilsacks ideas, tries to keep the slow economic recovery in perspective.
"Just like it was back in the 30's when Herbert Hoover was in there and President Roosevelt took over, he used some of Hoover's ideas, and he got the economy straightened out, and I think that will happen to us again. What I'm saying is, this too shall pass," he said.
Vilsack believes the key to economic recovery here in small town Iowa is making more use of the crops farmers already grow.
"They might make a substitute for rubber, they might make lipstick made from glycerin like they make in Holstein, instead of from a petroleum based product. So, there's all sorts of small products that can be made in small companies and the source of their materials is here, so you can not move those jobs away."
Vilsack will be in Pocahontas and Fort Dodge, Iowa tomorrow to speak to more potential constituents.
As for her opponent, Congressman Steve King will make his own stops at rural businesses this week, meeting factory workers in Garner, Iowa on Thursday.
