(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.
