Grassley
Direct
I
spoke
with
AJ
Taylor
of
KIOW
Radio
and
Mike
Hohenbrink
of
the
Calmar
Courier
about
the
death
tax,
the
Supreme
Court
vacancy,
the
repeal
and
replacement
of
Obamacare,
NAFTA
and
TPP,
the
Keystone
XL
and
Dakota
Access
pipelines
and
President
Trump's
executive
orders.
Q&A:
Balanced
Budget
Amendment
Q.
Why
are
you
co-sponsoring
an
amendment
requiring
Congress
to
pass
a
balanced
budget?
Q.
What
is
the
fiscal
outlook
for
the
federal
government?
Q.
How
would
your
Balanced
Budget
Amendment
work?
Quick
Links
On
Tuesday
I
went
to
the
White
House
for
a meeting
with
President
Trump,
Vice
President
Pence,
Leader
McConnell,
Minority
Leader
Schumer
and
Ranking
Member
Feinstein
about
the
Supreme
Court
vacancy.
Throughout
the
past
year,
I
said
that
no
matter
who
won
the
election,
we
would
move
the
process
forward
with
the
new
President's
nominee. In
the
meeting, I
told
the
President
that
he
made
a
very
good
start
with
his
list
of
21
widely
respected
and
mainstream
judges.
I
recorded
a
few
more
of
my
thoughts
in
the
following
video.
It's
getting
harder
all
the
time
to
have
a
family
farm
or
a
family-run
business,
and
Congress
ought
to
do
everything
possible
to
encourage
family
enterprises
to
stay
in
operation
and
get
next
generations
involved.
I'm
cosponsoring
legislation
that
was
reintroduced
this
week
to
permanently
repeal
the
federal
estate
tax,
more
commonly
known
as
the
death
tax. The
estate
tax
is
counter-productive
to
jobs,
economic
growth
and
the
promotion
of
family
enterprises.
I've
reintroduced
legislation
to
aid
businesses
in
complying
with
immigration
laws
by
certifying
the
legal
status
of
their
workforce.
The
bill
would
permanently
authorize
and
require
employers
to
use
the
E-Verfiy
program,
an
internet-based
system
that
assists
employers
in
determining
whether
an
employee
can
legally
work
in
the
United
States.
There
is
also
no
cost
for
using
the
E-Verify
system.
I
had
to
write
to
the
Centers
for
Medicare
and
Medicaid
Services
(CMS)
a
second
time
to
request
answers
on
whether
it
has
taken
any
action
to
recover
taxpayer
dollars
used
to
pay
for
misclassified
EpiPens.
I
received
a
lackluster
and
very
disappointing
response
to
my
previous
letter.
It
provided
no
details
about
any
specific
action
the
agency
took
and
attempted
to
dodge
responsibility
for
a
problem
that
likely
cost
the
taxpayers
hundreds
of
millions
of
dollars.
Post
of
the
Week
|