”It’s feeding the fires of inflation,” the Republican senator told a Fort Dodge audience Friday morning.

”We’re going to have inflation like we did in the 1970s and this is just pouring gasoline on it,” he added.

And while a Democratic proposal calls for spending $3.5 trillion on various programs, much of the content of the bill remains unknown because no written versions have emerged yet, he said.

”None of this stuff has been out on a sheet of paper,” Grassley said in an interview after the forum.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
State Rep. Rob Bacon, R-Slater; left; Jim Obehelman, an aide to U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull; state Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge; and state Sen. Jesse Green, R-Harcourt; listen as state Rep. Ann Meyer, R-Fort Dodge, speaks during a Friday morning legislative forum.

Grassley spoke during a Friday morning forum held by NAIFA, a professional organization for financial advisers. About 17 members of the group attended the forum held at Fort Dodge Ford Lincoln Toyota.

State senators Jesse Green, R-Harcourt, and Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge, attended along with state representatives Rob Bacon, R-Slater, and Ann Meyer, R-Fort Dodge. Jim Oberhelman, an aide to U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, was also present.

However, Grassley’s comments and questions for the senator from the audience dominated the session.

He acknowledged that the opposition of Democratic senators Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, has put the brakes on the $3.5 trillion spending package.

”As long as they stick tight, they can’t pass anything,” Grassley said.

He added that Larry Summers, who served as Treasury secretary under Democratic President Bill Clinton, has urged the congressional Democrats not to pass the spending bill.

Kraayenbrink told Grassley that he is more concerned about contents of the bill other than the price tag. He asserted that the bill requires all financial transactions over $600 to be reported to the federal government. He added that it allows the government to track vehicles so they can be taxed based on mileage.

”These things are not American, and if anyone votes for that, they should be gone immediately,” Kraayenbrink said.

”We have to get the message out that the country is on the brink of falling,” he added.

Following the forum Grassley said he did not know where some of that information came from ”when there’s nothing published yet in the bill.”

He said the $1.9 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the Senate calls for a study to determine how best to fund roads in the future. Grassley said that study has been incorrectly reported as a mileage tax.

”It doesn’t even say mileage tax,” he said.