U.S. Senator Joni Ernst fields questions at Adel town hall

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U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst visited Dallas County Thursday for an hour-long question-and-answer session with voters. Photo courtesy Jon McAvoy

Riding the crest of her highest-ever approval ratings, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst visited Dallas County Thursday for an hour-long question-and-answer session with voters.

About 50 people attended the 8 a.m. meeting in the Adel-De Soto-Minburn High School auditorium, where Iowa’s first female senator fielded questions ranging from health insurance and the federal minimum wage to states’ rights and the president’s latest insults toward U.S. Sen. John McCain, who died August 25.

Jon McAvoy

Adel Republican activist Jon McAvoy posed a question about the federal debt, which has risen by $2 trillion during the Trump presidency. Total public debt equaled 78 percent of America’s gross domestic product in fiscal year 2018, the highest percentage since 1950, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“One thing that has bothered me even before your election was the national debt that’s out of control,” McAvoy said. “I know you were elected to try to ‘make ’em squeal,’ but so far the national debt keeps going up and up at an unsustainable rate. I have five grandchildren, and we’re leaving a heck of a legacy. What can we do about that?”

Ernst said she is “very frustrated with what lack of progress we’ve been able to have over the last four years.” She noted her work on the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform had no effect because “some folks don’t agree that we have a problem and if you can’t acknowledge that you have a problem, it’s really hard to move forward with any sort of legislation. So, unfortunately, that failed.”

Ernst said she gave a Squeal Award to the National Institutes of Health for spending $90,000 on research into “a sour cream-and-onion potato chip that resembled Elvis Presley.”

Dave Leonard

Waukee Democrat activist Dave Leonard noted the president’s recent Twitter messages and said that “President Trump denigrated John McCain. As a military veteran, I would think Trump’s cowardly attacks on a genuine war hero who cannot defend himself would infuriate you. Other senators are speaking out, criticizing Trump and defending McCain, but I have yet to hear one word from you. Is there no line Trump can cross that would cause you to break ranks with him?”

Ernst, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard, said she is independent in her relations with Trump and willing to distance herself from him.

“Oh, I break ranks with President Trump quite a bit,” she said. “Currently, I do not appreciate his tweets. John McCain is a dear friend of mine. So, no, I don’t agree with President Trump, and he does need to stop that.” Ernst said she is “not afraid to speak up and tell him what might be bad or harmful for Iowans. So while I don’t necessarily follow every tweet of the president’s, I don’t agree with those tweets about John McCain. I certainly don’t.”

Several citizens said they were alarmed at several recent suggestions by Democrats, such as a proposal to increase the number of seats on the U.S. Supreme Court or do away with the electoral college and make the presidency subject to a direct popular vote. Ernst said she opposes both proposals.

A libertarian-leaning questioner asked the senator about her opinion of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

“Each state knows what’s best for its own citizens,” Ernst said, “and I do believe in the 10th Amendment quite firmly.” She said the federal government is expressly empowered to provide for the national defense, a federal judiciary and public works projects, such as the interstate highway system.

“There’s just a very few things at the federal-government level that have actually been specified and what we should be directing our taxpayer dollars to and be involved in,” she said. “Everything else is pushed down to that state level, so I do think we need to put the onus on our states, and they really do come up with great ideas.”

Earlier Thursday morning, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a ban on all military-style semiautomatic and automatic weapons, on parts that can be used to modify rifles into such weapons and on high-capacity ammunition magazines in the wake of the March 15 massacre of 50 Muslims in Christchurch. Ernst was asked whether the price of U.S. Second Amendment liberty is mass murder.

Ernst confirmed her support for the Second Amendment and said mass murders in the U.S. are executed by people who should not have access to firearms for reasons of mental illness or substance abuse. She said laws controlling guns are already on the books and need to be more strictly enforced.

Ernst currently enjoys a 57 percent approval rating statewide, according to a January poll by Selzer and Co., which showed a 10-percent jump on her September rating. She will seek reelection in 2020.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Did Senator Ernst’s concern for the national debt affect her decision to vote in favor of the giant tax cut for the most wealthy Americans?

    Electing a $10 rubber stamp would have been just as helpful for Iowans, and much cheaper. Where’s that courage she talked about during her campaign? Cutting the pork are we?

  2. The NIH study is investigating the brain’s ability to find patterns in novel shaped objects (Seeing animals or faces in clouds or inkblots) to better understand the neural pathways associated with memory and recognition. This research may help in providing new treatments for stroke victims, Alzheimer’s patients, and soldiers with traumatic brain injuries. This is not the waste of money that the Senator makes it out to be. I might not see Elvis in a potato chip, but I recognize a grandstanding politician when I see one.

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