Democracy is a two-way street

During a regular August in Iowa, people are heading toward the swimming pools, school practices and the famous Iowa State Fair. But, this year was no regular August. Iowans were invigorated and were called to action I saw record turnouts at my town meetings. I’ve crisscrossed Iowa holding meetings in each of our 99 counties since I was elected to the Senate and in some counties I saw as many as five times the number of constituents than I would in other years.

This annual road trip is vitally important to my work on behalf of Iowans. I get firsthand feedback from Iowans in the communities in which they work and live. I often remind my constituents that it’s our constitutional responsibility to communicate with each other. Democracy is a two-way street. I’m one half of the process and Iowans are the other half. They exercised their rights, spoke their mind and expressed outrage about a federal government that seems to be spending their hard-earned tax dollars without regard for the future of our country.

Yes, many of the participants wanted to share their thoughts on health care. But, I heard that for many Iowans, the healthcare debate was only the straw that broke the camel’s back.

People questioned whether the deficit-financed stimulus bill passed last winter did any good. They saw a stimulus plan that, instead of establishing an environment for job creation, only created a lot of spending that didn’t generate the promised jobs. To put the size of this spending into context, the permanent cost of the policies in the stimulus bill exceeds the comparable revenue loss from the broad-based bipartisan tax relief passed during the years of 2001-2006.

Iowans didn’t think the Federal Reserve’s bailout efforts were working for them on Main Street. They saw a government takeover of big banks and automakers, but nothing for the car dealer that pays the salaries of his friends and neighbors in his hometown. And, when it all came to a head in August, Iowans didn’t see how giving the government a bigger role in healthcare made any sense with deficit forecasts of more than $9 trillion over the next decade.

The United States has seen a number of historic events over the last year. It’s hard to believe that only a year ago the federal government swept in to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Soon after, the failure of Lehman Brothers started an economic downturn of historic proportions followed by more government involvement and more spending.

People are genuinely worried about the government using such a heavy hand over the last 12 months. They worry that the growth of government will make the private sector more inefficient. They know that the private sector is the source of income, growth and job creation. The more we tax and regulate at the federal level, the more we reduce economic efficiency by distorting incentives to work, save and invest.

The federal budget deficit for this fiscal year is projected to be $1.6 trillion, or as much as 11 percent of our total economy. According the Office of Management and Budget, this is the largest deficit since World War II. Deficits of this size are not sustainable, and people can afford only so much government spending, even for the worthiest-sounding causes. Working Americans are not an endless source of tax dollars for out-of-control government spending. In the end, someone has to pay. If it’s not the middle class today, it will be the middle class tomorrow.

Grassley is ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.