tagged w/ charles grassley
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama deserves a failing grade for his handling of U.S. trade policy during his first nine months on the job, a senior Republican senator said on Monday.
"If you go to class, college, and you don't do anything, you get an F," Senator Charles Grassley said at the Reuters Washington Summit.
Grassley's tough language reflects Republican frustration with White House inaction on free trade pacts with Panama, Colombia and South Korea, which were negotiated by the administration of former President George W. Bush.
"If there's anything that would help us with this economic downturn, it would be to promote trade ... If you're in a recession and trade would help you get out of it, you shouldn't be doing nothing," Grassley said at the summit, held at the Reuters office in Washington.
The Iowa Republican also expressed concern about the recent drop in the value of the U.S. dollar, saying it sent a bad signal "to the rest of the world that the United States doesn't have its economy under control."
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, gave Obama an A for his efforts to rescue the U.S. economy, in a separate interview. But like all presidents, his record on trade is "a mixed picture," Levin said, adding that Democrats have concerns about all three free trade pacts that must be addressed.
Carol Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office, defended the administration's record, saying "USTR has racked up a significant list of trade-promoting accomplishments" since Obama took office.
They include negotiating a market-opening agreement for U.S. beef in Europe, taking China to the World Trade Organization for restrictions on raw material exports that push up costs for steel producers and working to keep markets open to U.S. farm products during the swine flu crisis, she said.
...More...WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama deserves a failing grade for his... more
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The Senate Finance Committee withstood two attempts today to add a government-run public health insurance option to its compromise health care bill.The Senate Finance Committee withstood two attempts today to add a government-run... more
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The politics of climate change are difficult in the Senate, it's often said, because it's a regional issue: coal state senators are afraid their economies will be driven under if the price of dirty energy rises too quickly.
Climate change is, in fact, a regional issue, but not in the short-term way that the coal senators think, according to new analysis from The Nature Conservancy. The environmental group finds that rural Midwestern states will face the greatest consequences of climate change. The three that will face the steepest rise in temperature -- Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa -- are farm states whose soil will be significantly less productive as temperatures rise more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit there by 2100.
The rise by by 2050 -- only 41 years from now -- is also projected to be substantial. (Click here for an interactive map of the analysis.)
The two Republican senators from Kansas, which will be most ravaged by climate change, are unlikely to support legislation addressing it.The politics of climate change are difficult in the Senate, it's often said,... more
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Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley suggested on Monday that AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves.Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley suggested on Monday that AIG executives should take a... more
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