Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said on Wednesday that Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) position on renewable fuels would be detrimental to Iowa but stopped short of directly criticizing the Republican presidential candidate.
“I have to look at it from an issues standpoint, not a personality standpoint. Cruz is Cruz, I’m not going to say anything about Cruz. I’m just going to say ethanol and wind are very important in my state,” Grassley told Politico while discussing Cruz’s opposition to the Renewable Fuel Standard.
Grassley’s comments follow Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s (R) remarks on Tuesday that it would be a “mistake” for Iowans to support Cruz’s presidential bid because he’s an “opponent of renewable fuels” like ethanol.
The Iowa senator, who has remained neutral in the GOP presidential primary, said he “won’t get political about it” but added that Branstad “ought to speak proudly of what Iowa’s done and the importance of the industry in Iowa.” He told Politico that the ethanol industry is very important in Iowa and that it has brought many jobs to the state.
Politico asked Grassley if Cruz knew his position on renewable fuels would hurt the industry in Iowa.
“He knows that. I mean, I don’t know whether directly I’ve ever told him,” Grassley replied. “But he knows how I debate and vote on the Senate floor. He knows we disagree.”
Cruz on Tuesday evening brushed off Branstad’s comments and said that the Iowa governor is just part of the “Washington cartel” that “exists to make deals and to pick winners and losers through cronyism and corporate welfare.”
Chuck, Ted! Boys, boys! You’re BOTH very nasty!
This is probably the one issue I agree with Cruz on, though probably for different reasons. Making ethanol from corn is one of the worst mistakes the country has made environmentally. Corn production utilizes massive amounts of herbicides and pesticides and fertilizer. Making ethanol from corn uses more energy than is produced.
Nothing screams Washington Insider like a governor based a thousand miles from DC.
I’m with you. Corn for ethanol is just a government subsidized boondoggle.
Crap, I’m with Cruz too?
Small-Gov’t conservatives, like Grassley, pretend that all of the gov’t handouts that they get are somehow ideologically different from the gov’t handouts Others get. One helps real America and the other is godless socialism. In many ways this is what the parties fight over—who gets the most handouts. Right now, the richer half gets more gov’t support, in total, than the poorer half. And the red states are the moocher states in that they get more federal monies than they contribute through taxes. People should know this but they don’t.