It’s been a rough year. We started 2020 with all eyes on Iowa for the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest. The Iowa caucuses took place under the cloud of a presidential impeachment. That surreal moment in history was eclipsed by a deadly virus that disrupted life as we know it.
No doubt, people are ready to put a divisive year of politics, protests and pandemic behind us. 2020 delivered lessons of sacrifice, hardship and loss wrapped in silver linings of resilience, gratitude and hope. Families missed graduations, weddings and funerals. Churches, schools and businesses closed. Consumers learned food and toilet paper don’t grow on grocery store shelves. More people realized food scarcity is a First World problem and to never take essential workers for granted. Health-care professionals became real-life superheroes, putting their lives on the line to care for patients. Front-line workers and first responders answered the call to help their neighbors, stocking stores, delivering food and continuing to serve and protect their communities.
Personal protective equipment became a ubiquitous acronym and high-speed internet access became more important than ever to connect and participate in e-commerce, remote learning, telecommuting and telehealth visits.
So far, more than 300,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. They will be mourned for years to come. For countless others, navigating unemployment and social isolation bears untold stories of domestic violence, mental-health crises, academic disparity and undiagnosed diseases. The pandemic will leave scars in the social fabric of American society even as promising threads of hope emerge from COVID-19 vaccines.
Congress this year passed historic bipartisan pandemic relief, approving four packages containing more than $4 trillion to boost the nation’s response to the public-health crisis and economic fall-out. The $900 billion Congress recently approved delivers more help for the unemployed, small businesses, schools and vaccine distribution.
Getting additional money into the pockets of unemployed workers through enhanced unemployment insurance helps people who lost their paychecks through no fault of their own. The direct economic impact payments help families struggling to pay their bills. The Paycheck Protection Program has delivered a $5 billion financial lifeline to more than 61,000 small businesses in Iowa to help the lifeblood of our communities retain their workers and save their livelihoods.
As a taxpayer watchdog, I not only champion tax cuts and tax fairness, I keep close tabs on the federal tax-collecting agency. At an IRS oversight hearing this summer, I pressed the IRS commissioner about delayed refunds and missing stimulus payments Iowans were waiting to receive. My office continues to help Iowans track down answers from the IRS. Looking ahead, I’ll fight to keep pro-growth tax cuts in place that I helped secure in 2017. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act unleashed historic economic expansion, job creation and wage growth across the country. It would be stunningly reckless fiscal policy to raise taxes in a post-pandemic recovery.
The historic development, production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines underscore the urgent need to ensure life-saving pharmaceutical cures and treatments are affordable for all Americans. Our country is blessed with unparalleled investment and innovation that fosters health and prosperity for our families, farms and businesses. We owe a debt of gratitude for the legions of scientists, innovators and clinical trial participants, including those at University of Iowa hospitals and clinics, who unlocked miracles of modern medicine and scientific discovery. Nonetheless, a competitive marketplace doesn’t give Big Pharma license to fleece American taxpayers or gouge consumers at the pharmacy counter. One of my highest priorities in the new year is steering my bipartisan drug-pricing bill across the finish line.
—U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, of New Hartford, is Senate president pro tempore and served as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in the 116th Congress.
