The Republican National Committee (RNC) held a roundtable event led by Rep. Randy Feenstra yesterday in Clear Lake to discuss President Joe Biden’s first year in office with members of the Clear Lake / Mason City community.
The roundtable discussion, which took place at the Open Bible Youth Center, covered issues such as near 40-year record inflation, supply chain woes, COVID-19, school curricula transparency and shifting attitudes towards law enforcement.
Nearly every panelist cited numerous difficulties in their lives in the past year due to inflation and supply chain gridlock.
“Our supplier for our chips came in. The inflation is not transitory at 3.5 percent. Our chip price went up 100 percent,” Ryan Wade, a local restaurant owner and entrepreneur, said. “To double a price, those costs just get passed to the consumer.”
Steve Kruse, a farmer, similarly discussed his nitrogen costs skyrocketing 50 percent. “They have it on hand, so that’s good,” Kruse said, referring to his nitrogen supplier. “But to get that price, I had to pay everything in January.”
Another farmer on the panel, David Muth, described having a different experience with supply chain gridlock.
“During harvest, it wasn’t uncommon sometimes [for a] two, three-hour drive one-way to get something because it wasn’t available locally, or you waited two or three days to get it shipped it to you,” Muth said. “We had anhydrous booked for fall application at a reasonable price and the supplier covered about 50 percent of what we had booked, ran out, and said ‘sorry’.”
During the latter half of the discussion, panelists switched over to education and social issues. With Democrats’ embrace of far-left, defund-the-police activists, Feenstra asked Cerro Bordo County Sheriff’s Deputy Tami Cavett about the current mood of law enforcement officials. Cavett didn’t provide an optimistic assessment.
“You feel so disrespected in your job, that it’s hard to be out there in the public. And when you are, you’re always looking over your shoulder. Always, you know, your head’s on a swivel,” Cavett explained. “It’s scary as law enforcement because we read daily that officers are killed because we’re just wearing a badge.”
RNC officials emphasized that commentary of the members of the community during the roundtable are indicative of mismanagement by the Biden administration.
“The reviews are in, and it’s clear that Joe Biden’s first year in office has been a disaster for everyday Iowans,” RNC Spokesman Kush Desai told Iowa Field Report.
