LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Will Iowa’s senators stop farmers from getting loans forgiven?

Is forgiving loans for farmers and/or for students … socialism?

As President Joe Biden announced plans to cancel some student loans after 10 years of payments as part his SAVE Plan, Sen. Joni Ernst is determined to block it. In a news release, she called it “Student Loan Socialism.”

In 2007, Republican President George W. Bush signed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Act allowing for those working in public service jobs who have paid toward their student loans for 10 years, to have some or all of their loans forgiven. Sens. Ernst and Chuck Grassley along with Rep. Randy Feenstra have been lobbying for farming to be recognized as a public service job and therefore qualifying for loan forgiveness. All three of these legislators have advocated for passage of the Young Farmers Success Act, which would make farmers eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

So, Senator Ernst, if forgiving student loans is socialism, would forgiving loans to farmers be socialism and, if so, would you oppose that legislation? Somehow, Senator, I think you would be in favor of forgiving the loans for farmers while opposing them for other students. Is that a definition of hypocrisy? John Beisner, Ames

Iowa Republicans are hypocrites on food labeling

In May 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Iowa pork producers who had sued California over a law banning the sale of meat statewide if cages didn’t meet the state’s new anti-animal cruelty requirements.

The entire Iowa GOP railed against the ruling. As Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig summarized, it would allow one state “to dictate the laws and regulations for consumers and businesses to the rest of America,” resulting in “a state-by-state patchwork of everchanging and costly requirements that will increase the cost of production and drive higher costs for food and other consumer products.”

Now, the Iowa GOP is taking the exact same action Republicans lambasted a year ago, demanding specific packaging language for any non-meat product, lest it be banned from sale in Iowa. Republicans’ positions are so fluid, one never knows what they believe. (Oh, they also threw in a ban on egg substitutes for recipients of SNAP assistance; taking swipes at the poor is the one issue on which they can always be trusted.) Sean Gannon, Des Moines

I’ll say it: $50,000 could go to something other than prom.

Some stodgy old codger is bound to ask, so it might as well be me: Why does a high school class need a $50,000 gift from JC Penney to stage their senior prom?

My high school’s prom was put on by the junior class to honor the seniors. The juniors pitched in for several days after classes to decorate the school gym quite elaborately. Materials and other expenses were paid from the junior class treasury, earned by running the coatcheck room at basketball games. A student combo, supplemented by a student disc jockey, provided the dance music. Before the dance, some of us took our dates to dinner at a restaurant one step up from the A&W. Some of us settled for the refreshments the juniors provided at the gym. Several years later, the parents — concerned about after-prom safety — inaugurated a post-prom “dance till dawn” gathering at a local church hall. We all had a swell time and could feel proud of what we’d accomplished.

I can’t help but think that everyone would’ve been better off if that $50,000 had been used to offset Gov. Kim Reynolds’ rejection of millions in federal money intended to feed Iowa’s hungriest kids. David R. Witke, Des Moines