Ottumwa Courier - Braley: "Stark Choice' in Senate Election

News Article

By Matt Milner

Bruce Braley brought his campaign for the U.S. Senate to Ottumwa on Tuesday, equating proposals to invest in the stock market to fund retirement programs to gambling.

Braley won the Democratic nomination for the seat being vacated by Tom Harkin, who is retiring. Democrats want to keep the seat in their hands, while Republicans have nominated Joni Ernst to try to gain the seat.

Braley said Iowa voters have "a stark choice" in the election. He cast himself as someone capable of defending Social Security and Medicare while working with Republicans when the two parties have common goals.

"We want someone who can work across the isles and solve the problems we have," he said. "I have a proven record of doing that."

Tuesday's campaign stop took place at the Good Samaritan Society's assisted living facility.

Braley distinguished between a "meaningful retirement," in which people have the funds to live as they choose, versus a retirement that imposes poverty due to a limited income. He said one in five Iowans, many who are retired, rely on some form of assistance from the federal government to preserve their lifestyles.

"When you break that down into Wapello County numbers, 8,225 Wapello County residents relied on an average Social Security benefit of $13,199 a year," he said.

The comments found a receptive audience composed largely of people who are active in the county's Democratic Party. Former county chairman Bob Beisch said the federal government put itself in a tight spot by borrowing funds that could have gone toward the programs Braley advocated.

"They keep dipping into the Social Security funds for other stuff," he said.

Braley agreed. He noted the ratio of employees to retirees was much higher in previous decades than it is now.

"In the early days of this program, it raised so much money that people in Congress thought they can use that money, because they're never going to spend all of that," he said.

Braley also called for an increase in the country's minimum wage, which he said has lost 30 percent of its purchasing power since the last increase.

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