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Presidential campaign starts early with Monday meet-and-greet

U.S. Rep. John K. Delaney, D-Maryland, meets with Floyd County residents in Aromas Coffee on Monday during his 2020 presidential campaign. Press photo by Kate Hayden
U.S. Rep. John K. Delaney, D-Maryland, meets with Floyd County residents in Aromas Coffee on Monday during his 2020 presidential campaign. Press photo by Kate Hayden
By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

U.S. Representative John K. Delaney, D-Maryland, tried to cover a lot of ground over the table at Aromas Coffee.

Taking questions from a group of 12 Floyd County residents, Delaney — already a declared presidential primary candidate for 2020 — talked bipartisanship, the fiscal deficit, private investment in infrastructure and how Democrats lost blue-collar voters in recent years.

“I believe in the private economy, but it shouldn’t go unchecked,” said Delaney, a former entrepreneur and CEO who won his seat in Congress in 2012.

Delaney said he supported global trade deals by the U.S., but the government failed in supporting regions directly hurt.

“What you have to do — and this is where we failed as a country, absolutely failed — if you decide to enter into a trade agreement … you have to do specific things to make sure the people and the communities that are going to be negatively affected by it, that you’re doing something for them,” Delaney said. “It’s a lot more than worker retraining.”

The key, Delaney said, is in both rebooting infrastructure investments and policies that encourage private investment in struggling regions.

He proposes allowing stockholders to defer capital gain payments on government stock sales for 10 years in exchange for private investment in a community the president and state governors designate as economically struggling.

Delaney also proposes the federal government expand contracting requirements to create a preference for regions in the U.S. that are economically struggling.

“I represent Bethesda, Maryland, which basically has no unemployment. … It doesn’t need more government contracts, but parts of Iowa do,” Delaney said.

“Capitalism is creation and destruction at the same time. That’s how it works, and you can’t talk about it and only talk about the creation,” he added. “You can’t deal with the destruction by saying, ‘I’m going to limit the creation.’

“You should say, ‘I’m going to do things to encourage the creation and I’m going to have policies paid for by the beneficiaries of the creation to take care of those hurt by it’s destructive aspect.'”

Delaney took questions, mostly on trade and the economy, with residents for just under 40 minutes before leaving to Mitchell County — but his policies on health care and education were noticeably absent to some residents.

“I think those are so important that they need to be addressed, but I do think he was here for a very short time,” Charles City resident Darci Tracey said.

Resident Lori Gassman said it was interesting to hear from him, but she didn’t hear a lot of personal positions in his answers.

“I heard a lot of ‘we,’ or [the] Democratic party as a whole,” Gassman said. “I would be curious as time goes on if his true platforms are really going to shine through.”

“Health care is huge, and not only are there upsets in our country as a whole, but even in Iowa right now. … There’s issues and deadlines coming up in our state that need to be addressed,” she said.

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