KMA Land - Congressman Young -- "Baltimore Is Depressing"

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by Chuck Morris

From mushroom hunting to potential trade agreements with Japan, Iowa 3rd District Congressman David Young discussed a wide variety of topics during his regular Wednesday morning interview on KMA.

The Van Meter Republican began by urging listeners to take advantage of the favorable weather forecast for KMAland.

"And I just want to let your listeners know they probably have about two more days left to go morel mushroom hunting. I went on Sunday and I go south of Booneville in Madison County south of the Raccoon River and that's all I'll tell you."

The freshman lawmaker was likely looking for something positive to talk about during a week that featured lots of civil unrest in Baltimore.

"It's just depressing. And you know there's a difference between protesting and rioting. Where there fine line is broken I don't know. But we also know there are a lot of professional agitators and instigators out there who travel around whether it be Ferguson and to Baltimore who kind of spurred these things on. And those people need to be sought out, they need to be arrested. But there were not a lot of arrests over the last two days in Baltimore, so we don't really know who those folks are."

Young says the recent unrest in Ferguson and this latest incident in Baltimore has some lawmakers talking about federally mandated body cameras on all police officers. He doesn't support a federal mandate and believes that decision needs to be left to local and state authorities. In terms of the unrest, Young says it's hard for people in rural America to understand the culture of inner city life.

"You know these are problems I can't really talk about in a personal way or maybe you as well because Baltimore is not Van Meter, it's not Shenandoah or Hamburg. They're two different worlds in a way, and so it's hard to talk about this having not been really being relatable to the situation there."

Young says despite the disappointment he's felt this week, he did point out one hero that caught his eye.
"I don't know if you saw the footage, but there was a mother who spotted her son in one of these crowds and she grabbed his sweatshirt and she whacked him on the head three or four times and said, 'This is not my son, you're not going to be doing this. This is not you.' And we need more of that by parents to take control of their families. But many of these families as you know are just broken."

On another topic, Young tells KMA he's looking forward to hearing comments from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the prospect of increased trade between the two nations.

"I believe in trade and I believe in the rising tide kind of lifts all boats and it can help both countries. It doesn't have to be one or the other pitted against each other when it comes to trade. I think everyone can benefit. We have a lot of agricultural goods here in Iowa and the world has been our supermarkets and we need to make sure we get our exports out there."

Finally, Young sounded off on the Environmental Protection Agency when asked for his thoughts about the EPA's recent fine threat to the City of Shenandoah for issues related to the city's wastewater treatment plant.

"Well I'm always suspicious of the EPA doing anything and they have kind of a one size fits all approach to this. They'll look at New York City and Shenandoah and put them both under the same rubric of meeting conditions and quality. Coincidentally, there is a hearing this week here in the House regarding the EPA and management in looking at their guidelines and their rules, how they're managed and whether or not there should be differences in some of their rules and guidelines and some graces when it comes to the issue of some bigger municipalities and smaller municipalities."

Iowa 3rd District Congressman David Young is a regular guest Wednesday morning at 7:35 on KMA.

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