When President Obama returns to Iowa Tuesday he will face a community where more than one person in ten is out of work. It seems like a tough first stop on his White House to Main Street tour that will take him through Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.
The trip is billed as a series of ‘economic listening events’ and the President could very well get an earful.
In Fort Madison, Iowa, which will be the president’s first stop, Mr. Obama could hear frustration over the slow pace of economic recovery. Lee County bank president is not alone in his criticism of the president for not making the economy a top priority, saying, “if he worked on that nationally, I think our recovery would have been stronger, quicker.”
That’s not to say there hasn’t been any recovery. In fact you will find the anxiety of the economy is subsiding in southeast Iowa a bit. Small business owners like Martha Wolf who owns the Ivy Bake Shoppe and Cafe says she sees more traffic in her downtown restaurant. After a dreary winter where her staff of twenty all agreed to cut their hours to keep everybody employed, Martha says things seem to be improving. The one word you’ll hear often when people here explain the turnaround…Siemens.
The German manufacturer opened it’s windmill blade plant in Fort Madison back in 2007 with 200 jobs. That number has almost doubled as the plant has expanded to fill the demands of a green technology that has windmills dotting landscapes all around the country.
Siemens will be the stage for President Obama when he visits Fort Madison. He is certain to celebrate the green technology plant and it’s growing roll of employees.
But the lesson may go beyond the potential benefit of green technology jobs. Call it midwestern sensibility or fiscal conservatism but one thing you’ll learn in Iowa is to live within your means. Martha Wolf says a big reason people aren’t hurting as much is because they spend wisely. “I’m ok. You know. I haven’t been extravagant and I don’t think you’ll find a lot of midwestern, at least in Fort Madison, that are extravagant people.”