That’s what millionaire Congressman Dennis Rehberg called health care for thousands of Montanans.
Congressman Rehberg is asking the bipartisan committee tasked with cutting debt and spending to prevent Medicaid from serving many low-income Montanans access health care. According to the Kaiser family foundation, the measure Congressman Rehberg wants to end will provide 57,356 Montanans with health care [Kaiser Family Foundation, 5/10, p. 43].
Our Convention in Great Falls last weekend was a great success. Democrats from across the state gathered to stand up for the values that make Montana a great place to live and work.
Our message to the people of Montana? Montana Democrats are the party of responsibility. We have a record of cutting spending and living within our means. We have a record of creating jobs and empowering small businesses and family farms and ranches. We believe in equal pay for women for equal work, good public education, and making sure we have clean air, water and land to pass down to our children.
We also believe in electing good people at all levels, from local city councils to the U.S. Senate.
If you weren't able to make it to the convention, check out the video below of top Democrats like Jon Tester, Max Baucus, and Brian Schweitzer sharing their vision for a better Montana.
Montana Republican Party Chairman William Deschamps will be the guest of honor this week on the Tea Party television show “The Patriot Chronicles.”
Deschamps’ appearance follows that of Denny Rehberg and a long list of Republican legislators and candidates. GOP governor hopefuls including Roy Brown, Corey Stapleton and Ken Miller have or are also scheduled to appear on the show this month.
Past guests have included disgraced Big Sky Tea Party president Tim Ravndal, Columbus Tea Party organizer Blane Dillon, and Bliess Tew of the John Birch Society.
“It’s becoming clear that the Republican Party and the Tea Party are one in the same,” said Martin Kidston, spokesman for the Montana Democratic Party. “Montana’s ‘Grand Old Party’ has shifted toward the tinfoil-hat wearing crowd of conspirators and anti-government zealots representing the fringes of the right.”
The merging of the Montana GOP and the Tea Party got a boost earlier this year when Rehberg joined the Tea Party Caucus in Washington. He bought into the Republican Tea Party Contract on America and served as a giddy guest on The Patriot Chronicles in April.
The Montana Democratic Party will cross the state over the next few weeks reminding voters that under Democratic leadership, the state’s economy remains strong despite the national trends.
As Sen. Max Baucus wraps up his Economic Development Summit in Butte, Democratic leaders and legislative candidates will launch the Jobs Opportunity and Business Strength (JOBS) tour in Billings starting Wednesday.
The JOBS tour in Billings is the first of several small-business stops planned across the state. Other tours are planned in the coming weeks for Havre, Helena, Missoula and Kalispell.
“Under Democratic leadership, Montana’s economy has grown stronger despite the national economic trends,” said Martin Kidston, spokesman for the MDP. “The state’s overall business climate is now ranked eighth in the country, and our tax climate for businesses is now ranked sixth.”
On the JOBS tour, the MDP will highlight its economic plan to stimulate additional job growth and encourage small-business growth in a fiscally responsible way.
A Republican proposal to direct funds away from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to the general fund has Democratic legislators, candidates and party officials lining up to call it a bad idea.
Revenues collected by FWP through the sale of hunting and fishing licenses currently go toward maintain Montana’s hunting and fishing opportunities, including the Wildlife Restoration Program, the Sport Fish Restoration Program and expanding public access.
Yet a proposal introduced by Sen. John Brenden, R-Scobey, could redirect as much as $34.7 million from FWP’s licensing account to pad the state’s general fund while forfeiting an additional $18 million in matching federal money.
“Every hunter and angler should be outraged by this proposal” said FWP Chairman Kendall Van Dyk, D-Billings. “Our license fees go to protect our hunting and fishing heritage, increase access to public lands, and maintain fish and wildlife habitat. It’s not meant to fund Republican general-fund spending.”
Last week Republican Gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill said, “People keep asking, ‘How are we going to protect the [Rocky Mountain] Front?’ The real question should be, ‘How are we going to protect the front from Max Baucus?’” [Fairfield Sun Times, 9/2/11]
Mainstream Montana ranchers, anglers, sportsmen, and small business owners overwhelmingly support stronger protections for Rocky Mountain Front:
"It all boils down to the fact that everybody has to see a chunk of money out of the Front. They just can’t stand seeing it sit there. Not every ounce of land should be producing a dollar. Some of it should be left alone, as it always has been." – Karl Rappold, rancher on the Rocky Mountain Front [High Country News, 6/21/04].
The following is a part of a series of Congressman Rehberg’s worst quotes and votes against the middle class, leading up to Labor Day.
Millionaire Congressman Dennis Rehberg has consistently opposed ending loopholes for Big Oil and his fellow millionaires. He’s even held on to these irresponsible giveaways when ending them could have meant shoring up Medicare and Social Security.
And when Congressman Rehberg gives away another tax cut to his fellow millionaires, he’s helping out his own bottom line, too.
Here are just a few examples of Congressman Rehberg’s support for the most powerful Americans at the expense of Medicare and Social Security for Montana families:
Montana's millionaire Congressman Dennis Rehberg is lying to cover up his failure to pass a wolf solution.
Here is what Congressman Rehberg said on KPAX on August 26, 2011:
"I led the issue. The wolf issue was mine. What I wanted to do was to reform the Endangered Species Act, so that the federal government could in fact delist them. It's a failed policy--we need a better Endangered Species Act. I helped lead the effort, ultimately from the House, but the guys in the Senate tried to take credit for it. Mike Simpson of Idaho got it in the house bill and frankly the Senate never did pass a version. Everything that was put into place was done in the house." (Click here to listen to the relevant part of the interview)
To count down the days to Labor Day, the Montana Democratic Party will release a daily look back at some of Congressman Rehberg’s most irresponsible quotes and votes against the middle class.
In March of this year Congressman Rehberg admitted on camera that he didn’t know the minimum wage.
Congressman Rehberg ought to know the minimum wage; he’s AGAINST raising it. In 1996 he even told the Livingston Enterprise, “I don’t want to cost Montanans a job because an employer cannot afford to hire them. I think there are better alternatives.” [Livingston Enterprise, 6/24/96]
See these votes: CQ House Action Reports, No. 110-3, 3/20/07 (The measure passed 218-212). [HR 1591, Vote #186, 3/23/07; HR2389, Vote #382, 7/19/06.
