Rehberg talks about partisan divides

Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., fielded questions, comments and concerns about federal spending, deficits and conflicts with states Tuesday in Kalispell.

About 70 people attended the cordial “listening session” at Flathead Valley Community College.

Rehberg was asked about partisan divides in Washington, D.C., and how they hinder federal governance.

“We’re frankly a polarized nation,” Rehberg said. “But it really isn’t a red-state/blue-state issue.”

Instead, Rehberg believes lawmakers are more divided along rural/urban lines on many of the more controversial issues.

He said there is more bipartisanship in Congress than people think on many matters, but there also are deep philosophical differences between Republicans and Democrats and their beliefs in the role of government.

As an example, he said Democrats avidly supported nearly $1 trillion in stimulus funding, while many Republicans felt that it was misdirected spending that would not create jobs as advertised.

Rehberg now regards the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as a failure in effectively spurring job growth in the private sector.

Unemployment has been hovering near 10 percent and it is widely acknowledged that that figure does not include thousands of people who no longer are actively seeking jobs. The national economy shed an additional 652,000 jobs in June alone, according to the most recent federal jobs report.

Rehberg acknowledged that the stimulus has shored up jobs in government agencies and in some select sectors, such as highway construction.

“What about the floral shop?” he said, noting that many businesses have gained no benefit.

“The right thing would have been to suspend the payroll tax” to benefit employers as well as employees across the economic board, he said.

Rehberg said congressional Democrats have created a situation where they will maintain that an expiration of the so-called Bush tax cuts at the end of this year is necessary to pay for increased government spending and deficits.

“Fundamentally, it doesn’t make sense to raise taxes during this time of economic turmoil,” Rehberg said.

He said the federal government’s policies should instead be aimed at encouraging investment, job creation and growth in the private sector rather than creating new obstacles and uncertainties for businesses.

One man said Republicans need to do a better job of defending themselves from Democratic claims that the country’s economic troubles were created by Republicans during the Bush presidency.

The man stressed that Democrats have controlled Congress since 2007, and they have been the driving force behind government expansion and spending.

“The answer now is that yes, Republicans are in the penalty box,” Rehberg said, but they did not “quadruple the deficit and double the debt.”

And he said Bush managed to steer the country through the Sept. 11 attacks and the economic impacts that followed, along with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Rehberg said he believes that there “isn’t the right kind of oversight in terms of spending,” and he believes Congress can do a better job of finding ways to cut spending.

He said he is frustrated not only by Democrats but by his GOP colleagues who are protective of spending in some areas, such as Defense and Homeland Security.

“Every agency should be on the table,” he said.

“I think we are losing our balance of powers” in Washington, said Bigfork area resident Clarice Ryan, adding that bureaucracies have steadily increased their leverage with rule-making authorities.

Rehberg agreed and said he also is frustrated with executive orders that implement policies and programs in a fashion that can bypass congressional oversight.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.