Congressman Denny Rehberg

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, met with officials from REC Silicon to discuss fluctuating energy costs, and prohibitive business regulation and taxes.  REC Silicon, based in Norway, is the world’s largest dedicated producer of silicon materials used in solar power production, including a Butte facility that employs 300 people.

“Solar power plays a crucial role in an all-of-the-above energy policy and a more secure energy future,” said Rehberg a member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee.  “The jobs REC Silicon provides in Butte are vital to Montana’s economy, and now more than ever it’s important to work with the renewable energy industry both for the direct benefit of jobs and the more indirect benefit of cheaper, home-made energy for everyone.”

REC Silicon discussed with Rehberg their research into building a clean coal plant near Butte to help supply the facility with affordable energy.  The company is forecasting their energy costs to almost double over the course of a year, from $24 million to $42 million.  REC Silicon estimates the plant would create more than 700 temporary construction jobs, and up to 160 permanent jobs.

“We’re in D.C. trying to solve problems and create jobs,” said Lon Topaz, Energy Resource Manager for REC Silicon.  “Congressmen Rehberg understands the challenges we face when it comes to energy production and we appreciate this opportunity to sit down with him to discuss a clean coal plant in Butte.”

The Pelosi-House Democrat Stimulus Bill:

At A Total Cost Of $825 Billion, The Pelosi-House Democrat Stimulus Bill Will Cost The Residents Of Montana $2,700 Each. With 946,815 residents, that is a total cost for Montanans of $2.6 billion.

The government will have to borrow every single penny of this spending – much of it from foreign governments; and American families will have to pay this money back with interest.

As a result, some Democrat Leaders are already talking about the need to raise taxes. Speaker Pelosi stated in January that she is in favor of raising taxes “as soon as possible.” (Paul Kane, “Pelosi Urges Obama To Raise Taxes On Wealthy This Year,” The Washington Post, 1/8/09)

Under the Pelosi-House Democrat Stimulus bill, your constituents’ tax dollars will be spent on:

·       $600 million to buy new cars for government workers – The government already has a fleet of about 642,000 trucks, passenger cars, and other vehicles

·       $200 million to repair the National Mall in Washington D.C., including new grass

·       $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts – Recent NEA expenditures include $190,000 for various artistic endeavors in San Francisco, CA

·       $3 Billion for Prevention & Wellness Programs, including $335 million for STD Education and Prevention – Recent government expenditures in this area include a transgender beauty pageant in San Francisco that advertised available HIV testing and an event called “Got Love? – Flirt/Date/Score” that taught participants how “to flirt with greater finesse.” 

If their estimates are correct that the Democrat bill will create or preserve 3.6 million jobs, with a total cost of $825 billion that works out to $225,000 for each job. The average wage for those jobs would be less than $50,000 a year. (Calculated using Bureau of Labor Statistics data.)

A Better Way: The House Republican Economic Recovery Plan:

Immediate Tax Relief For Working Families:

House Republicans Propose Reducing The Lowest Individual Tax Rates From 15% To 10% And From 10% To 5%. As a result, every taxpaying-family in America will see an immediate increase in their income with an average benefit of $500 in tax relief from the drop in the 10% bracket and $1,200 for the drop in the 15% bracket. A married couple filing jointly could save up to $3,200 a year in taxes.

In Your District:

·       331,681 filers will benefit from the reduction in the 10% bracket.

·       238,207 filers will benefit from the reduction in the 15% and the 10% brackets. (Source: The Heritage Foundation)

Help For America’s Small Businesses:

House Republicans propose To Allow Small Business To Take A Tax Deduction Equal To 20% Of Their Income. Small businesses (those employing less than 500 individuals) employ about half of all Americans, yet they can be subject to tax rates that siphon away one-third or more of their income. The House Republican proposal will immediately free up funds for small businesses to retain and hire new employees.

In Montana, there are 112,513 small businesses with 500 or fewer employees. These small employers:

·       Represent 97.8% of the state’s employers

·       Created 53.5% of the state’s net new jobs from 2004 to 2005

Of the small businesses in Montana:

·       24,519 are women-owned

·       3,100 are manufacturers

·       The accommodation and food services industry was the state’s largest small employer in 2006

(Source: Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy)

Assistance For The Unemployed:

House Republicans Are Proposing To Make Unemployment Benefits Tax Free So That Those Individuals Between Jobs Can Focus On Providing For Their Families. Incredibly, the Federal Government actually imposes income taxes on an individual receiving unemployment benefits.

·       As a result of the taxation of unemployment benefits, unemployed Americans forfeit approximately 11% of their unemployment benefits to the Federal Government (Source: The Congressional Research Service)

·       Rehberg has cosponsored stand-alone legislation that would do exactly this.

Stabilizing Home Values:

House Republicans Are Proposing A Home-Buyers Credit Of $7,500 For Those Buyers Who Can Make A Minimum Down-Payment Of 5%.  The real-estate market is paralyzed as potential buyers wait on the sidelines expecting prices to fall even further. This is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The House Republican proposal will encourage responsible buyers to enter the market and stabilize prices,

·       Even though prices on homes have been falling, sales have also fallen

·       At the current rate that homes are being sold in the U.S. it would take over 11 months to sell all the homes currently on the market, and that assumes no new home go up for sale

No Tax Increases To Pay For Spending:

House Republicans Are Insisting That Any Stimulus Package Include A Provision Precluding Any Tax Increases Now Or In The Future To Pay For This New Spending. The stimulus proposal pending in Congress includes record levels of government spending that will substantially increase the current deficit. House Republicans are concerned that this level of spending will result in some proposing near-term tax increases on American families. House Republicans believe that any stimulus spending should be paid for by reducing other government spending, not raising taxes.

By Denny Rehberg

          If the man standing next to you keels over with a heart attack, you’re going to administer CPR, give him some aspirin or use an emergency defibrillator to get his heart pumping again.  You’re not going to lecture him about his eating habits, prescribe a battery of medication that he’ll take for the rest of his life and shine his shoes.  That’s because in a crisis you have to act decisively.  While the long-term goals may be worth exploring once the crisis is over, the time to do it isn’t when the victim is turning blue in front of you.

            And yet, while Montanans are watching our economy keel over, the Pelosi-Obey “so-called” Stimulus Package that the House passed on Wednesday was packed full of new government programs, long-term spending and even a facelift for the grass on the National Mall.  Ultimately, it did more to stimulate the government than to stimulate the economy.

            This bill, and the programs and spending it includes are being sold to Americans on the basis of fear.  During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt said that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  His wisdom applies today as well, although fear has now become the lubricant that politicians use for policies that can’t stand on their own.

That’s why my office has been flooded with calls from Montanans who oppose this bill because they know it won’t lead to more jobs.  They understand that our long-term fiscal health is in jeopardy because our growing debt is held by foreign countries.  If we continue down this path, the result will be higher taxes, inflation and stagflation.  The tab will be due sooner than we think.

            As the legislation was being crafted, President Obama solicited input from all sides, urging bipartisanship.  House Republicans created a working group to formulate our ideas.  We had input from economists and from taxpayers, including a man from Montana whose YouTube comment was featured in a hearing with Governor Mitt Romney and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.  We had workable solutions.  But our ideas were shut out by House Leadership as the bill was finalized.  In the Appropriations Committee, only two amendments were adopted out of nine.  In House Ways and Means, only one out of 13 were accepted.  We came to the table with reasonable ideas only to find that House Democrats didn’t want to sit at the table at all.

            Long before the party-line vote in the House, I laid out four principles for an economic stimulus package.  I wanted the bill to be timely, targeted, temporary and transparent.  We need to jolt our economy back to life like a defibrillator stimulates a heart beat.  That means getting the money where we need it in the short-term, not over multiple years.  Targeted means we need to do it in a way that maximizes the tax dollar’s return on investment, by targeting the engine of our economy – jobs created by small business – while avoiding cosmetic projects like resodding the National Mall.  Temporary means an economic stimulus package is not the place to create new government programs to further a social agenda.  And transparent means that we respect every tax dollar enough to make sure it is not wasted to bureaucratic excess by writing blank checks with no oversight.

            America is facing an economic crisis, and like a heart attack, it’s scary.  We need to act quickly, but just as important, we need to act wisely.  I asked House Leaders to consider breaking this legislation into two parts – one for the economic jolt to stimulate the economy and one for the long term social agenda being forced through in the name of stimulus.  That’s the approach you would take to help a man suffering a heart attack, and it’s the approach that we should take to stimulate our economy.

Denny Rehberg is a member of the House Appropriations Committee 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today released the following statement after his vote against the Pelosi-Obey Stimulus Package that passed in the House of Representatives.  He had voted against an earlier version of the bill in the House Appropriations Committee.

“Montanans know the economy is struggling, and they expect reasonable assistance from the federal government that had a hand in creating this crisis.  But my phones have been ringing off the hook with people telling me ten-to-one to vote against this ‘so-called’ stimulus.  Montanans recognize that this isn’t an economic stimulus so much as it’s a massive expansion of government.  Congress must work together as President Obama has asked, and there are workable solutions we can bring to the table.  We need immediate tax relief for working families, help for Montana’s small businesses, assistance for the unemployed and policies that will stabilize home values.”

Photo: Rehberg Takes Constituent Calls on Stimulus Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today announced his renewed membership of the official U.S. House of Representatives Rural Education Caucus.   Rehberg created the first House Rural Education Caucus with co-chairs Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), Tom Osbourne (R-NE), and Collin Peterson (D-MN) in 2003, although the caucus was later combined with the larger House Rural Caucus.

“More than 70% of Montana’s students attend rural schools,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and sits on the subcommittee that oversees education funding.  “Montanans understand that rural schools face a variety of unique obstacles.  The goal of this bipartisan caucus is to address the special problems that require special solutions to better serve the needs of students and teachers in rural schools.”

“This year Congress will reauthorize No Child Left Behind and I am committed to making sure that our rural schools have as much pull as the urban schools from San Francisco and Chicago,” said Rehberg.  “By working in a bi-partisan manner with my colleagues, we can collectively make sure Montana’s students aren’t forgotten.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today issued the following statement following his meeting with President Obama.  The President traveled to Capitol Hill today to talk with the House Republican Conference and to discuss the Economic Stimulus Plan, expected for a vote later this week.

“I was grateful for the outreach to House Republicans from President Obama.  I appreciated his plea to abandon excess politics and work across party lines.  I sincerely hope that his efforts to reach across the table are imitated by House leaders who have lately been unwilling to even sit down at the table.  While there will be philosophical differences between the President and I, our hearts are in the same place on the issues we are confronting.  Reasonable people will disagree, but if we work together we can find workable solutions that put Montanans first and politics last.  I joined House Republicans in thanking the President and in urging him to support a bill that will stimulate the economy instead of stimulating the government.”

Rehberg voted against the House version of the bill last week, urging efforts be taken to make the bill more timely, targeted, temporary and transparent.  The bill was reported to the full House by a strict party-line vote in the House Appropriations Committee.

WASHINGTON, DC – Montana’s Congressman Denny Rehberg today outlined the principles he believes need to be at the core of the economic stimulus package.  According to Rehberg, any stimulus package legislation must be timely, targeted, temporary and transparent.  The bill is expected to be considered by the full House later this week before it is taken up by the Senate.

“Montanans need a temporary hand up, not a permanent $825 billion expansion of the federal government,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee which debated the “so-called” stimulus bill last Wednesday.  “Despite the name, this isn’t a stimulus bill - it’s an unprecedented attempt to advance the interests of very few special interest groups at the expense of hardworking taxpayers.”

“There’s no reason to permanently medicate a temporary illness,” said Rehberg.  “It’s a mistake to use this legislation as the launch pad for a lot of new government programs and government jobs that we’ll be paying for long after the economy has recovered.  We need to quickly get the medicine where it will do the most good - in the hands of the small businesses that create jobs and the taxpayers who will keep them in business.  And we need to take all necessary precautions to guard against the fleecing of the American taxpayer.”

Rehberg is working with colleagues in offering workable alternatives to the current House stimulus plan.  The plan will likely include tax cuts for individuals and small businesses, assistance for the unemployed and measures to stabilize home prices.

“I look forward to working with the President to reach a balanced solution,” said Rehberg.  “We aren’t going to get another shot at this, so it’s more important than ever that we lay partisanship aside in the interest of doing the right thing for the American economy.”

 ·       Timely: Any spending or tax proposal should, in fact, produce a short-term “jolt” or “jump start” of the economy.  This is the fundamental objective of a stimulus proposal.  This is not the place for long-term spending projects.

 ·       Targeted Stimulus: The plan should favor tax incentives and reductions, not only for consumers to encourage spending, but also for businesses, both small and large, to increase their ability to innovate, expand and create new jobs.  Tax incentives and reductions are proven to be more effective than spending stimulus, and have an immediate effect in that money for consumer spending and business expansion become available immediately through lower withholding or estimated tax payments.  Any spending proposal should have a favorable cost/benefit ratio.  That is, the proposal should be cost-effective in creating a “multiplier effect” on the economy that is greater than the cost incurred.

 ·       Temporary: Any spending allocations are for one-time-only projects.  There should not be an increase in the baseline of programs in future budgets, nor should new federal spending obligations be created.

 ·       Transparent: Each tax dollar spent should be subjected to the highest standards of transparency in order to foster responsible stewardship on behalf of taxpayers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today sent his State Director, Dustin Frost, to Helena to testify before the state legislature in support of Senate Joint Resolution 7, which expresses strong opposition to legislation proposed in the U.S. House that would dramatically increase federal control of Montana waters.

“Montanans don’t need any more Washington bureaucrats telling them how to manage their own water,” said Rehberg.  “This is an important message for Montana to send, and sending it this way helps me to fight it in Washington, D.C.”

Rehberg is joined in his opposition of the increased federalization of Montana’s waters by Montana stakeholders including the Montana Stockgrowers Association, Citizens for Balanced Use, Treasure State Alliance, Montana Grain Grower’s Association, United Property Owners of Montana, Families for Outdoor Recreation, Montana Farm Bureau Federation, Montanans for Multiple Use, Montana Contractors Association, Montana Wood Products Association, Montana Mining Association and the Montana Agri-Business Association.

“The attempt to give the federal government more control over our water will only serve to create more paperwork, headaches, and expense and will undermine the good environmental stewardship already taking place in our state,” said Frost in his written testimony.  “I urge positive action on this resolution to help Congressman Rehberg deliver the message to Washington, D.C., that here in Montana we don’t need increased regulation of our water.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Montana’s Congressman Denny Rehberg released the following statement after his vote to block the second and final installment of the $700 billion banking bailout. Rehberg voted against the unpopular bailout, which included language that allowed Congress to rescind the final $350 billion.

“When I voted against the original bailout I wanted to be wrong, and I hoped it would turn the economy around. Six bailouts and two trillion dollars later, the economy has sunk deeper into recession. Today, I joined members of both parties in the House to send a message: We need to rethink our strategy. Instead of doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, let’s do the sane thing and actually fix the problem.”

Although Rehberg and the House voted to block the remaining $350 billion in funding, the joint resolution of disapproval failed to pass in the Senate last week. Passage in both chambers is necessary to send to the President for signature.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, signed a letter to President-Elect Obama urging the continued production of the F-22A Raptor. The Raptor is a critical component of the U.S. Strike Force, and components are manufactured in Kalispell and Helena.

“It’s easy to take for granted that our men and women in combat zones have little to fear from enemy aircraft,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “For years, the United States has employed cutting-edge technology to establish air supremacy, and we cannot become complacent. The F-22 is an important part of the bigger national security picture, and its continued production is good for Montana.”

Sonju Industries in Kalispell and Summit Aeronautics Group in Helena make parts for the F-22. Together, they employ 33 Montanans directly and 70 indirectly. According to the National Defense Authorization Act, the President must certify his intention to either cancel or continue F-22 production by March 1, 2009.

“Denny’s strong efforts to encourage the development of a technology sector in Helena and throughout the state has resulted in the creation of many new, high-paying jobs,” said Tom Hoffman the CEO of Summit Aeronautics Group. “All of us here at Summit appreciate his support for the extension of the F-22 program. It makes a big difference for a lot of Montanans.”

“I’m proud that Montana companies are playing a lead roll in securing our air superiority in the next decade,” said Rehberg. “Now is not the time to deny our armed forces the resources they need.”