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Republican women's club hosts Rehberg at Camp Marshall

By Jacob Doran / West Shore News

 The Lake County Republican Women's Club hosted a special

meeting, last Saturday, at Camp Marshall near Big Arm, during which Congressman

Denny Rehberg served as the keynote speaker.

Rehberg, now in his fifth term, told those in attendance

he will never treat the current President, Barack Obama, the way that Democrats

treated former President George W. Bush. Rehberg said he believed Democrats not

only attacked Bush's character during his presidency but virtually destroyed

the presidency in the eyes of the world.

Rehberg said that, while he disagrees with Obama on many

policy issues, he respects the office of the President. He assured Republicans

and Democrats alike that, when he opposes the President, he will bring

solutions rather than accusations and attacks on the President's character.

Referring to the $787 billion stimulus bill approved by

Congress, Rehberg said only 12 cents out of every dollar will go toward things

that can actually stimulate the economy. He added that, while he's not against some

of the programs included in the package, he felt that many of them have nothing

to do with jump starting the economy.

Rehberg decried the 1,042 page stimulus bill, stressing

that he and other legislators were given just 10 hours to read and discuss the

document before voting on it. That, he added, amounted to reading and

discussing essentially two pages of the document per minute.

"We're looking at a $13 trillion debt in this

country," Rehberg said. "Somebody's got to pay it back, and it's us.

If we think we can spend our way into prosperity, we're in for some pretty

tough times in this country."

Rehberg admitted that Republicans are "in the

penalty box" at the present because of the failed economic policies of the

past, adding that Republicans must reinforce core values and reassert their

philosophy and practice of "giving a hand up, not a hand-out."

"We need to rebuild our credibility as

legislators," Rehberg said.

Part of that, he said, means keeping government out of

the solution rather than thinking that government intervention is the solution.

Rehberg said he considers two issues to be more complex,

as well as more difficult to fix, than any others. Those two issues were

immigration and health care.

Concerning immigration, Rehberg stressed his belief that

when America effectively controls its borders, we are also controlling our

sovereignty. He added that he is not against people immigrating to America to

seek a better quality of life but that do so by becoming citizens, taking a

course in American history and learning to speak the English language.

As for health care, Rehberg said that Republicans want

health care reform as much as anyone else. Health care, he said, has become a

system that divides Americans into two categories: those who can afford it and

those who can't. If that doesn't change, he feared that more and more people

would have to do without proper health care, which would ultimately become an

excuse for more government intervention.

"If we can't fix it, then people are going to throw

up their hands and say, 'I told you so. We need a government take over of

health care.'"

Rehberg stressed that government controlled health care,

such as the system currently in place in Canada, means that patients do not

have a choice in which physician or surgeon they use. As a result, he said, the

quality of health care that patients receive tends to be inferior, as

statistics show in comparisons between the success rates of treatments received

in the U.S. and Canada.

He also referred to the current status of Medicare and

Social Security, which he described as "entitlements that are going

broke." Thus, he felt it incumbent upon legislators to find a solution as

quickly as possible.

"We need bipartisan restraint," Rehberg

insisted. "We need to slow down. We need to regroup, and we need to decide

what we want America to look like."

Rehberg said he advocates tax relief for Montanans, as

well as for small businesses. He noted that the United States currently boasts

the second highest business tax in the world, second only to Japan.

In order to spread their message of reform in regard to

these and other issues, Rehberg said.

He conceded that the 2010 election will likely prove to

be a difficult race against challenger and state Democratic Party Chairman

Dennis McDonald. However, he promised to continue fighting to make the future

brighter for all Montanans.

"We live in the greatest country in the world,"

he said, "and I believe that, if we work together, we can build a more

secure future for ourselves and for our posterity."