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Guest Opinion: When it comes to spending, nobody has been more reckless than Rehberg
Last week Congressman Dennis Rehberg wrote an opinion piece about America’s budgetary crisis. While I share Dennis’ purported concern about our massive budget deficits, I question his sincerity on the issue. Why? Because what Dennis says and what he does are distinctly different. Come election season, Dennis likes to talk about fiscal responsibility. Meanwhile back in Washington, a look at Congressman Rehberg’s voting record tells a different story.
Dennis Rehberg likes to tell us that Congress must cut spending. But there is no escaping the fact that President Bush and Dennis Rehberg increased the federal budget by a staggering 104 percent during their eight years in office together. A $230 billion government surplus in 2000 became a $352 billion deficit by 2002. We had budget surpluses when Dennis Rehberg took office. We haven’t balanced the budget since.
The fact is, when it comes to deficit spending, nobody has been more reckless than Dennis Rehberg. Dennis voted to give massive tax cuts to the wealthiest among us, returning us to budget deficits. He voted to put two wars on our country’s credit card. He voted for a massive giveaway to big pharmaceutical companies. When Bush and Rehberg took office, the national debt was $5.73 trillion. At the end of 2008, it was $10.7 trillion. Dennis Rehberg’s voting record has cost us nearly $5 trillion.
Being a responsible leader, though, isn’t about finding somebody to blame for our problems; it’s about finding solutions to them. That’s why we need to reinstitute the pay-go system, which says that every item of new spending has to be accompanied by a way to pay for it. This system was in place during the budget surpluses of the 90’s. Republicans scrapped pay-go in 2002. We all saw what happened to our budget deficit as a result.
We also need to fix the “use it or lose it” system that pervades our budgetary process for federal agencies. Bureaucrats are told that if they don’t spend every penny they’re given, they’ll get less money to play with next year. This creates a perverse incentive to spend instead of save. As a Congressman, working to create a system that encourages saving instead of spending will be a top priority.
But the most effective way to reduce our budget deficit is to grow our economy by creating jobs. As we saw in the 90’s, we can close the budget gap if people are working and contributing to the economy. And the best way for us to create jobs and grow the economy right here in Montana is to develop the new energy industry. Montana has huge potential in terms of wind, solar, biomass, and bio-fuels. Harnessing these clean, renewable, and sustainable sources of energy will create stable, high paying jobs that will help get our economy back on track and reverse the trend of deficit spending.
To make these changes, though, we have to change who we send to Washington.
Tyler Gernant is a small business attorney and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House seat held by Dennis Rehberg
