Debby Barrett Hates Big Government (Except for Farm Subsidies, Which She Loves)
Senator Barrett and Representative Welborn faithfully toe the party line about Big Government. They've repeatedly said that it's too intrusive, too heavy on programs for undeserving people, too expensive.
This hasn't stopped them and other Republican politicians from benefitting mightily from tax-payer supported farm subsidy programs. Debby Barrett, between 1995-2009, raked in $123,378.00. Welborn, new to the game, has garnered only $972.00 so far.
This data comes from a study done by The Policy Institute in Helena. It highlights the hypocrisy of right-wing politicians railing at costly Big Government programs while enthusiastically taking advantage of them.
Representative Denny Rehberg was selected by UMW's administration to give the commencement address at last year's graduation ceremony. He bailed out, though, when he learned that his daughter's graduation ceremony was on the same day.
So the hundreds of Western students who receive Pell Grants were spared the experience of hearing from a commencement speaker who thinks they're a bunch of bums.
In an interview given in late March to Blog Talk Radio, Rehberg said: "So you can go to college on Pell Grants -- maybe I should not be telling anybody this because it's turning out to be the welfare of the 21st century. You can go to school, collect your Pell Grants, get food stamps, low-income energy assistance, Section 8 housing, and all of a sudden we find ourselves subsidizing people that don't have to graduate from college. And there ought to be some kind of commitment and endgame."
That Rehberg, who inherited wealth and has never had to worry about paying for college or anything else, has contempt for lower-income people is obvious.
For more about the plutocratic Mr. Rehberg, check out this site.
Rehberg Considers Pell Grant Recipients Parasites
NY Times: Denny Rehberg Gets Mining Industry Backing While Endangering the Lives of Mine Workers
Eric Lipton, writing in the New York Times on December 23, 2011, describes in some detail how deeply Denny Rehberg is in the pocket of the coal industry. In exchange for large donations from that industry, Rehberg is willing to risk the lives of workers and cost the federal government billions of dollars in disability payments.
Rehberg, writes Lipton, "pushed through a provision for the 2012 federal budget that blocks the enforcement of a new regulation that would have cut in half the amount of ambient coal dust permitted in mines. Inhalation of the tiny coal particles is blamed for pneumoconiosis, or black lung, a preventable disease that has taken thousands of lives and cost the federal government an estimated $44 billion in federal disability payments since the 1970s."
Lipton's piece details Rehberg's obeisance to the mining industry, how he has pushed for land swaps that would benefit mining companies at the expense of taxpayers, lobbied against safety regulations that protect miners, and fought to open copper mining in pristine Montana wilderness.
Mining companies have rewarded Rehberg with the seventh-most donations of all House and Senate members. Just in the two past years, mining industry executives and companies, including Murray Energy, Arch Coal, and Cloud Peak Industry, have donated nearly $100,000 to Rehberg's senate campaign against Jon Tester.
Denny "Black Lung" Rehberg
The campaign website of Richard Turner, who is challenging Debby Barrett for the Senate District 36 seat, can be found here.
The website for Norma Duffy, challenging Representative Jeff Welborn for the District 72 seat, is here.
Turner and Duffy embrace, with some minor exceptions, traditional Democratic Party positions. Both are strongly opposed to the extremist agenda of state and national Republicans.
What Some (Most?) Republicans Believe
Check Out the Websites of Norma Duffy and Richard Turner
