Tagged: Pell Grants

Posted: May 14, 2012 at 7:32 pm

Rehberg Visits Campus to Leave Students with…His Trash

As students around the state head home to summer jobs in hopes of saving up enough to pay for another semester, the message they got from Dennis Rehberg is that he could care less.

Rehberg, who called Pell Grants the “welfare of the 21st Century”, was on campus Friday at the Gallatin County Lincoln/Reagan Dinner. He did not use his visit to back away from his anti-student position nor did he apologize to students for his idiotic remarks. Instead, Rehberg came to their campus and broke the rules–littering the campus with Rehberg campaign signs.

The first photo, taken by Cowgirl campus tipsters, shows a Rehberg sign on campus. The second pic shows the cops telling Rehberg’s people to pull them down.

Basically, this is just another dick move from Rehberg. He doesn’t care about the campus. He doesn’t care about the campus rules. He doesn’t care enough to bother to pretend like he cares.

Dennis Rehberg probably doesn’t even care that his views, his campaign, and his garbage aren’t exactly a welcome site on campus.

The GOP dinner was apparently the only thing Dennis Rehberg did this weekend. While Jon Tester was busting his hump holding public meetings in Missoula and speaking to graduates at Montana Tech, Rehberg was holed up talking only to his party faithful. That seems to be all he cares about.

Posted: August 29, 2011 at 6:49 pm

TEA Party Jobs Plan Bound to Succeed

Montana college students returned to school today. It’s the first new school year since the TEA Party Republican takeover, and the job creation strategies promoted by TEA Party Congressman Rehberg and enthusiastically carried out by the TEA Party Republican Legislature are now in effect.

Of course, it is obvious to any thinking individual that substantially increasing the cost of tuition and demonizing those seeking to better themselves with higher education will, always, magically increase good-paying jobs.

So it makes perfect sense that TEA Party Republican legislators forced a 10% tuition increase on Montana students, and that TEA Party Congressman Dennis Rehberg publicly derided Pell Grants, calling them ‘welfare’ in an interview during the same legislative session.

You see, TEA Partiers are so smart that they know students don’t need to waste time getting an education to land good jobs. The TEA Party Republicans just needed to create the financial disincentives and public deprecation to make the rest of us realize how ridiculous college is too. Just look at all the great opportunities out there that don’t require an education at all. For example, the Sip and Dip is hiring mermaids. This is a great opportunity to interact with important people, like Republican Congressmen for example, and perhaps open up all kinds of future doors. Anyway, even if this opportunity isn’t right for your daughter or son, it is at least worth checking to see if your kid can still drop out.

Posted: August 15, 2011 at 6:51 am

Holding the Door Open for Fanatics

A must-read article in this weekend’s Great Fall’s Tribune profiles a new rise of the white supremacy movement in Montana. The movement’s backers aren’t just organizing, they’re seeking their way into mainstream politics.

The TEA Party appears to be holding the door open for them.

TEA Partiers are helping to amplify the voices of extremists like Chuck Baldwin, inviting him to appear at their events and on their radio shows. The Tribune writes of Baldwin:

The Florida transplant to the Flathead has been a Constitution Party presidential candidate, an advocate of militia movements and involved with the Council of Conservative Citizens, which the Southern Poverty Law Center characterizes as a hate group.

“There are some individual activists pretty interested in politics and how you use politics as a way to mainstream your message and line up behind candidates to gain credibility,” McAdam said. “Most are much more interested in trying to create communities that look the way they want, all white all the time.”

To start the process, Baldwin encouraged his entire family and congregation to move to Montana. His son Timothy Baldwin brought his own family too, and immediately sought to launch his political career as part of a slate of TEA Party candidates running for the board of the Flathead Valley Community College.

Baldwin is assisting other hate groups as well, such as the Oath Keepers. The movement has already gotten TEA Party Republicans to put forward their legislative ideas, such as the gold standard, a key goal of the Oath Keepers group in Montana.

It isn’t just TEA Partiers at the legislative level that are carrying water for the fanatics. It’s happening at the Congressional level too. The same opposition to Pell Grants held by extremists groups pops up in the statements of people who used to try to pass themselves off as mainstream politicians, like TEA Party Congressman Denny Rehberg.

Since the TEA and Republican parties appear unwilling or unable to clean these elements out of their own houses, it is left to us to vote them out of office.

Posted: August 3, 2011 at 7:29 pm

No Wonder Reherg Voted Against the Budget Agreement

No wonder that TEA party caucus member, Congressman Dennis Rehberg, did not compromise and vote for the budget agreement. The final package included a guarantee that low income students will still have access to college through Pell Grants over the next two years.

As the Missoulian reports:

The federal debt-ceiling bill approved and signed Tuesday included at least one major spending increase, guaranteeing low-income undergraduate students will continue to have access to college.

Congress increased the federal Pell grant program by $17 billion to help cover tuition costs for 9 million low- and middle-income undergraduate students nationwide over the next two years.

You remember the famous TEA Party rhetoric, reported by the Hill:

Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) has compared Pell Grants to “welfare”.

“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,” Rehberg told Blog Talk Radio in April. “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.”

Posted: July 28, 2011 at 6:03 pm

Dennis Rehberg’s “Welfare” May Be Holdup of House Debt Bill

Did anyone catch this little gem from The Hill this afternoon? House conservatives are apparently up in arms over Pell Grant funding in John Boehner’s budget-slashing bill. As of this posting, Boehner has delayed a vote on his bill, and sources say it’s because he doesn’t have the votes to pass it.

Why? According to The Hill, it may be because “conservatives who have stalled legislation to raise the national debt limit are angry that it includes $17 billion in supplemental spending for Pell Grants, which some compare to welfare.”

Yes, Pell Grants. And yes, we can thank our own esteemed millionaire Congressman for the “welfare” reference.

After calling Pell Grants the “welfare of the 21^st Century” this spring, Dennis Rehberg tried to take back his words… by comparing Pell Grants to welfare again.

He’s going to need a better explanation than that no matter how he votes on the Republicans’ Medicare-cutting budget bill.

Posted: July 26, 2011 at 6:02 pm

Finally, It All Makes Sense

Millionaire Congressman Dennis Rehberg has been voting to kill Medicare and Social Security in Washington DC because he’s taking advice from Republicans in the Montana Legislature.

You remember them – the “leaders” who responded to Montana’s economic challenges with theatrics like the spear hunting bill? They just wrote a letter to Congressman Rehberg pushing him to follow their economic policies.

Congressman Rehberg–who has voted to increase the debt ceiling nine times (yes, NINE TIMES) —is more than willing to listen to extremists who had more success embarrassing Montana than actually creating jobs.

Here’s more of what Congressman Rehberg’s council of economic advisors in the state legislature have in store for Montana:

The Gold Standard – Congressman Rehberg can expect to get a letter asking him to replace US dollars with gold any day now. Rep. Bob Wagner (of CNN fame) introduced a bill that could force Montanans to pay their rent with gold.

Cracking Down on DUI Laws – Rep. Alan Hale told Montanans that DUI laws “are not doing small businesses in our state any good.” Congressman Rehberg has had his own brush with drinking-related accidents, so he might be willing to listen if Rep. Hale asked for help in “reigning in” DUI laws.

Tax Breaks for Millionaires – Legislative Republicans voted to protect tax breaks for millionaires, while gutting education and health care for Montanans. Congressman Rehberg has already thought of this one, but as a millionaire, he wouldn’t need much prodding to vote himself another tax cut.

Raising Tuition for College Students – Just like Congressman Rehberg—who thinks Pell Grants are ‘welfare’—Republicans in the state legislature voted to raise tuition on college students.

Posted: May 17, 2011 at 7:33 am

Talk About Out of Touch

Incumbent Congressman Dennis Rehberg sent out this survey recently. Are gas prices too high? Should DC impose a mileage tax?

The only reason to poll these questions is simply if you have no clue about the real issues facing everyday Montanans–but Rehberg is so out-of-touch with Montanans that I guess he has to ask.

The problem stems from Congressman Rehberg’s inability to understand how his lifestyle differs from the reality most Montanans face reveals a deeper problem – he doesn’t represent working Montanans.

This misunderstanding has come to life in Congressman Rehberg’s recent comments (or lack thereof) about what it means to be “cash poor,” the Montana minimum wage, and Pell Grants.

If Congressman Rehberg can’t understand how most Montanans get by, then his ability to create responsible economic policies that work for the middle class is questionable.

Two weeks ago, Congressman Dennis Rehberg–the 23rd richest member of Congress–told constituents at the Missoula City Club that he’s ‘cash poor’ and ‘struggling like everyone else.’ Congressman Rehberg is estimated to be worth between $6.5 million and $56 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Earlier this year, Congressman Rehberg couldn’t respond to questions about whether he knew Montana’s minimum wage–the story made national headlines. The Montana minimum wage is $7.35/hr, while the national minimum wage remains $7.25/hr.

Pell Grants are a responsible way to help thousands of low and middle income Americans access an affordable education. Without Pell Grants, many of these students wouldn’t get the education they need to find good jobs.

However, in March, Congressman Rehberg launched an irresponsible attack Pell Grants in a radio interview with a blogger:

“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.” [Huffington Post, 4/1/11]

Congressman Rehberg is now saying that he wants to save Pell Grants. Not only has Congressman Rehberg failed to provide a responsible plan to ‘save’ Pell Grants, he voted just this year to gut them.

Posted: May 1, 2011 at 5:59 am

Western Montana Students to Be Spared from Hearing from Congressman Who Thinks They’re A Bunch of Bums

[Thank you to Turner for this guest post.]

I wrote a letter to the Dillon Tribune that was meant to appear in yesterday’s issue. The editor, always eager to protect Republicans, let me know that he wouldn’t publish such an “inflammatory” letter until he gave Rehberg a chance to read and respond to it.

So my letter, and Rehberg’s response to it, are supposed to appear side-by-side in the May 4 issue.

Below are my letter and Rehberg’s answer to it. I think all he did was throw up a smoke-screen. And you’ll notice he doesn’t actually deny anything in my letter.

Editor:

Representative Denny Rehberg was chosen some time ago to give the commencement address at this year’s UM-Western graduation ceremony, which will be held on Saturday, May 7. He backed out, though, when he learned that his daughter’s graduation ceremony would be on the same day.

The hundreds of Western students who receive Pell Grants will now be 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.”

Rehberg, who inherited wealth and has never had to worry about paying for college or anything else, seems to have total contempt for lower-income people, especially those wanting to do to college.

Rehberg’s replacement as commencement speaker will be Angela McLean, an outstanding Western alumna.

Rehberg’s response is below the fold…

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