Tagged: Welfare

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 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 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…

Continue reading →

Posted: April 6, 2011 at 6:33 am

Rehberg’s Tuition Tax Increase

This has to be one of the dumbest ideas yet.

Eleven year incumbent Congressman Dennis Rehberg has proposed increasing the costs that working families pay for college education by cutting federal assistance for qualified students through Pell Grants, which he calls “welfare.” Each dollar we cut from the Pell Grant program is another dollar increase in tuition tax to Montana families, because these families have to pay more to attend our own state schools.

When Rehberg took office 11 long years ago, America led the world in the number of college graduates. Now, we’ve fallen to ninth place compared to other nations, and Rehberg policies cutting financial aid for Montana and other U.S. students would put American workers at a further disadvantage for high paying jobs.

UM president Royce Engstrom said,

“Analysis indicates that over the next decade it’s expected that 68% of the jobs in Montana, whether those are replacement jobs or new jobs, will be jobs that require a college education.“

Don’t worry your pretty little heads about Rehberg’s own college-age kids. Thankfully, he’s one of the richest members of Congress, so they won’t need any help paying for any college they choose to attend.