News you can use
News you can use
R Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., held a listening session with a small audience in Havre today during a beautiful summer afternoon.
Rehberg, who said he tries to make sure he visits every county in Montana at least during each session of Congress, said he plans to take in the Blaine County Fair Saturday evening before holding a listening session in Chinook Sunday at 1 p.m. at the city library and then on to Glasgow for another session at 4:30 p.m.
Rehberg responded to three individuals who spoke at the session, with one asking about legislation intended to reform the financial industry passed by Congress Thursday, and about why people have the perception that the government can't solve problems and why Rehberg thinks people don't get their money's worth from the taxes they pay.
Rehberg said his main problem with finance reform is that it does not solve what he said primarily led to the financial meltdown in 2008 — the federal mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac encouraging or allowing lending to people who couldn't afford the debt.
He said he is concerned that, when the lengthy legislation gets to the federal regulators, those regulators will not understand the intent of the law, or will create their own interpretation.
He said it is similar to the passage of health care reform, which he said doesn't really deal with the major issues.
One of those was passing tort reform to reduce the use of defensive medicine by the medical community, which leads to much of the cost increase, Rehberg said. He compared that to not addressing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Congress delayed dealing with those issues rather than dealing with them, he said.
He said his opposition to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was not because he opposed stimulating the economy, but in how it was done. The act used only 12 cents per dollar for actual construction projects, with 88 percent going to other expenses, Rehberg said.
(For full details, read Monday's Havre Daily News.)
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