Rehberg votes yes on 'Cut, Cap and Balance'

Montana's lone U. S. Rep. Denny Rehberg Tuesday praised the passage of a deficit-reduction bill that he co-sponsored, but Democratic campaign organizations took a different view.

Rehberg, a Republican who is facing Democratic U. S. Sen. Jon Tester in the 2012 senate elections, was one of 229 Republicans who passed the bill called "Cut, Cap and Balance" in the U. S. House of Representatives Tuesday.

The Associated Press reports that nine Republicans voted against the bill and five Democrats in favor in the 234-190 vote.

The bill imposes sharp cuts in federal spending and requires the House and Senate to approve sending a balanced budget amendment to the states for a vote in exchange for approving an increase in the nation's debt ceiling.

"Cut, Cap and Balance provides a framework to restore some fiscal sanity in our country, while at the same time protecting funding for Social Security, Medicare and veterans, " Rehberg said in a release following the vote. "Within this framework, I'll continue to fight for funding priorities that work for Montana and make government more efficient and accountable. And I will also continue to protect Social Security and Medicare."

Democrats were not as full of praise.

"Today's votes showed us that Congressman Dennis Rehberg is part of a broken system that puts special interests above Montana's interest, " Tester campaign manager Preston Elliott said in a release Tuesday night. "While voting to increase the debt limit for the ninth time in his long career of reckless spending in Washington, he's trying to make up for it by wiping out Social Security and Medicare.

"With today's votes, he once again turned his back on Montana's seniors then gave a thumbs up to his fellow millionaires — and a thumb in the eye of our veterans, " Elliott added.

A spokesman for the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also attacked the passage of the bill, citing a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities saying the cuts in spending would cost the nation 700,000 jobs.

"Dennis Rehberg's latest effort to end Medicare would have devastating consequences for seniors and middle-class families in Montana, " committee spokesman Matt Canter said in a release Tuesday. "The Republican budget plan that Rehberg voted for today puts the GOP's old reckless budget plan on steroids and is loaded with even more harmful cuts that would be disastrous for Montanans who are already struggling. "

But Rehberg said the plan protects those entitlements, and that he will continue to protect them.

"This legislation is the direct result of grass-roots advocacy from around Montana and across the country. The American people have said 'no way' to another blank check for more Washington debt, " he said. "Instead, they offered Cut, Cap and Balance as a reasonable alternative to put our fiscal ship back on course. They generated support and built a coalition around their idea. And today — at least in the House — their American-made legislation took a big step forward.

"This is how a representative government should work, " Rehberg added.