Gianforte touts work done by Congress

U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., touted his party's tax reform plan during a campaign fundraiser lunch in Havre Wednesday and said House Republicans are doing their part to pass legislation.

Gianforte, a retired high-tech entrepreneur from Bozeman and the 2016 Republican candidate for governor, won the special election for Montana's lone seat in the House of Representatives in May to fill the vacancy created after Republican Ryan Zinke resigned to become the secretary of the interior.

Gianforte toured the damage in Pepin Park caused by the Oct. 2-3 snowstorm after speaking Wednesday.

House Republicans, Gianforte said during the fundraiser in the Duck Inn's Vineyard Room, are aiming to pass an overhaul of the federal tax code by the end of the year.

"I think the sole focus between now and the end of the year is getting tax reform done," he said.

He said the proposal pushed by Republicans would be good for farmers and ranchers because it would do away with the federal estate tax, known by its opponents as the death tax.

Elimination of the tax, Gianforte said, would allow farms, ranches and businesses to be kept in the family.

The standard deduction would be doubled to $24,000, which would essentially create a zero-income tax bracket to help people who are on the lower end of the income ladder, Gianforte said.

Deductions, other than the ones for charitable giving and mortgage interest on a primary residence would be done away with, Gianforte said,

The small business tax would be placed at a fixed rate of 25 percent, he said.

"We are going to work to get this done by the end of the year," he said,

Gianforte said that many people do not know how much Congress has accomplished this year.

He said since the beginning of the year, 300 bills have passed the House, but 270 are stalled in the Senate.

The House, he said, has passed medical malpractice reform that limits awards to $250,000 for pain and suffering, a bill that would cut funds off to sanctuary cities that do not enforce federal immigration law and a separate bill that would increase penalties on people who have committed felonies after entering the U.S. illegally.

Gianforte added the House also passed a budget that cut $200 billion in spending by cutting what he called inefficiencies, boosted spending on military and set aside $1.6 billion dollars to construct a wall on the southern border.

"The reason I am pointing this out is we don't hear about this stuff," Gianforte said. "This stuff does not show up in the national media.

He said that House Speaker Paul Ryan has told him Republicans are learning how to once again govern with a Republican in the White House.

"That lesson was hard learned in the health care discussion," he said,

He said the rollout of tax reform has been much different, with Congress and the administration on the same page on the major concepts, and now are working on the details.

Gianforte said he was disappointed with the Senate for not passing a bill repealing and replacing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The House narrowly passed such a bill before Gianforte took office, said he had some concerns about the bill, but he wasn't in Congress at the time and could not influence how it was structured, he said.

He added that he was further disappointed that the Senate did not pass a bill introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., that would have created more state-based solutions. He said that because they expanded Medicaid, California, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts get a disproportionate amount of the money.

He added that the proposal by Graham and Cassidy would allow states to come up with health care plans for their states.

Gianforte said Obamacare only addressed insurance and not other aspects of health care.

Gianforte said Vice President Mike Pence reassured him and other Republicans that they will work on health care again.