Montana News

Exclusive: Rehberg talks about end of Congressional term

Posted: Nov 28, 2012 8:49 AM by Marnee Banks - MTN News

HELENA - It's been weeks since we have heard from Congressman Denny Rehberg's campaign. After he lost the election to Sen. Jon Tester he went back to Washington, D.C. and has been flying under the radar as he wraps up his time as Montana's lone voice in the US House of Representatives.

After groups spent millions in Montana's highly contested U.S. Senate Race, Rehberg lost the election by 18,000 votes.

Rehberg said he senses people's relief that the election is over. "I think people are tired of the politics. You can sense that from 2005 forward. I think ultimately people wanted to get the politics behind them," he said.

"The difficulty is that the American public send a conflicting message. They left the Senate as is, they left the President as is and they left the House of Representatives as is. And so essentially what they are saying is they kind of like the way it is, which is the turmoil, the disruption and the problem."

Now, Rehberg has one month left in office.

In those four weeks Congress needs to pass some sort of budget deal or Americans will see an increase in their taxes and automatic spending cuts to every federal program.

Rehberg said the country will need leadership to overcome partisan gridlock. "And ultimately set ourselves up coming into the next Congress, for the next Congress to do the right thing and that is to truly address the spending issue, to make sure the tax rates don't go up and solve the issues of the entitlements that are going broke."

Rehberg says he has a solution that balances the budget.

"I have legislation that would repeal the two new entitlements that would exist within the President's healthcare reform. That's the expansion of Medicaid and the insurance premium subsidy. That immediately reduces spending by $1.4 trillion. It solves the problem."

Rehberg says he is confident Congress will reach a deal, but he questions whether or not it will be the right deal.

In the coming weeks we will have more on what's next for Congressman Rehberg.