Campaign 2012

Rehberg, Tester face off in Billings debate

Posted: Oct 8, 2012 8:29 PM by MTN News

Incumbent U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D) and challenger U.S. Representative Dennis Rehberg (R) took part in an energetic and hard-hitting debate on the campus of MSU-Billings on Monday evening.

The wide-ranging dialogue included healthcare reform, TV advertising, taxes, Congressional travel, and more, with both candidates disagreeing on just about everything, including federal spending, when both were asked about the federal stimulus act.

Rehberg said, "And that's the problem with the stimulus, it was pure expense. There was stimulus efforts within the stimulus plan. But they problem is it didn't create jobs, it wasn't timely, it wasn't targeted, it wasn't temporary, it didn't stimulate the economy the way it was supposed to, there are other ways to do it."

Tester countered, "Remember this - we were losing 800,000 jobs a month before the Recovery Act. After the Recovery Act we saw that flatten out and then we started to see jobs created. We were on the cusp of a financial meltdown...something had to be done...this was the right move."