Rehberg discusses concerns during trip to Sidney

U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., stopped by Sidney Friday to listen to residents and what they wanted Rehberg to fight for in Washington.

Rehberg lives mainly on his ranch in Billings or in his office in Washington.

“I tried to move the family out there, but I ended up seeing them less,” Rehberg said. “Now, I sleep on my couch in my office in Washington during the week and get to see my family when I come back to Montana on most weekends.”

After giving the group of around 20 his introduction, Rehberg said he’d stop to give as much time for the audience to ask questions or make statements. Although, once a question was asked, Rehberg appeared to have some difficulty giving a short, succinct answer. The audience tried its best to get views, questions and opinions across to Montana’s lone congressman.

Resident Bob Butterfield brought up the first topic: health care, a familiar topic in the political sphere and one that every politician has a speech to give as an answer. Butterfield questioned the immense markup in medications between the price of cost compared to the price it is sold at.

“I’m wondering,” Butterfield said, “if you’d be able to do anything about this and also if this markup is the reason my Medicare is expensive.”

Rehberg explained that this has been looked into and that it has been discovered through research that this markup is do to the long time it takes from the creation of the drug until it makes it to the market.

“We need to find a way to shorten the time between the drug’s development and the time it becomes a generic drug,” Rehberg said. Then Rehberg used this question to argue against socialized health care.

“I’m afraid if we don’t solve the accessibility and affordability of health care, people will throw their hand up and turn to socialized health care, which is government run and similar to the system in Canada,” he said.

However, here in Richland County, a political discussion can only last so long before the main topic turns to oil and natural resources.

“Environmentalists want to keep the deep ocean from drilling and then turn around and tax you, and then we have people who can’t afford to pay for heat,” Rehberg said. “There is limited ability to access affordable energy resources.”

Rehberg went on to say that many people, mainly in the Northeast, who oppose the drilling in Montana and Alaska and off the coasts, fight against it, yet they continue to consume natural resources, and then they raise taxes to import oil.

It was then brought up that the need here in Richland County is not for drilling to be allowed, anyone who looks around can see that this is an active oil drilling community, but we need either a refinery here or another means of transportation.

Rehberg appeared to have no answer for this, and instead talked about his fight in Washington against the urban majority.

The topic was changed when Terressa Nollmeyer voiced her disappointment in Rehberg’s vote to over-ride President Bush’s veto of SCHIP.

Rehberg gave an in-depth explanation justifying his action. “SCHIP was almost the exact same program on a ballot that 68 percent of Montanans voted in favor of.” Other topics briefly discussed were veteran health care, Essential Air Service and the No Child Left Behind act.

reporter@sidneyherald.com