By JOHN MacDONALD
Associated Press Writer
MISSOULA Candidates for
Montana’s lone U.S. House seat sparred
Saturday over spending and tax priorities,
with the Democratic challenger
suggesting Montana’s middle class can
no longer afford the decisions the current
Congress is making.
Monica Lindeen, a Democratic state
representative from Huntley, said the
war in Iraq and tax breaks she contends
have mostly benefited the
wealthy and corporations are creating
a “red sea of debt for our children.”
Families have to be held accountable
for their spending habits, and “it’s
time that we also hold our elected officials
responsible and accountable for
their actions,” she said during a debate
with incumbent Republican Rep. Denny
Rehberg and Libertarian candidate
Mike Fellows of Missoula.
Rehberg, who is seeking his fourth
term and ran unopposed in the June 6
primary, defended his own voting
record, saying he has consistently
fought to repeal the estate tax, which
he said is particularly harsh on
Montana farm families.
“Yeah, I get a little cranky about the
estate tax,” said Rehberg, who told the
audience he had to sell about one-third
of the family farm after he inherited it
just to pay off what he owed the federal
government.
“No family should have to do that,”
he added.
Fellows, who has run previously for
the U.S. House, said he considers himself
the only true fiscally conservative
candidate running for the House.
The debate, sponsored by the
Montana Newspaper Association and
held at the group’s annual convention
in Missoula, was the first for the three
candidates since Tuesday’s primary.
The association sponsored a separate
debate Saturday for Montana’s
U.S. Senate candidates incumbent
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.;
Democratic Senate President Jon
Tester; and Libertarian Stan Jones.
Burns, however, did not attend,
prompting a joke from Tester, who
posed a question to an empty chair
when each of the candidates was given
a chance to ask a question of another
candidate.
The move was reminiscent of one
used by Gov. Brian Schweitzer when he
was running against Burns six years
ago and Burns canceled his appearance
at the MNA debate. Schweitzer placed
a handmade sign with Burns’ name on
it on an empty chair at the start of the
debate.
On Saturday, the U.S. House candidates
were quizzed on a variety of subjects
from the war in Iraq to spending
priorities and their ideas to alleviate
the nation’s demand for oil.
Rehberg and Lindeen both stressed
the need to expand alternative energy
resources. Fellows said he was
adamantly opposed to proposals that
would require the nation’s auto makers
to meet strict new fuel economy standards,
saying he doesn’t believe it’s the
federal government’s job to be telling
manufacturers what to build.
None of the candidates offered
specifics when asked what taxes they
would raise or what programs they
would cut if ordered to immediately
balance the federal budget. Lindeen
said she would make spending on education
and health care for seniors and
veterans priorities, while also fixing
tax loopholes and going after “tax
cheats.”
Rehberg said the issue was not with
how much money was being raised, but
how much was being spent.
“We don’t have a revenue problem,”
he said. “We have a spending problem.”
He said he doesn’t believe “anything
should be off the table” when it comes
to considering what spending to cut,
including Defense Department and
Department of Homeland Security budgets.
Asked whether they believed government
has had a “positive effect” on
Montanans, Lindeen said she believed
most Montanans “are not happy and
they don’t feel government is doing
well for them.”
Rehberg called government a “work
in progress,” but said Congress has
generally served people well under difficult
circumstances.
“Nobody ever sends us back to
Washington, D.C. to fix what’s working,”
he said.
