Congressman Rehberg speaks in Superior

The Mineral County Republicans held their annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner on Saturday. The county party serves as a platform to raise money for the county party and to introduce the republican candidates that are seeking local offices this election year. Congressman Denny Rehberg served as the keynote speaker for night's festivities. The event took place at the Rock-n-Rodeo in Superior.

Rehberg, who talked with the Mineral Independent before addressing the evening's guests, said that everything happening in congress does affect Mineral County. One the things he noted that was especially important in the small county are the creation of jobs. He said that he feels that one of the factors affecting the economy in Mineral County is that so much of the property is "locked up."

"There's nothing more important than jobs in this area and one of the problems with this county is so much of the property is federal property," Rehberg said. "I happen to be one of those that believes in more multiple use management than locking it all up and kicking people off."

Rehberg said that if small businesses are to thrive in the area than one cannot have an "extreme environment agenda." He said that it needs to be one that sees the potential opportunities if the government would just get out of the way.

Rehberg said that it's not that creates jobs, but small businesses. However, when the government becomes an "epitiment through regulation of high taxes, an economy can't be created."

One of the alternatives Rehberg mentioned was suspending all payroll taxes on employees and employers in some form for a determined length of time so money could get into the pockets of not only individuals, but also small businesses.

Rehberg said he thinks the current administration is "sending us into a fiscal crisis." With the current spending, he believes that people are being set up for the largest tax increase in this country.

"We're on the edge of a deep canyon right now because we're bleeding cash, building a deficit and adding to the debt," Rehberg said. "I strongly believe we need to freeze it right now."

Another strong issue in the county is the problem of underage drinking and drunk driving. A town hall meeting conducted back on April 7, between students and adults, laid out that a lot of it comes from latent parents and the lack of activities. Rehberg believed similarly that a lot of the problems seen with underage drinking starts at home with parental supervision.

"We have a tendency to believe that the government can solve all the problems when ultimately it really is incumbent upon ourselves," Rehberg said.

Rehberg said that many times the economy of the community creates stress factors, such as being unemployed, which causes people to "look for outlets and often times that is sitting in a bar."

"(You need to) start with personal responsibility and then work within the community," Rehberg said.

In addressing the audience, Rehberg expressed that people are tired of the experiment that Obama's been conducting in congress. He believes that the president need to "quit apologizing for America" and stop raising taxes during a recession. Rehberg said that as for healthcare the focus needs to be on health care cost containment or reduction. Rehberg himself voted against the bill and said that the reason he did was because while it provided access to health coverage, it didn't lower the cost.

"I don't think it's going to lower the cost of healthcare," Rehberg said. "It provides access to people to get health insurance, but the problem is unless you address the cost of healthcare insurance is just a reflection of the cost of healthcare."