Dear Editor: Rosendale Article Reply

Dear Editor,

In the Whitehall Ledger on 3/23/22, there was an opinion piece by Jim Smith of the Daily Montanan pointing out Congressman Rosendale’s no votes. When Matt ran for office, one of the platforms he ran on was costs. When it comes to saving the taxpayer money, Matt is no stranger. As Montana Insurance Commissioner, he trimmed the fat and saved the Montana taxpayer a chunk of dough.

Mr. Smith compared Congressman Rosendale’s no votes to a child suffering from arrested development. Then he threw in a bunch of bills that Matt voted no on.

All the descriptions that Mr. Smith provided made these bills sound like heaven. So... why on earth would Congressman Rosendale vote no?

Let’s take a quick look at the Build Back Better plan. 2,135 pages. The cost alone is reason enough. At a time when the taxpayers were knocking on the door of 29,000,000,000,000.00 (trillion) dollars in debt, the Build Back Better Plan was priced between 2.5 trillion to 5 trillion. Though most economists priced it at 3.5 trillion. Then there are the giveaways at taxpayer expense. Here are just a few of them in these 2,135 pages. (At press time, the debt is nearing $30 trillion, 500 billion dollars.)

Citizens of high tax states like New York, New Jersey, and California are eligible for a federal tax deduction called ‘State and Local Tax Deduction’ or SALT. This bill would have raised the max from 10,000 to 72,000 dollars, paid for by the U.S. taxpayer. The richer you are, the bigger the deduction. Retroactive to 2021, the U.S. taxpayer is subsidizing those who choose to live in a high tax state.

Tax subsidies for unions, who happen to be huge democrat supporters. Tax subsidies for the media, who report what those in Washington want them to report.

2.5 Billion for tree equity (??). 10 Billion for college programs to train environmental activists. I must be brief for space. But, in a 2,135-page document, there are pages of waste.

Take a look. It’s easy to Google up and confusing to read.

American Rescue Plan. With a price tag of nearly 2,000,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars, where did all that money go? Less than 10% went to COVID. This was a chance to throw money at everybody and everything. Even the wife and I got a 1400 dollar check. Twice. We are retired and I still work. My kids got money and they were never without a job. Again, I must be mindful of space. Read the bill. Easy to google, tough to understand, and only 242 pages.

At 888 very confusing pages, the ‘For The People Act’ was a federal takeover of state rights. I wrote on this before. It even included a provision that sent taxpayer money to candidates for federal offices, whether you want to or not.

Again, read the bill. Easy to find, hard to understand.

Pump for Nursing Mothers Act: There is already an act to protect nursing mothers, this would add to it. It expands the pumping allowance from 1 year to 2 years. It requires reporting racial disparities and updates federal regulations to say that pumping breast milk is considered a physiological need. The cost to change existing laws is not a small cost.

LGBTQ Business Equal Credit Act: This bill requires adding LGBTQ wording to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which was created to protect minorities. LGBTQ is already protected as they are listed as a minority. Wasted time and money.

Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act of 2021: Looking at this bill, it is embarrassing that time and money were wasted on this. It consisted of very minor changes to the wording of the original bill from 1967. More wasted time and money.

Protecting The Right To Organize Act: Yes. Of course. The unions are huge supporters of the Democrats. Democrat candidates get huge amounts of money from unions. Why do elected officials feel the need to expand the government to protect unions?

The bottom line is, to find out for yourself. Do not listen to talking heads. Even me.

Research the bills for yourself. I know it’s boring. I know it can make you angry to see where YOUR money is going. But that is how we have gotten to where we are now. Along with a national debt of nearly 31,000,000,000,000.00 (trillion) dollar debt. All in all. Congressman Rosendale was elected, in part, to help stop the waste and bring spending under control. Reading these bills showed me how much waste, special interest and government overreach is included in these bills. I thank him for that.

Jim Buterbaugh

Candidate for County Commissioner