Rehberg Games – Pell Grant Tumbling

Day 7: August 7, 2012

An out-of-bounds failure on student financial aid

Day 7 of the Rehberg Games highlight Congressman Dennis Rehberg’s vote to gut federal Pell Grants after once supporting the student financial aid–then going so far as to compare the grants to “welfare.” Rehberg’s irresponsible back handsprings and round-offs have left Montanans wondering why their out-of touch Congressman wants to make it harder for them to pay for college.

BACK HANDSPRING: Rep. Rehberg once supported funding for Pell Grants.

Federal Pell Grants provide financial aid to 24,000 Montana college students [Missoulian, 3/8/2011].

In May of 2008, Rehberg said the federal government must “continue to provide additional funding for federal Pell Grants” [Great Falls Tribune, 5/03/08].

ROUND-OFF: But last year, Rehberg gutted Pell Grants…

In February of 2011, Rehberg tried to cut Pell Grant financial aid by an average of $700 per student [HR 1, Vote 147, 2/19/11; DPCC].

DISMOUNT: …Then Rehberg called Pell Grants “the welfare of the 21st century.”

A few weeks later, Rehberg (a multimillionaire) made national headlines by calling Pell Grants “the welfare of the 21st Century [Gannett News Service, 4/27/11; Huffington Post, 4/1/2011].

POINT DEDUCTION: Another poor performance demonstrating that Rehberg’s values don’t match up with Montana’s values.

THE REPLAY:

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