Montana Senator Max Baucus – My Week at Home

Dear Friends,

What a great week to be home! Coming back is always so refreshing. Whether it is catching up with old friends, meeting new friends, or just being able to clear my head as I go for a run up Mount Helena, there is nothing better than coming home. I know that Montanans are nervous about the economy, and I’m committed to doing everything I can to create good paying jobs here at home, and keep our economy moving. That is why I spent the entire week just talking with folks and figuring out how we can work together to overcome some of these challenges.

I started off Tuesday doing one of my work days at MacKenzie River Pizza. These work days are a great way to see how small businesses in Montana are doing, and what ways I can help them create more good paying jobs, plus they’re just plain fun. And the people at MacKenzie were just aces. My supervisor was Keenan, and I couldn’t have asked for someone better to help show me the ropes. I worked the lunch shift so I spent the morning prepping, and the afternoon busing tables and filling water glasses. At the end of the day I got a review, and while I did ok with prep work it’s clear I need to work on my busing skills and I need to ease off the garlic.

Wednesday I was back in my home town of Helena. It was one of those crisp winter mornings; so I started it off with a long run through town. I can’t think of a better way to start off the day. I then was able to address the Helena Rotary club. It was a great dialogue, folks asked me questions and I asked them follow ups. It was almost like a brainstorming session where we could bounce ideas off each other to figure out how to keep our economy growing. Whether it’s common sense tax cuts, or creating certainty in the marketplace, we need to work together to figure out what is best for our state.

Thursday I was in the Electric City, Great Falls. I started out addressing the Rural Water Conference. There were more than 1000 people, all dedicated to making sure Montanans have access to clean, safe, drinking water. I saw my old friend Dan Keil, and we were able to catch up. Working together we have made some great strides in Rural Water, including working diligently on the St. Mary Diversion, the Rocky Boy’s/North Central, and Fort Peck/Dry Prairie projects. We still have some work to do, but I’m confident we will get it done.

After the Water Conference, I held a roundtable with business leaders from the community. Again, we were brainstorming ways to keep our economy growing. We talked about the need for highway dollars, keeping Malmstrom the heart of our nation’s defense, and making sure we are investing in rural communities. Brad, a contractor at the meeting, brought up the point that we need more confidence in the markets. Businesses need to have more certainty, so they can make long term investments. One of the best ways we can do that is to keep taxes low, and that’s why I’m working on a package of targeted tax cuts to give Montana’s small businesses the certainty they need to make investments.

Today, I held another roundtable in Missoula. I heard the same thing: we need to create more good paying jobs. We also talked a lot about health care, and the need to pass comprehensive reform. Many business owners were really pushing wellness, and preventive care, something I worked very hard to include in the bill that I have been working on. Missoula has really been hit hard lately. The fire earlier this week and the closures of Macy’s and Smurfit Stone are a lot to handle. I’m working to help the folks who were laid off move forward – we need to help make that right.

All in all, it was a great trip home. I was good to see folks, talk about everything from cutting taxes, to Montanans in the Olympics, including Bryon Wilson bronze medalist in Moguls.

As always, it’s great for me to hear directly from you about how I can help get our economy growing. I am just the hired hand. Feel free to drop me a line at http://www.Baucus.senate.gov.

Very best wishes,

Max

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Missoula business leaders tell Senator Baucus: Pass health reform, loosen bank regulation http://matr.net/article-38128.html

The Cost Conundrum – What a Texas town can teach us about health care. http://matr.net/article-38124.html