“Things have changed a lot in two years,” he said Thursday morning during a meeting with the Missoulian's editorial board. “Life isn't simple. You just roll up your sleeves and try to do the best you can.”
The issues are complex and no vote is an easy one, Tester said.
Tester said he knows there are 5,000 workers in Montana directly affected by the automakers' plight, he said. But the industry showed a lack of accountability, he said.
Without a detailed business plan moving forward, the auto industry would come back to Congress asking for more money and then eventually go broke, Tester said. That's what he calls a “Band-Aid approach” to fixing the economy, and it won't solve the problems for the long term.
One of Tester's priorities when Congress returns from its Christmas break is to pass an all-encompassing stimulus package to fund infrastructure projects “across the board,” he said. That means roads and bridges, as well as health care infrastructure and aid to the forest products industry.
This is the way to build the economy from the ground up, he said.
Tester wants to make sure rural areas of the country are not left out. These areas have infrastructure needs as much as cities, he said. Also, it's important that any money allocated for these projects finds its way to the ground level and is not absorbed by administrative costs, he said.
Tester intends to rely on local governments and economic development groups to identify infrastructure projects most in need of federal funding.
There's also an agreement among most of his political colleagues that Wall Street needs some kind of “common sense” regulations, he said. “Not to stifle growth, but to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.”
Tester is confident, however, that when the economy does bounce back, it'll be stronger than ever because the nation is learning financial responsibility.
Also, as a new administration takes over, Tester expects a much smaller U.S. presence in Iraq, he said. Troop withdrawals can't happen overnight. There was a presence in the Middle East before the war in Iraq and there will continue to be a presence after it's over, he said.
But it's difficult to know for sure how long a withdrawal will take and how many troops will remain in the Middle East, he said.
The nation needs to rebuild its military, Tester said. It's been stretched pretty thin in recent years.
The “war on terror” remains and the focus needs to shift to Afghanistan, he said. It's going to require cooperation among our world allies, because “we don't want to be the Lone Ranger on this,” he said. “It's a worldwide problem.”
Tester continues to travel back and forth between Washington, D.C., and Montana each weekend.
“Northwest (Airlines) loves me,” he joked.
His Big Sandy farm is doing well. It's a family farm, he said, and the kids and relatives have been taking good care of it, he said.
Once in a while, Tester even finds time to take a spin on the tractor. There's nothing like bumping your noggin on the head bar of a tractor “to bring you back to reality,” he said.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com
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