Left and Right Clash Over Inflation and the Congressional Race

As part of the political coverage provided by us, the state chairs of both the Democratic and Republican parties appear once a month on the Talk Back show to answer questions from the hosts and listeners.

Robyn Driscoll, Chair or the Montana Democratic Party was on Tuesday’s show and discussed the Inflation Reduction Act and how she believed it would affect Montanans.

“It will pay down our national debt by hundreds of billions of dollars and that's according to the Congressional Budget Office,” began Driscoll. “It will lower costs on prescription drugs, it will lower costs for families, and quite frankly, I think that most economists agree that it will reduce inflation but not necessarily in the short term. It will be more over the long term and it will probably take possibly even two to three years.”

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On the Republican side, we also spoke with Don Kaltschmidt, also known as ‘Don K’ who provided the GOP’s view of the recently passed legislation.

“The ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ really should be called the inflation and recession act,” said Don K. “Democrats are cherry-picking the numbers they want to use and that's not fair to do to Montana families. They deserve to know the truth. And here's what's in the bill; $370 billion to advance the green New Deal which a majority of Montana voters are against.”

Both Driscoll and Kaltschmidt took in the recent Montana Congressional debate at the Missoula City Club between Democrat Monica Tranel and Republican Ryan Zinke.

Kaltschmidt took issue with Tranel’s behavior during the debate.

“Be honest, Ms. Tranel was a bully,” he said. “Just imagine if those roles were reversed with Commander Zinke. After being asked a question about making millions off her anti-fossil fuel clients from ‘350 Montana’, she literally ripped the microphone out of Ryan Zinke’s hand. It was quite a sight to be seen.”

Driscoll had a different take on the Congressional debate.

“We got a really great display of the character and energy of both front runners, Zinke and Tranel,” she said. “I think that Tranel did a really good job of laying out the case against Zinke by criticizing him for his infrequent appearances at public forums and in during the Republican primary, he didn't appear in any of their forums.”

Also appearing at the debate was Libertarian candidate John Lamb.