Tim Sheehy, the Montana businessman who’s vying to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, obtained a $210,000 grant from Democrats’ American Rescue Plan — a federal COVID-19 aid bundle that Sheehy has repeatedly condemned on the marketing campaign path.
Sheehy is the founding father of Bridger Aerospace, a Bozeman-based aerial firefighting firm that depends nearly fully on federal contracts. In March 2022, Bridger was awarded $210,000 from the American Rescue Plan’s Workforce Coaching Grant Program, which offers funding to companies to coach workers.
The grant, a part of $1.5 billion in American Rescue Plan funding allotted to Montana, has not been beforehand reported.
Since launching his Senate bid in June, Sheehy has repeatedly decried what he views as wasteful spending by the Biden administration, together with the $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus bundle.
In an interview with Montana radio station KGVO shortly after saying his marketing campaign, Sheehy stated COVID taught his state that the federal authorities “just isn’t the answer to our issues.”
“It’s not the answer to educating our youngsters. It’s not the answer to our well being care. It’s not the answer to our economic system,” he stated. “As a result of when the federal government pumps trillions of {dollars} into the economic system, we get inflation, which has had a particularly focused influence on rural states like Montana.’”
In an interview with Breitbart Information in July, Sheehy slammed Biden’s financial agenda, dubbed “Bidenomics,” which the American Rescue Plan is a part of.
“Fortunately, Bidenomics rhymes with dangerous economics — ‘Badenomics,’ I suppose we will name it,” he stated. “If we’re going to pump trillions of {dollars} of presidency fiat cash into the economic system, everybody stated, ‘Hey, there’s going to be huge inflation on the again finish of this. No, there received’t. It’ll be transitory, just some weeks of it.’ No, it’s going to be a elementary shift in our rate of interest foundation, as a result of whenever you actually pump trillions of {dollars} of basically synthetic forex into our economic system, inflation will comply with. And certain sufficient, it did, as a result of it’s fairly primary math when it comes right down to that type of an financial seesaw mannequin.”
Sheehy went on to declare that Democratic insurance policies in the course of the pandemic “made it crystal clear what the Democrats need of their utopia, of their excellent world, after they had full management with their emergency powers we noticed what they needed.” He then aired a protracted record of right-wing, tradition conflict grievances.
“Fortunately, Bidenomics rhymes with dangerous economics — ‘Badenomics,’ I suppose we will name it.”
– Tim Sheehy
Sheehy’s marketing campaign didn’t tackle JS’s particular questions in regards to the ARP cash, as an alternative offering a press release stuffed with deflection.
“Montana job creator and adorned fight veteran Tim Sheehy is aware of that Democrats in Washington like Joe Biden and Jon Tester are bankrupting our youngsters’s future with their out-of-control spending,” a marketing campaign spokesperson stated in an e mail. “Whereas we all know the Huffington Publish would by no means ask Jon Tester why he voted for the American Rescue Plan – which didn’t create the 4 million jobs promised by the Biden administration and saddled our nation with document excessive inflation and debt – when Tim Sheehy is within the U.S. Senate, he might be proud to rein in authorities spending and discover areas all through our bloated bureaucratic funds to slash.”
(This publication is not referred to as The Huffington Publish. Its title modified to JS as a part of a rebrand in 2017.)
It’s unclear precisely how the cash for Bridger is for use. The contract merely states that the funding is for “new job coaching actions.” A Montana dashboard for American Rescue Plan funds notes that the $210,000 has been awarded however not but paid to Bridger Aerospace.
That Sheehy is benefitting from federal help that he now argues is driving inflation is simply the most recent instance of him and his firm double-dipping on partisan points.
As JS beforehand reported, Bridger has repeatedly promoted itself as a frontrunner within the struggle in opposition to local weather change and planet-warming greenhouse gasoline emissions, securing tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in federal contracts alongside the best way. In the meantime, Sheehy has toed the Republican get together line on local weather, railing in opposition to the so-called “local weather cult,” “radical environmentalists” and the “disastrous socialist Inexperienced New Deal.”
He additionally persistently slams the federal authorities, his firm’s largest consumer. As JS reported, Bridger reported income of greater than $46 million final yr — 96% of which got here from federal contracts. That very same yr, Sheehy earned nearly $5 million in wage and bonuses as the corporate’s CEO, and his inventory within the firm is valued at greater than $50 million.
In an interview with Fox Enterprise in June, the GOP hopeful stated “he’s seen the facility of the free market” and that Montanans “don’t need extra authorities of their lives, whether or not it’s state authorities or federal authorities.”
“They wish to be left alone to dwell their lives,” Sheehy stated. “The federal authorities wants to remain in its lane.” He added that authorities COVID-19 stimulus insurance policies “have actually impacted the bedrock of Montana and individuals are pissed off.”
However in Sheehy’s case, not pissed off sufficient to not apply for and obtain stimulus cash.
