October 29, 2015 02:35 PM UTC

Ken Buck Speaks For GOP Delegation Against Budget Deal

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Greeley Tribune reports, Colorado’s foremost right-wing ideologue in Congress, Rep. Ken Buck, is not happy about a long-term fiscal deal reached between congressional Republican leaders and the White House to put an end to the pitched battles over the federal budget that have caused major upheaval and uncertainty for several years. Buck’s statement is leading local stories about the deal despite the fact that all four Republicans in Colorado’s congressional delegation voted against it:

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., voted against H.R. 1314, the budget deal negotiated by Congressional leadership and President Obama, which passed Wednesday 266 to 167 with solely Republican opposition.

The deal, released near midnight on Monday, was rushed to the floor for a vote on Wednesday, the news release from Buck’s office stated. The legislation increases the debt limit without any entitlement reform and adds an additional $80 billion in discretionary spending over the next two fiscal years.

In a statement, Buck expressed his vexation with the process and the outcome:

The deal, released near midnight on Monday, was rushed to the floor for a vote on Wednesday. The legislation increases the debt limit without any entitlement reform and adds an additional $80 billion in discretionary spending over the next two fiscal years.

“This budget deal blows through the debt limit and the spending caps we fought hard to implement in 2011,” Congressman Buck stated. “We’re trading short-term spending for the promise of long-term savings.”

And unceremoniously throwing outgoing Speaker John Boehner under the bus to the Washington Post:

“This is John Boehner’s deal,” said Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.), a conservative freshman and a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. [Pols emphasis]

New Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has publicly washed his hands of this agreement, claiming “we are not going to run the House this way.” In private, however, it’s been suggested that even many of the Republican “no” votes on the deal are highly relieved by its passage–even in abrogation of the once-sacred “Hastert Rule” that no bill could come to the floor without the support of “the majority of the majority.”

The budget deal may have needed Democratic support for pass in a Republican-controlled Congress, but it’s Republican “no” votes like Rep. Mike Coffman who stand to benefit most from an end to the years of open warfare between Congress and the Obama administration over the budget. The uncertainty and quantifiable economic damage done by years of government shutdown and debt-limit brinksmanship have manifested as one of the GOP’s greatest liabilities with the broad American center electorate, even as the “Tea Party” fringe has demanded ever more confrontation.

In short, even as this deal is panned by the Ken Bucks of the world, it could be the GOP’s political lifeline going into 2016–a lifeline that, looking at the actual vote yesterday, they do not deserve.

Hopefully the fact-checkers are taking notes.