October 08, 2013 08:37 AM UTC

"I am absolutely against raising the debt limit, period, end of story."

• 6 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

(You expected something from Ken Buck besides "burn baby burn?" – promoted by Colorado Pols)

KLZ radio's afternoon drive show, Grassroots Radio Colorado, deserves to be recognized as a regular news breaker. That is, for the five of us who are already following next year's election.

The show broke news again in an Aug. 27 interview with U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck, when Buck said he's "absolutely against raising the debt limit, period, end of story."

Buck reiterated the point later in the interview:

Buck: "I’m not going to vote in any way to allow a[n] increase in the debt ceiling."

Listen to Ken Buck say he's "absolutely" against raising the debt limit

Strangely enough, Buck used a question about the budget bill to state his position on the debt ceiling, but it's hard to believe that Buck confused the debt ceiling with the continuing-resolution budget bill.

In any case, all of Colorado's congressional candidates should be answering questions from real reporters about the debt limit, as we approach next week's Oct. 17 deadline for the U.S. to extend it or begin defaulting on our country's debts.

With the stakes so high (stock market gyrations, U.S. credit-rating downgrade, economic slowdown), it's a topic reporters should address with all federal candidates, even though the election is so far away.

Last month, Buck told KNUS radio's Jimmy Sengenberger that it's "legitimate" for the U.S. House to shut down the government to stop Obamacare.

Partial transcript of Ken Buck's interview on KLZ's Grassroots Radio Colorado Sept. 27.

Ken Clark: [talking about Ted Cruz and his 21 hour speech on Senate floor] it wasn’t technically a filibuster. And then you had the vote on cloture today, okay? Where do you stand?

Buck: Where do I stand? I am absolutely against raising the debt limit, period, end of story. This country has too much debt. It has too much spending. We have taxed our people enough. We have not – we have overspent, not overtaxed. So, we need to get back to – actually, here’s a concept for both of you. You ready for this? You sitting down? Thank you, very much. How about let’s pass a budget in the United States Senate. Would that be a —

Clark: What if – what if — ?

Buck: [facetiously] Okay, we lost somebody! We’ve got a fainter, over here!

Clark: What’s a budget?

Buck: We got –. No kidding! What’s a budget? And Mark Udall –

Clark: I’ve never heard of it.

Buck: Mark Udall and Barak Obama have not passed a budget in a house of the United States Congress that they control now, for six years. How on Earth is that possible?

Co-host Jason Worley: But they’re pretty good at voting against Obama, which makes you laugh –

Clark: But, wait a minute! I thought it was all done by Continuing Resolution.

Buck: Yeah. And that’s the problem. All we do is this ‘stop and start’ kind of nonsense, and we need to actually plan on how we’re going to reduce this deficit over the next ten years, and have a plan in place. And that’s what I would focus on.

Clark: All right. Very good. So, how would you have voted on the cloture pay?

Buck: Well, I’m not going to vote in any way to allow a[n] increase in the debt ceiling.

Listen to Ken Buck say he's "absolutely" against raising the debt limit.