July 28, 2011 07:22 PM UTC

Tipton Plays Dangerous Debt-Ceiling Promise Game

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Tipton falls into line; will support Speaker John Boehner’s latest House cuts plan coming up for a vote this afternoon. From Tipton’s statement (H/T: ClubTwitty):

“The House of Representatives has led the charge to find a solution to our nation’s debt crisis from the beginning, passing a responsible budget earlier this year and a plan just last week to Cut, Cap, and Balance spending.  In each of these instances, the response from the President and the Senate has been a deafening “no,” without offering any plan of their own in return.

“Today I will cast a vote to help determine the future of our country, and support yet another plan from the House of Representatives that responsibly cuts, caps and balances spending. The American people gave us a standard to measure up to; a standard that has forced Congress to confront the debt ceiling and seriously address our country’s spending.  With profound consideration of our $14.3 trillion debt, and $1.4 trillion deficit, today I heed the call of the people of my district…”

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As the Telluride Daily Planet’s Matthew Beaudin reports today, following up a related story in yesterday’s Pueblo Chieftain–freshman Rep. Scott Tipton, a bit player in the debt-ceiling drama playing out in Washington, is awfully quick to reassure his constituents that everything will be fine if the impasse isn’t resolved before the deadline:

Colorado’s Third Congressional District Rep. Scott Tipton pledged to keep Medicare payments flowing even if the government doesn’t vault its debt ceiling by Tuesday.

Tipton, a Republican from Cortez, held a phone conference on Tuesday night with constituents across his district, which runs from the Front Range west. He took questions for an hour but didn’t offer any specific cuts he’d make to slash the federal budget, [Pols emphasis] though he did say the Republican plan coming from the House of Representatives didn’t cut deep enough…

Tipton said he is co-sponsoring legislation that would prioritize spending in the event the debt ceiling isn’t raised that would ensure armed forces employees still receive paychecks and that Medicare and retirement payments keep coming.

One elderly man called in from Loma, Colo., outside of Grand Junction. He said he suffers from diabetes and that his son was also disabled.

“I rely on my SSI check coming through,” he said. “If we was to lose that – it’s scary, it’s really scary. And I’m hoping that they come through with something, because this is scary.”

“If you shake hands, you’ve made a deal. I will not support any plan if it is going to hurt our current [Pols emphasis] senior citizens,” Tipton said. “I’m going to be doing everything I can here.”

We’d say that everyone hopes there would be some provision made for Medicare and Social Security recipients if the government is forced to “prioritize” its financial obligations, but that will create other very serious problems if it means that bondholders and other creditors would not be paid. And beyond joining in en masse cosponsorship of a bill to accomplish this, Tipton has absolutely no way of keeping any “pledge” to keep checks flowing to his constituents. It is therefore highly irresponsible for him to make a promise that he is gambling to keep.

Even if he is only trying to keep it for “current” seniors.

But it’s worse than that: just like Tipton’s ridiculous assertion that warnings of a possible downgrade of U.S. debt by the Moody’s ratings agency are “not so,” what he’s doing is demonstrating his fundamental lack of understanding of the problem he and the House majority have themselves created–and irresponsibly misleading those who don’t know better. He is contributing to the misinformation and denial about the consequences of arbitrarily forcing a debt-ceiling crisis, seeking to obfuscate the fact that he bears responsibility for the crisis.

We understand why: if this does end badly, the polls say it’s Tipton who will pay the price.