September 25, 2013 09:55 AM UTC

Buck says GOP strategy to shut down gov't over Obamacare not Kamikazi or Kabuki but "legitimate"

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Ken Buck, who's running for U.S. Senate, isn't always so great at making up his mind about things (e.g., the personhood amendment).

So, even though Buck had tweeted his support for Sen. Ted Cruz's crusade to shut down the government in order to stop Obamacare, it was wise for Fox31 Denver's Eli Stokols to phone Buck to find out his latest thinking about the standoff in Washington.

Unfortunately, the Buck campaign did not return Fox31's phone calls.

So I'll fill in the media gap with Buck's comments on the topic Sat. on KNUS radio's debut of the Jimmy Sengenberger show (Sundays 5-8 p.m.).

In a move other talk-radio hosts should copy, Sengenberger injected some refreshing conflict into his conservative show by asking Buck to respond to righty Jonah Goldberg's position against trying to shut down the government to stop Obamacare.

Sengenberger played Buck a Fox News interview with Goldberg about the passage of the House bill defunding Obamacare:

Interviewer from Fox: Jonah, is this a Kamikazi mission?

Jonah Goldberg: I don’t know if it’s a Kamikazi mission, there’s definitely a lot of Kabuki theater in it. It’s like a long con, where you try to convince people to part with their money, and the trick is that the con artist is supposed to leave before they realize it’s a con. And what’s happened here is this whole ‘Defund Obamacare’ thing is, it has been exposed with the con artist still sort of left out there. I mean, I like Ted Cruz. I like Mike Lee, but these guys have been selling a plan that simply won’t work and they’ve been denouncing anyone who says it won’t work as prematurely surrendering, when in fact, all they were doing was just predicting where the facts would take them.

Then Sengenberger asked Buck to respond:

Sengenberger: Is trying to defund Obamacare a Kamikazi mission or just Kabuki theater, or is there a real legitimate reason to put up that fight?

Buck: I think there’s legitimate reason, Jimmy, there. We cannot allow Obamacare to become one of the entitlements in this country. We’ve got to deal with healthcare. We've got to create a more open marketplace. We’ve got to give a patient centered healthcare system a chance. We’ve got to give consumers the information they need to make good choices. We’ve got to do better job at educating the public about their personal accountability for their health and give them incentives. And if Obamacare becomes a part of our cultural expectation, we have lost. We can’t afford another huge entitlement like Obamacare.

Listen to Buck on KNUS Sengenberger Show 9.21.13

This is what Buck said on Saturday. So you'd assume he would have said the same thing if he'd returned Stokols' call Tuesday. But, to make sure Buck's thinking hasn't changed over the past couple days, I'd suggest that Stokols stay after him.