Resisting the calls that jammed his offices from citizens who opposed returning John Boehner to his leadership post, freshman Colorado Rep. Ken Buck chose not to challenge Speaker Boehner’s position on opening day. Besides getting placed on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Republican congressman learned last week he was named Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Interior at Government Oversight.
Speaking to Buck in his office on January 21, the day after the president’s State of the Union Address, this exclusive Daily Caller video interview starts with the congressman’s warning, as a former prosecutor, to other jurisdictions that they might want to avoid following Colorado’s lead in legalizing marijuana.
“Marijuana isn’t alcohol.” he said. It has a “much more serious impact on young people,” Buck told TheDC. “People will learn over time, as they see what’s happening in Colorado, they should move slowly” on adopting Colorado’s law.
Now that he is in office, Buck finds Washington “confusing” and “a world that does not reflect what I’ve seen at home.” One that does not reflecting anxiety about the federal government overreach into peoples’ lives. Neither has he heard the opposition he expected to the unpopular Common Core education program pushed by Washington elites.
Implying agreement with the Citizens’ Mandate, signed by conservative leaders and released on January 15th, “I don’t think that the conciliatory approach has worked,” with President Obama. Buck does not see this “president looking for common ground.” The freshman says Obama needs to know there is another branch of government that controls the purse and oversees the executive branch.
The Coloradan was also surprised President Obama did not use the State of the Union to lay out a plan to cut federal spending with the national debt now over $18 trillion. He also sees the president’s actions on granting amnesty without legislation as setting a troubling precedent.
Buck discusses how he thinks Republicans can rein in this president, as well as ways to deal with executive amnesty and legal immigration reform.
After three chemotherapy treatments, Ken Buck overcame Stage 4, non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2013, a health challenge that we were unable to ask about due to time constraints. You can learn more about Buck on his Facebook page and his Twitter.
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