Ken Miller Defends Daines Vote That Ended Shutdown

As I mentioned on Monday’s Voices of Montana statewide radio talk show, former conservative state senator and gubernatorial candidate Ken Miller (R-Laurel) says the vote by Congressman Steve Daines which effectively ended the government shutdown was the “prudent” course to take.   

Below is the full email from Ken Miller.

E-mail from Ken Miller

Congressman Steve Daines has received criticism for his recent vote on the government shutdown and increasing the debt ceiling. I too was very disappointed that he voted for the Continuing Resolution CR2014 to fund government operations and increase the debt ceiling.

Our president has showed us that he is willing to punish Americans if he doesn’t get his way, just like a playground bully. 

Because Americans can’t count on the President to act like a statesman, I understand why Congressman Daines voted to not allow the President to harm America with the debt ceiling deadline and the government shutdown.  Congressman Daines had very legitimate concerns that standing up to the bully under the existing situation could have been very harmful to others, i.e. Montanans.   He chose instead to take on the fight when the odds were in favor of the people, instead of the playground bully.

We saw the President barricading open-air memorials and deliberately inflicting pain on Americans to leverage the effect of the partial government shutdown.  There were strong concerns that the President would do the same with payments on the national debt and force a default by stopping debt service.

Congressman Daines’ vote was not the vote I would have liked, but in reality, it was the prudent vote at this time to protect the American people, including Montanans, from a bully.