Aiming for Gold in 2014, Rep. Paulsen Does an Olympic-sized Flip-Flop on Debt

After sending Minnesota over the fiscal cliff less than a month ago and blasting “short term fixes instead of embracing long term solutions,” Representative Erik Paulsen did an Olympic-sized flip-flop yesterday and voted to approve a short term fix to the debt limit with zero long term solutions.

“Representative Paulsen’s epic fiscal flip-flop is just another example that he will always stand on the side of partisan political ambitions and not on the side of Minnesotans,” Carrie Lucking, Executive Director of the Alliance for A Better Minnesota, said.

On Wednesday, Rep. Erik Paulsen voted to approve a short-term extension to raise the debt limit through May 18th and told MPR:

"One important message that came out of the election was the need to work together," Paulsen said. "I think we're continuing to do that, certainly in the House and we hope the Senate is going to join as well.

But that wasn’t the tone Rep. Paulsen struck just a few weeks earlier when he stood with extremists in the Republican Party that threatened to drive Minnesota over the fiscal cliff:

“Congress has a history of engaging in short term fixes instead of embracing long term solutions. It's one of my biggest frustrations and reasons there is uncertainty in the economy. The final fiscal cliff deal failed to bring any meaningful solution to reform spending or reduce the budget deficit. Ironically, it increases the deficit by $4 trillion.
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But at the end of the day, I could not cast my vote for a bill that is fiscally irresponsible and does nothing to solve the long-term problems facing our economic recovery.”

“Congressman Paulsen is not sure if he’s running for the U.S. Senate. He’s unsure whether he supports or opposes common-sense debt reduction, but he appears to be sure to always toe the party line,” Lucking concluded.