Turner stands by vote against ending shutdown, raising debt limit

Dayton-area congressman says he opposed the shutdown, but compromise is only a short-term fix.

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner said Thursday he was acting in the interests of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the economic health of the country by voting against the compromise bill that ended the 16-day government shutdown and raised the debt limit to prevent the nation from defaulting on its obligations.

Turner’s opponents say exactly the opposite is true.

In an interview with the Dayton Daily News, Turner said he will not vote to raise the debt ceiling until Congress undoes the effects of the sweeping budget cuts known as sequestration that he says have devastated Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the surrounding communities.

Turner joined most of his Republican colleagues in the House, including those from southwest Ohio, in breaking ranks with Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., by voting against the bill that reopened the federal government and raised the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. The stalemate ended with the 285-144 vote Wednesday night.

Turner said he opposed the government shutdown, but the compromise is only a short-term fix, and his district will face new waves of problems in January, when the federal spending bill expires, and in February, when the United States is expected to hit the debt ceiling. Turner’s 10th District covers all of Montgomery and Greene counties and part of Fayette County.

Turner said when the spending bill expires, it’s likely Wright-Patterson employees will face furloughs again under the system of fixed spending reductions known as sequestration. Some 12,000 at Wright-Patterson were furloughed this year. About 8,700 were furloughed for about a week during the government shutdown despite a law aimed at stopping furloughs of civilian Defense employees.

Because the sequester will be higher next year, Turner said he worries that not only will there be furloughs, but thousands of permanent reductions to the staff at Wright Patterson. The sequester would kick in after Jan. 15, unless Congress changes it, and Defense would face some $54.6 billion in cuts.

“The fact that this has been left in place places our community continuously in jeopardy,” he said. “This has nothing to do with Obamacare and the group that shut down the government. This is that the hard reality of sequestration should’ve been part of this deal.

“I could not support a deal that leaves 12,000 people in our community vulnerable at the beginning of 2014.”

But Democrats said Turner’s vote showed he was willing to keep government workers in limbo and risk economic catastrophe.

“I was surprised that Mike Turner could turn his back on the workers at Wright-Patterson Air force Base,” said Jerid Kurtz, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party. “Across Ohio, 75,000 workers hung in the balance and people like Mike Turner were willing to endanger them and the faith and credit of the United States.”

Montgomery County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Owens said he also was surprised by Turner’s vote.

“Dayton, Ohio, was rated the (community) fifth most affected by the shutdown, yet he voted against (the bill) and basically voted to send this country into default,” Owens said.

Owens said Turner’s vote flies in the face of his image as a moderate. “He’s basically aligned with the Tea Party. He’s against the Speaker of the House, who’s a conservative Republican, for crying out loud. He’s certainly not acting in the interests of this area when he votes to keep the base closed. I think he could have some very serious (political) problems, going forward.”

Dayton Tea Party founder Rob Scott said Turner’s vote will “raise his profile among fiscal conservatives” of both parties.

“He understands that the country is spending more than it makes. He is wanting to do what is right, rather than what is popular,” Scott said.

Also voting against the measure were House Republicans Steve Chabot and Brad Wenstrup, both of Cincinnati, and Jim Jordan of Urbana. U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and Rob Portman, a Republican, voted in favor of it.

Scott said the no votes were “an acknowledgement that, frankly, this (federal deficit) issue is not going to go away. This was nothing but postponing the ultimate argument.”

University of Dayton political scientist Dan Birdsong said he wasn’t surprised by Turner’s no vote, given that many Republican officeholders are concerned about the threat of primary challenges.

“That’s one of their concerns and why invite that? The general election is probably his (Turner’s) to lose. So why invite a challenge?”

Laura Bischoff of the Columbus Bureau contributed to this report.

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