The Pueblo Chieftain - Tipton Says Regulations Can Strangle Business

News Article

By Peter Strescino

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton answered questions Wednesday ranging from business regulations to Iranians being paid U.S. dollars as part of the nuclear deal.

Tipton, who represents the 3rd Congressional District, answered the queries in his usual calm, patient demeanor, dispelling some myths and telling the largely anti-Obama crowd that much of what happens in Washington, D.C., is merely part of the constitutional enterprise of governing.

Not that he, nor the crowd, were pleased with its outcomes.

At Pueblo West Fire Station No. 3 in Pueblo West, the Cortez Republican said that while not a lot of laws are making it through the Congress these days, one he hopes makes it through the Senate and to the president's desk is the Protect Our Water Act, which keeps the federal government's hands off Colorado water rights.

Tipton, touring his district while the House is in recess, told the 20 people at the meeting that he is not against regulation, just onerous, job-killing rules that are not far-sighted and allow the government to pick winners and losers.

He said Dodd-Frank, a regulatory banking law, should not be one-size-fits-all in scope, but it is and it is hurting smaller and community banks.

"Rules must be sculpted for the size of the institution," he said. "There are 4,000 regulations in the pipeline. Not one the Congress has voted on, but they carry the full impact of law."

Lawyer Lee Sternal wondered why he hasn't seen a survey distributed by Tipton's office that asked his constituents about their feelings on gun background checks and why hasn't there been a release of 22 1/2 redacted pages from the 9/11 commission. "Two presidents later, and we still haven't seen it," Sternal said.

Tipton said his office had sent out a survey last year and said one would be sent to Sternal soon.

One man asked what could be done about "the political correctness that keeps people out of the military," and a woman complained about taxation on her combination PERA and Social Security retirement money.

Tipton said he had a hard time "looking into the eyes of coal miners" whose jobs are gone or decreased because of energy policies, and that "we have great technology," to produce cleaner-burning coal.

One man, who said he was a 30-year military veteran, complained that he had worked hard to put Republicans into office, "and nothing has changed."

An audience member said the U.S. should stop foreign aid. Tipton said some of it is necessary to support friends and allies.

Another man said that after the Iranian nuclear deal, the country began giving Iran money.

"That was frozen Iranian funds," Tipton said of the money. But he added that Iran has already repeatedly gone around the rules that were agreed to in the long-negotiated settlement.

The international steel industry is not working on a "level-playing field. We want to make sure we have something that is working for our jobs, our workers," Tipton said. He lauded a bill called the Trans-Pacific Partnership that, if passed, will help American workers.

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