Sarah Palin issues a warning to GOP before debt vote

Sarah Palin sent a warning to freshman Republicans on Thursday not to forget the promises made to voters in 2010, adding her outsized voice to the flurry of last-minute arm-twisting before a key debt ceiling vote in the House.

In a post on her Facebook page from “proverbial politico flyover country,” the former Alaska governor reprinted a letter she sent to newly elected members last fall, emphasizing the need to “rein in out-of-control government spending” and “check the growth of spending on our entitlement programs.”

“I respectfully ask these GOP Freshman to re-read this letter and remember us ‘little people’ who believed in them, donated to their campaigns, spent hours tirelessly volunteering for them, and trusted them with our votes. This new wave of public servants may recall that they were sent to D.C. for such a time as this,” Palin wrote.

The message does not include marching orders for the proposal offered by House Speaker John A. Boehner that is on the floor Thursday. But Palin has said recently she was not convinced that a fiscal doomsday was imminent if the debt ceiling was not raised by Aug. 2.

“We cannot default but we cannot afford to retreat right now either. Now is not the time to retreat, it’s the time to reload,” she said on Fox News Channel earlier this month.

In a loaded postscript to her Facebook post, Palin reminds the House freshmen: “Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”

The weeks-long debate over whether to raise the debt ceiling and what steps should accompany such a move has brought internal disputes within both parties to the surface -- but especially so for Republicans who control the House.

On Thursday, as the party’s leadership furiously courted members one by one seeking to ensure passage of the Boehner plan, some conservative groups advocated no votes. The Club for Growth said Thursday morning that a yes vote would count against a member’s record in the group’s “scorecard,” even with late revisions to the plan.

But the Chamber of Commerce, which also backed Republicans in midterm races, has consistently advocated for any plan that would avert fiscal calamity.