April 07, 2011 04:40 AM UTC

Scott Tipton's All In

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• by: Colorado Pols

Politico reports, it’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt:

The dramatic 2012 spending plan unveiled Tuesday by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan amounts to a test of political will for the GOP’s most vulnerable lawmakers, some of them only a few months into their maiden terms…

There’s plenty of reason to be cautious: An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last month showed fewer than a quarter of Americans supported cutting funds for Medicare and fewer than a third wanted to cut Medicaid – numbers that Republican pollster Bill McInturff called a “huge flashing yellow sign to Republicans.”

And Democrats are openly cheering the prospect of a 2012 election fought over entitlements. Within hours of Ryan’s budget release, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee branded it a “privatization scheme” that would result in “ending Medicare…”

“They’re hanging the 20 vulnerable members out to dry [Pols emphasis] for the sake of placating the 220 safe members who want to save the world and don’t have any other concerns beyond that,” said an adviser to one first-term House member. “You have a couple dozen members who are going to pay a pretty serious price for this vote if they end up in a tough race.”

Folks, you do remember when we told you a few weeks ago that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is hard at work on a plan to take back Rep. Scott Tipton’s seat, already identified as a prime soft target–keep that in mind as you read his statement on Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal, will you?

Chairman Ryan’s proposal addresses America’s $14.3 trillion dollar debt and sets us on a course to pay it back.  It jump starts economic recovery and would create as many as 1 million new jobs according to some projections.  The Ryan budget cuts $6.2 trillion in spending over the next 10 years and places our country on a sustainable course to preserve our children and grandchildren’s future.

Okay, folks. You can point out how any prediction of job gains as a result of these massive cutbacks in the public sector is pure fantasy, as Paul Krugman amusingly discovered today. And the polls that show this to be total political suicide, a road to alienation of…everybody who pays FICA tax? It boggles the mind. You bet a lot of Republicans are terrified–Cory Gardner, very sensibly, could not immediately comment.

All of that is well and good, but wait until next year, when the DCCC saturates CD-3’s small media markets with Scott Tipton–the man who didn’t hesistate to trade your thousands of dollars paid into Medicare, Mister 54-year-old working American, for a coupon.

“Pay a serious price?” Tipton’s a willing customer.