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April 25, 2011 09:05 PM UTC

Licking the "Third Rail" With Gardner, Tipton, Coffman and Lamborn

  • 9 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: In case you weren’t completely sure about the extent to which Colorado’s freshman Rep. Cory Gardner had committed himself in support of the Paul Ryan 2012 budget plan, here’s his floor speech–with Gardner’s introduction from Rep. Ryan himself:

No denying it now, is there?

—–

As the Washington Post reports:

Anxiety is rising among some Republicans over the party’s embrace of a plan to overhaul Medicare, with GOP lawmakers already starting to face tough questions on the issue at town hall meetings back in their districts.

House leaders have scheduled a Tuesday conference call in which members are expected in part to discuss strategies for defending the vote they took this month on a budget that would transform the popular entitlement program as part of a plan to cut trillions in federal spending…

Some Republicans fear a repeat of 2005, when President George W. Bush tried to turn the political capital of his reelection into a push to privatize Social Security. Republicans abandoned the effort after Democrats vigorously attacked them, accusing the GOP of trying to cut benefits.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll published this week found that two-thirds of Americans want Medicare to remain as is. That includes 62 percent of independents and nearly eight in 10 people 65 and older – making for an uphill climb for House Republicans trying to reassure constituents.

Colorado Reps. Cory Gardner, Scott Tipton, Mike Coffman, and Doug Lamborn, who all voted in favor of the Paul Ryan “Path to Prosperity” budget plan…well, it’s our guess that they’ll be on this damage-control call. There’s less attention being paid in the media to this vote locally than in some other parts of the country, but our Colorado representatives–especially our two freshman–should not count on that to remain the case forever.

Because as the Los Angeles Times reports, and we warned, it’s not going well out there:

Americans show little willingness to hand more Medicare services over to the private sector, and majorities endorse raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, as Obama advocates. The GOP plan would send tax rates in the other direction, reducing the rate for the highest-paid Americans from 35% to 25%.

That provision proved problematic for some GOP lawmakers meeting voters back home. At a town hall in Milton, Wis., opponents booed and heckled Ryan as he explained his rationale for lowering taxes for the wealthy…

Rep. Scott Tipton became the early focal point of criticism over the “Ryan Plan,” after he became the first Colorado representative to embrace it. He still stands out as an early backer of the plan to privatize Medicare and further cut taxes for the rich (see ominous polling above), but all four Colorado GOP congressman are now 100%, inextricably saddled with this proposal.

To which we can only say, better hope redistricting goes very, very well for them.

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9 thoughts on “Licking the “Third Rail” With Gardner, Tipton, Coffman and Lamborn”

  1. this vote is a potential career-ender.

    He’s in a classic swing district and he’ll lose some of those “centrists” that swung his way in ’10 because of this.

    Gardner, he might not have too much trouble. District 4 still seems to me to be a basically GOP district.

    Coffman and that idiot from Colorado Springs could vote to make America a fascist dictatorship, or replace the Constitution with the bible, and get re-elected in a landslide. They can support whatever they think will make the wingers happy with no political price to be paid at all.

    1. Democratic CD-6 maps might produce a whole new Coffman.

      You’re probably right about Lamborn, an excellent argument for competitive districts!

      I personally hope Tipton and Gardner both pay with their jobs. I’ll wait until their 2012 districts are finalized before I lay any odds though. Could the Ryan plan Musgravize Gardner in a GOP CD-4?

      1. sadly, it took way too many years to get rid of Musgrave and it was largely on account of her general uselessness rather than her ideology. Granted, her uselessness was sort of a function of her laser focus on ideology but Gardner still has a pretty low standard to beat. We only ditched Schaffer because he retired, and he was still able to win the district for his Board of Ed seat.

        If redistricting doesn’t scotch the progress Dems have made demographically, it’s conceivable that Gardner might need to put forward a more moderate face over time. We’re not there yet when Weld County can vie with El Paso for fielding the dumbest conservative state senator.

  2. With the demographic bulge of baby boomers poised for Medicare eligibility starting now thru the next 20 years, this doesn’t work.

    We have to raise taxes on the rich, and start cutting the special interest subsidies to businesses, like a phased in elimination of the mortgage interest deduction.

    The MID might be considered the “fourth rail” but maybe it’s one rail that has to go.  

    1. Medicare sucks.

      Insurance companies hate it. Doctors hate it. Members hate it.  Congress hates it.  Everyone hates it.

      Oh wait…

      Insurance companies love  Medicare.  They never wanted to insure those most likely to need health care services- senior citizens and the disabled and Medicare allowed them not to.

      Doctors only don’t like the pay rates. The security is a plus.

      Members love it. Even the GO(T)P signs from two summers ago were clear that we should : keep the gov’t out of my medicare.

      Congress could have opted themselves out of Medicare anytime they want.  They haven’t.  

  3. #1.  Republicans looooooove Medicare!!!!!!

    #2.  That’s why we have to make “adjustments” (in much finer print — i.e., kill it . . .) to save it.

    (And, in the not too distant future, the sequel:

    #1.  Repiblicans loooooooove Social Security!!!! . . .)

    1. If a private company suggested they do this to your 30 years of investment money, and everyone in the company was an investor, there’d be a riot and a run on the company stocks.  The company would go bankrupt and be put into Federal receivership – or bailed out as too big to fail.

      The answer to Republicans looking to take away my Medicare and my Social Security is not only ‘No’, but ‘HELL NO!’.  And don’t bother trying to sugar coat it as being “a shared sacrifice” or “not ending Medicare”.  It isn’t – not when the rich get even more of a tax cut – and it does, especially given the Republican desire to roll back the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

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