October 03, 2013 12:07 PM UTC

Airtight Shutdown Denial From Coffman, Tipton

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• by: Colorado Pols

​In the Craig Daily Press, a statement from GOP Rep. Scott Tipton on how he really tried, tried mind you, along with his fellow House Republicans, to avoid shutting down the government Tuesday:

As I’ve said throughout this process, my constituents have sent a strong message that they do not want Obamacare because it’s raising health care costs, restricting access to care and costing jobs in our communities.

The House is listening to the concerns of our constituents and has done everything possible to effectively address Obamacare and keep the government open. It’s unfortunate that the Senate and president would rather force a government shutdown than listen to Americans or even have a conversation about possible alternatives to Obamacare to create a truly affordable and accessible health care system.

On Monday night, we voted once more to heed the call of the American people by sending legislation for the third time to the Senate to keep the government open, as well as to go to conference with the Senate. We fought to require equal treatment for all Americans under Obamacare by delaying the individual mandate and repealing the unfair subsidies that the president issued for Congress. There should be no special treatment in Obamacare for Congress or anybody else, and since the president already has exempted businesses and other special interests from the Obamacare train wreck, he needs to do the same for hard-working American families and individuals.

Despite this, the Senate voted down the continuing resolution that would have treated all Americans fairly under Obamacare and even went as far as to refuse to go to conference with the House to work out a solution to keep the government open. It’s deeply troubling that the Senate and president are willing to shut down government in order to protect special treatment for some, including Obamacare carve-outs for Congress, while hard-working Americans are forced to bear the burden of this bad law.

​For a thorough debunking of Tipton's "Obamacare carve-outs for Congress" falsehood, see this FactCheck.org entry. We haven't checked to see if this statement is actually verbatim duplicated talking points, but it's pretty close. And as the Denver Post's Allison Sherry reports, the other "competitive" Republican representative from Colorado, Rep. Mike Coffman, says he too is not yet ready to endorse a "clean" continuing resolution to reopen the government:

“This is a negotiation,” Coffman said. “I think there’s a belief that compromise is wrong but I believe that to govern, particularly in divided government, you have to compromise.”

He said he was considering supporting a continuing resolution to fund the government that also repealed the unpopular medical device tax — something both Democrats and Republicans have said they’d like to reform.

Sherry's report on Coffman was in the context of word that a growing number of Republicans would be willing to support a "clean" continuing resolution, meaning a bill to fund the government without undoing the Affordable Care Act. But no Colorado Republican members of Congress as of this writing are willing to join them. To the extent that the shutdown of the federal government is highly unpopular, we would have recommended that the swing-district embattled Rep. Coffman in particular have joined Republicans seeking a quick resolution.

As of this writing, no such wisdom has prevailed.