Local Press AWOL While Gardner Makes Big Obamacare Promises

12 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

Sen. Cory Gardner (R).

Yesterday, as we and not very many other people reported, large protests outside Sen. Cory Gardner’s Denver and Greeley offices called on Gardner to protect the expansion of access to health coverage created by the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. “Obamacare.” In Washington, D.C., the process of repealing the law has already begun–actions that are going to have a very large effect on thousands of Coloradans, very likely a negative effect as health coverage they’ve obtained through the law is put in jeopardy.

Sen. Gardner will play a major role in the repeal of Obamacare–but you wouldn’t know that from local news coverage, where Gardner is drawing a pass both from having to comment and from coverage of protests against repeal. But syndicated television news source Grey DC once again scoops local reporters:

Colorado Senator Cory Gardner says Republicans will be ready to replace.

“When it’s repealed it will be replaced there is no doubt it will be replaced with an idea that is better than the disastrous results of Obama care,” Gardner (R-CO) said. [Pols emphasis]

Everybody take note, this is Sen. Gardner promising to have the Obamacare replacement ready at the time of repeal–something Republicans are by no means unanimous on, and may well prove impossible both practically and politically.

Meaning it’s important, and the local press should be telling you about it.

Meanwhile, Vox’s Sarah Kliff expounded a little on her run-in with Sen. Gardner yesterday, which ended with Gardner running away rather than answering whether a replacement plan would cover as many people as Obamacare:

I spent Tuesday on Capitol Hill, talking to Senate Republicans about whether they expected their replacement plans to cover as many people as the Affordable Care Act. The answers were … not plentiful.

I put the question to Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), who told me, “We’ve got to have a plan that is better than Obamacare. Obamacare has failed on its initial goals, the promises that were made, so I look forward to having a plan in place that will actually work for the American people.” I repeated the question about coverage specifically, at which point he turned around and walked away.

The biggest reason Gardner’s ongoing promises and statements about Obamacare repeal and replacement need to be reported locally now is the strong likelihood they will be misreported down the road. In terms of offering a replacement “better” than Obamacare in the ways health care consumers will care about–and certainly on the dicey question of having a replacement ready to go along with repeal–Gardner is making promises that he simply doesn’t have the power to ensure are kept.

In the likely event that happens, voters need to know. And they won’t know unless they know he made the promise to begin with. So please, local reporters. Do your damn jobs. It’s always important, but right now it’s critical.

You might even say lives hang in the balance.

12 thoughts on “Local Press AWOL While Gardner Makes Big Obamacare Promises”

Powerful Pear says:

January 11, 2017 at 12:37 pm

More fake news. Scheduled at noon, gee what happens at that time of day, oh it's lunch. Nice day to get out of the office and listen to a bunch of kooks complain about Trump saving jobs for Americans, complain about Russian hacking, complain about, about healthcare being unaffordable, etc, etc, etc.

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1. unnamed says:
  
  January 11, 2017 at 1:17 pm
  
  I know man. Leave Colorado's Greatest Senator Cory Gardner Alone!!!!! Let him retreat to his safe space so he can keep his super-secret Obamacare replacement plan to himself and not have to share it with all the riff-raff. It's not like healthcare is important or anything.
  
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  1. Davie says:
    
    January 11, 2017 at 1:48 pm
    
    Hey and as Trump has said — it'll be even better!
    
    Just don't get sick, but if you do, die quickly! Simple, right? Saves everyone lots of money too!
    
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2. Conserv. Head Banger says:
  
  January 11, 2017 at 3:58 pm
  
  Other than a few hundred jobs at Carrier Corp. in Indiana, exactly what are those jobs that Trump is saving? Ford already had its plans. And Trump wants tariffs on Japanese cars. Guess he doesn't know that many Toyotas and Hondas are made in the USA.
  
  Don't like globalism? Then stop buying bananas at your grocery store since bananas aren't grown in the USA.
  
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  1. Powerful Pear says:
    
    January 11, 2017 at 5:20 pm
    
    Poor analogy. Try again.
    
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Duke Cox says:

January 11, 2017 at 12:42 pm

Our junior senator hasn't been given an approved response by the insurance industry lobbyists for whom he works. He will keep running away until they tell him what to say.

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JohnInDenver says:

January 11, 2017 at 2:35 pm

“When it’s repealed it will be replaced there is no doubt it will be replaced with an idea that is better than the disastrous results of Obama care,” Gardner (R-CO) said. [Pols emphasis]

I keep hoping that our esteemed Senator will be asked to explain "an idea" — and how that relates to the possibilities of forming a coalition sufficient to pass anything.

I'm willing to listen. But after 6 years of efforts to repeal and promises that there is a better Republican (or even bipartisan) plan "coming soon," I'm a bit skeptical of glittering generalities about "an idea."

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1. Davie says:
  
  January 11, 2017 at 3:55 pm
  
  Republican Teddy Roosevelt first had the idea over 100 years ago. Probably not the one Faux-Republicans today have in mind.
  
  I believe this quote from 1910 reinforces that if Roosevelt would have taken the Presidency, Healthcare would have been a high priority:
  
  “Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us. Let me add that the health and vitality of our people are at least as well worth conserving as their forests, waters, lands, and minerals, and in this great work the national government must bear a most important part.”
  
  Roosevelt believed that hard work paid rewards, and giving hard-working Americans access to maintain their health to accomplish mighty things would have been high on his list.
  
  https://teddyrooseveltlive.com/2014/09/10/teddy-roosevelt-and-healthcare/
  
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Zappatero says:

January 11, 2017 at 4:32 pm

I do repeat myself, but Cory's fellow senator, with senior rank even, could easily call out the lies and find the point at which Cory's lies to us and our fellow citizens become too painful.

What's left of the press could say "Senator Gardner's lie was pointed out by Senator Bennet, who stated such and such fact."

Do that every day for a few months and I betcha Gardner lies a lot less.

But then Bennet might not have the calm decorum he so needs as a sitting senator. And we know what's more important to him.

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1. Duke Cox says:
  
  January 11, 2017 at 4:39 pm
  
  Yeah, Zap. A fiery, uplifting speech by Thurston, railing against autocracy and the bullshit obstructionism of the corporate whore he calls his colleague, would be helpful…and certainly surprising.
  
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  1. Zappatero says:
    
    January 11, 2017 at 7:42 pm
    
    the lies, attacking legit press, Anschutz calling "fake news", the Republican soon to be President Trump attacking the CIA and the press and everyone else seems to be coming to a boil………and it ain't going to be pretty.
    
    And those who pay attention but don't have time to sort thru the enormous amounts of bullshit are going to throw up their hands and think maybe Trump is right. Maybe Democrats, who couldn't be bothered, could have defended the truth a bit more and pushed back so that now more people would hold out for it and know they are being lied to.
    
    Instead, they still support the repeal of Obamacare but are perfectly happy with their ACA policy that replaced it.
    
    Imagine that!
    
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Canines says:

January 12, 2017 at 6:07 pm

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