January 24, 2017 09:55 AM UTC

Mike Coffman Outdoes Himself

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• by: Colorado Pols

Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) is well-known for his ability to take multiple positions on a single issue, but Coffman may have outdone himself in a recent Q&A with 5280 magazine.

Take a look at how Coffman responded to the following question: “Do you support keeping the ACA in place and improving upon it? If not, how will you ensure that all Americans continue to have access to healthcare?”

No aspect of the ACA will be repealed without first having a replacement. We will soon vote on certain aspects of a repeal, [Pols emphasis] but the effective date for that repeal will be far enough in the future that it will allow time to craft and negotiate, in a bipartisan manner, a replacement. There are some in Washington and Colorado that push this narrative as a scare tactic, but at the end of the day the process of repealing and replacing the ACA will take a couple of years with the goal being to lower costs, preserve access, and to improve on the health insurance choices available.

Don’t act like you’re not impressed. This statement is so absurdly ridiculous that you can’t help but admire its incoherence.

Coffman contradicts himself immediately — literally by the second sentence in his response. Just after he says, “No aspect of the ACA will be repealed without first having a replacement,” Coffman adds, “We will soon vote on certain aspects of a repeal.”

This would be more amusing, of course, if we weren’t talking about healthcare legislation that could very well mean the difference between life and death for many Americans.