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June 21, 2017 12:31 PM UTC

"Con Man Cory" Finally Feeling The Heat

  • 15 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Sen. Cory Gardner (R).

As the Denver Post’s Mark Matthews reports–as the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate prepares to unveil their bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act tomorrow, Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, one of the select group of GOP Senators allegedly involved with drafting the bill, is finally starting to buckle under the intense backlash against both the legislation and the secretive process by which it was written:

“It should be more open,” said the Colorado Republican in a brief interview. “I think there should be (Senate) hearings on this.”

But, Gardner said, the fault lies with U.S. politics writ large, rather than with him and other Senate Republican leaders, who are writing the bill and control the chamber’s agenda. [Pols emphasis]

“I’m disappointed that we have a Washington, D.C., so fundamentally broken that both sides of the aisle can’t come together to fix” health care, said Gardner, whose role as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee makes him one of the top GOP officials in the Senate…

Asked about the lack of Senate hearings, Gardner said it wasn’t his preference.

“I would love to see the Senate hold hearings. I would love that. I have said that before. I have said that for months,” Gardner said.

Unfortunately for Gardner, Matthews didn’t take his word on that last part:

Following the interview, his staff was asked to identify when exactly Gardner had called publicly for hearings; the response was that Gardner had done so whenever he had been asked about it, though no specific examples were cited. [Pols emphasis]

This new attempt by Gardner to distance himself from a process he was previously quite proud to identify as a leader of is a telling sign that things are not going well–and also that the fierce pushback Republicans are getting over this legislation is having an effect. As our readers know, Gardner has used the Affordable Care Act as his foremost political grandstand ever since his first run for Congress in 2010. Gardner relied on rank misinformation about “policy cancellations” to vilify the law, and even blamed the failure of health co-op organizations on Obama after he himself sponsored legislation to kill their funding. Through all of this, Gardner has relied on his ability to fast-talk and smile his way through the contradictions.

But now, the time for talk is over. The Senate’s repeal bill will be unveiled tomorrow, and just yesterday it became apparent that Gardner may not have been as involved in the drafting of the new legislation as we were led to believe. Regardless, how can Gardner complain about the lack of bipartisan cooperation on repealing Obamacare after his own years of provable deception about the law’s effects? How can Gardner claim the process “should be more open” when he won’t even meet with constituents to discuss it? And if Gardner truly wants hearings on the bill, why doesn’t he demand them?

Gardner has been successful in part because of his ability to stay just ahead of political disaster, making wholesale changes to his professed agenda to suit the politics of the race he’s running in. Today, though, Gardner is out of maneuvering room. It’s about to be painfully obvious how Gardner has deceived voters for years, and how the promises to replace Obamacare with “something better” were never intended to be kept.

As they say in the con man business, “the jig is up.”

Comments

15 thoughts on ““Con Man Cory” Finally Feeling The Heat

          1. I'll have you know that Moddy graduated fourth in his homeschool kindergarten class . . . 

            . . . right behind his Teddy bear, his rubber ducky, and his blankey (that he called "moo").

      1. "Not everything Cory Gardner does is evil" sayeth Moldy.   I am curious as to what Gardner has done that Moldy thinks is evil.  

        And where's my ACA article little man?

  1. The refrain that "Washington is broken" is a stale talking point. It is almost certainly true, but as of 12 noon, January 20, 2017, one political party has controlled of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, and as of April 10, 2017, that same party has appointed the majority of the Justices of the Supreme Court, the third branch of the federal government. 

    Cory can blame the Obama administration for lingering policies, including the ACA, but he looks pretty stupid complaining about the difficulty and dysfunction of the legislative process when his party has complete control of that process. The party of NO and it's glorious leader do not know how to get anything done. 

  2. Cory will vote for it, because he'll get paid whether he's in Congress or not.  I think, if nothing else, he knows which side his bread is buttered on.

    1. You raise an interesting point. I assume politicians act out of self-interest, and I reflexively define that as re-election. But Ken Salazar, Wayne Allard, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Hank Brown, Tim Wirth, Bill Armstrong, and Gary Hart all decided (for somewhat different reasons) to retire after one or two terms. All were older than Cory, but his self-interest may very well be to serve his masters, give them their tax cuts, and then retire into a lucrative "of counsel" or lobbying position.

  3. He's not even feeling a candle, let alone heat. He's a good little soldier, parroting the talking points about evil Democrats, and he'll vote the way McConnell wants him to. To say otherwise is wishful thinking.

     

  4. Denver Post, endorsing Gardner:

    "And contrary to Udall's tedious refrain, Gardner's election would pose no threat to abortion rights."

    Word is that Trumpcare will–big surprise–further burden abortion rights.

    Thanks, Denver Post!

  5. If you have 15-20 minutes tomorrow, you can join a "Walk-In" protest at one of Gardner's Colorado offices tomorrow. Nobody's expecting to meet with our Senator, as he is deathly afraid of his own constituents.

    However, you can sign up for a slot to meet with his staff at the following link:

    Protect Our Care Sign Up

  6. Having read the draft bill this morning, I have to say that people on Medicaid all over America are screwed. What I don't know is how the changes will impact Colordo's budget, with its TABOR mandated spending and revenue caps. Has anyone done that analysis?

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