January 19, 2011 08:43 PM UTC

Tipton Dutifully Plants Health Care Repeal Flag

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Durango Herald’s Patrick Young reports, along with Rep. Scott Tipton’s minute and ten seconds of boilerplate glory on the House floor yesterday (right):

House Republicans today will vote on House Resolution 2, a measure that would undo the health-care bill passed by the previous Democratic-controlled Congress.

Most of the constituents who spoke during the town-hall meeting supported repeal though no one, Tipton included, wanted a return to the health-care system before passage of reform.

“I support repeal 100 percent,” said ‘Dan’ from Grand Junction. “There’s just no way we can go back to the old system.” Tipton, R-Cortez, agreed…

‘Susie’ from Montrose asked if he would “fight like a tiger” to pass health-care repeal. Tipton assured her he would. He said he had no doubts HR 2 would pass the House, where Republicans enjoy a comfortable 242-193 majority, but he acknowledged it would probably die in the Senate, which the Democrats control.

…’Marcia’ from Gunnison broke ranks, arguing the health-care reform didn’t go far enough. “More people in America want health-care reform to be increased rather than repealed,” she said, saying health-care costs are increasing and insurance companies are paying less.

Tipton didn’t entirely disagree…

The complete futility of the effort notwithstanding, or even the potential political consequences for those who backed this repeal grandstand just as the American people are starting to tire of the endless, unsupported demagoguery about the law…seriously, folks, is there anything, in either Tipton’s floor speech above, or this story about his teleconference with constituents, that leaves you confident he has the slightest idea what he is talking about? Any indication that Tipton is qualified to contribute to this discussion beyond talking points he is handed to recite–with, we might add, what appears to be a sock in his mouth (see: floor speech above)?

There are Republicans in Congress who are capable of making something resembling a rational case, certainly a forcefully-worded case, for their opposition to health care reform today. Scott Tipton is not one of them, and by attempting to sing along without really knowing the words, he helps expose the intellectual bankruptcy of the whole effort.