December 12, 2011 09:41 PM UTC

"Senior" Astroturf Front Group Thanks Tipton For "Protecting" Medicare

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• by: Colorado Pols

The greatest thing since Democrats for Nixon–the Colorado Independent’s John Tomasic:

Freshman Colorado Congressman Scott Tipton received an award recently for his work in support of senior citizens from a group called RetireSafe. Tipton was one of 20 Republicans elected to Congress from swing districts to have received the award, according to RollCall, but the award was fake, or at least the group that gave the award was fake. RetireSafe is an industry front group run by Republican and conservative politics figures and founded by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America to push policies that will boost industry profits…

“Local news reports and campaign advertisements trumpeted the awards…” RollCall writes, “providing these Republicans with valuable political cover for supporting controversial bills, such as the budget proposed by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that would have dramatically revamped Medicare.”

…Matt Inzeo, communications director for the Colorado Democratic Party, said the story demonstrated that Republicans like Tipton will have a very hard time this year selling their service-slashing pro-industry priorities to constituents.

“While Scott Tipton stakes his political future on fake awards from front groups, Colorado seniors know he pushed a raw deal on them by trying to turn Medicare into a voucher program,” Inzeo wrote in an email. “Tipton can’t paper over the fact that he would hike seniors’ health care costs by over $6,000 a year, and this charade shows that lame attempts to hide the facts will quickly backfire.”

We’re not so sure this kind of thing generally backfires, in fact it will at least sow confusion among voters about Rep. Scott Tipton’s record on Medicare–and for the very lowest-information voters, well, why wouldn’t they believe it?

It will insult the intelligence of those who know the facts, but that’s not who it’s aimed at.