July 12, 2012 05:41 PM UTC

Tipton vs. Pace on "Obamacare"--A Battle For The Center

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• by: Colorado Pols

As both Republican incumbent Rep. Scott Tipton and his Democratic challenger in Colorado’s swing CD-3, Sal Pace attempt to run to the center, only one of them may be succeeding. That’s the bottom line we derive from today’s very good write-up on health care reform by the Durango Herald’s Joe Hanel. Click through to read the whole article, it’s well worth it:

Rep. Scott Tipton joined Republicans in the U.S. House on Wednesday in a symbolic vote to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…

Pace said he would have opposed the repeal vote Wednesday.

“I’ve stated my concerns with the health-care law, but this vote is nothing more than an attempt to score partisan political points,” Pace said in an email. “Unfortunately, this is another sad example of how my opponent has gone Washington by continuing to follow party leadership instead of addressing the concerns of the people of our district.”

Last week, Pace said he did not support the individual mandate. He thinks Congress could have used tax credits or other ways to expand insurance without penalizing people who don’t buy it, said his spokeswoman, Megan Dubray.

Tipton, too, likes a lot of the provisions of Obamacare, but he wants to repeal the whole law. [Pols emphasis]

This story does a great job sorting through some of the myths vs. reality surrounding the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare and the positions of the two candidates in this race. Hanel reports that Tipton’s biggest objection to Obamacare (other than perhaps the individual mandate itself) is that it “cuts Medicare for seniors by $500 billion”–except those “cuts” are fraud reduction and cuts to insurance companies, not seniors.

And, of course, the Ryan GOP budget Tipton voted for includes those “cuts” and much more.

But most importantly, the GOP-controlled House has voted over thirty times to “repeal Obamacare,” and not one of the votes has had any chance of success–pure theatrics. This combines with the factual errors by Tipton to make Sal Pace look substantially more reasonable in his approach to health care reform, even if Pace’s stand on the mandate makes liberals, health care experts quoted in the story, and the Obama campaign wince a little. Pace’s willingness to take a scalpel to Obamacare, especially as the voting public starts to understand what’s in the law, still compares favorably to Tipton’s call for a sledgehammer.

This year, in this district, it may actually be a political sweet spot.