August 14, 2012 12:16 AM UTC

Faux "Obamacare" Rage Gets Weaker Every Day

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• by: Colorado Pols

We received a truly amusing statement from GOP Rep. Bob Gardner of Colorado Springs a few days ago, and we wanted to make sure it didn’t get lost in the crush of other news. Commenting on the approval last week of federal grant funds to continue implementing the state’s new health insurance exchange–a key component of federal health care reform, a.k.a. “Obamacare”–Rep. Gardner tries very, very hard to keep the outrage at full tilt.

Tries, and fails:

This morning, the grant application was approved to continue the operations of the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange through July 2013. It is important to note this in no way changes my fundamental objection to Obamacare itself. I continue to join the entire House Republican caucus in its unified opposition to this monstrous assault on American health care, and we remain resolved to resist Obamacare and to press for its repeal.

The Colorado General Assembly does not have the authority to repeal Obamacare and in light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming Obamacare as constitutional, voters will have to await the presidential election in November in order to accomplish the goal of repeal.  

In the meantime, however, moving ahead with the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange-a market-oriented approach that fends off government usurpation of our health care choices-is our only hope of preventing the Obama administration from establishing a federal health benefit exchange of its own design in our state. That outcome would pave the way for government-run, socialized health care. It would amount to a worst-case scenario for Colorado’s families and businesses, both small and large…

Folks, where do you even begin with this? The implementation of the health insurance exchange isn’t being done to “fend off” Obamacare, the health insurance exchange is Obamacare. The exchanges are one of several important mechanisms in Obamacare to make health insurance more accessible and affordable. And the law expects states to organize their own exchanges: the federal government only steps in if states can’t or won’t implement their own.

In short, Gardner is calling for repeal of the very thing he’s taking credit for. He’s inventing an adversarial relationship between Obamacare and the insurance exchange that doesn’t exist.

Gardner’s false distinctions and warmed-over outrage reach their peak in the last paragraph of his “statement”–and proves this is a pile of laughable election-year hooey.

In the coming weeks, I hope all who agree that the federal health care mandate will be disastrous for our country will join me in electing Gov. Mitt Romney to the presidency so we can achieve true health care reform that ensures choice, access, and affordability for our families and businesses.

That’s right, folks. The only thing that can save Colorado from Obamacare…is Romneycare!

We get the feeling even Bob Gardner will be relieved when he can drop this silliness.