February 26, 2026 12:36 PM UTC

Gabe Evans Can't Possibly Believe His Own Bullshit

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• by: Colorado Pols

Freshman Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Ft. Lupton) has proven over the last 14 months to be one of the most outrageous peddlers of nonsense that Colorado has seen since the days of Sen. Cory Gardner.

Evans lies, and lies, and lies to such an amazing degree that it’s fair to wonder whether he can possibly believe some of the things that come out of his own mouth. Evans did it again this week in responding to questions about President Trump pushing for a reconciliation bill in Congress in order to pass another version of last year’s Big Beautiful Bullshit Bill. From The Hill newspaper:

But some House Republicans noted that they’ve been able to pass critical bills even with a razor-thin margin, and that a second reconciliation package isn’t out of the question altogether.

“The dominant narrative of the 119th [Congress] has been people telling Republicans they can’t get something done with narrow margins, and then us actually delivering victories. And so I guess I wouldn’t count us out,” Dusty Johnson said.

Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) said he believes that if leadership and the White House decide to pursue a reconciliation package, it likely “would be much smaller.”

“By being much smaller and incorporating reconciliation instructions to fewer committees, it’s by default also going to be less complex to get across the finish line,” he said.

“Republicans are the party of independent thought. We are the policy-focused party, so we’re always going to have conversations, but as we’ve seen before, every time that the naysayers say ‘I don’t know if they’re going to get it done,’ we always get it done,” Evans added. “So we’re always going to have that robust conversation. That’s how you know that we’re putting together a good product, and then we’ll always pull together to get it across the finish line.” [Pols emphasis]

It’s fun to imagine Evans saying this out loud with a straight face. Evans entered Congress in January 2025 following a 118th Congress — led by Republicans — that is generally considered to be one of the least-productive two-year sessions in modern American history. The first half of the 119th Congress — also led by Republicans — might actually be worse. As The New York Times explained in January:

Even by the standards of an institution that has set records for dysfunction in recent years, the Republican-led Congress in 2025 hit new lows for productivity. [Pols emphasis]

Plagued by a razor-thin majority, intraparty divisions and a fear of doing anything that might draw President Trump’s ire, Speaker Mike Johnson toiled to keep the House running.

He left the chamber out of session for a nearly eight-week period that coincided with the longest government shutdown in history. He maneuvered to avoid politically difficult votes on canceling Mr. Trump’s tariffs, releasing the Epstein files and extending health care subsidies, ultimately prompting his own rank-and-file to team with Democrats to go around him and force action. And he presided over a free-for-all of censures and reprimands on the House floor as lawmakers’ frustrations boiled over.

It is simply not possible to find any numbers to back up what Evans is claiming about Republican “success” in Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson kept the House out of session for nearly two full months in late 2025 in an effort to avoid negative discussions about policies unfavorable to President Trump. Despite controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House, Republicans also presided over the longest government shutdown (43 days) in American history.

To paraphrase Evans, naysayers don’t have to say that Congressional Republicans aren’t going to get things done. After years of Republican control in the House of Representatives, there is simply no expectation of productivity.

The only thing Evans could say with any accuracy is this has been the most effective Congress in which he has ever been involved — which is also why he’s unlikely to be back in 2027.