February 17, 2017 04:07 PM UTC

Mike Coffman's "Listening Tour" Horse Has Left The Barn

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• by: Colorado Pols

With Congress about to head into a contentious recess and protests raging across the land over Republican plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Rep. Mike Coffman announced this week a “listening tour,” hoping to undo some of the damage from a disastrous public event in Aurora a few weeks ago that netted Coffman nationwide bad press:

Today, U.S. Representative Mike Coffman (CO-06) announced that during the district work period scheduled for Feb. 20-24, he will undertake the first phase of his planned “listening tour” regarding the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Coffman will use this series of meetings to gain the perspective of as many constituents, patients and healthcare professionals as possible.

“During this district work week, I look forward to meeting with many healthcare providers and patients advocacy groups. My objective is to personally hear from them on how the ACA has affected the healthcare system, medical professionals, and most importantly, how it has affected patients access to medical care. I will use their input not only to review my own plans on how to proceed, but also to communicate their concerns to my congressional colleagues—Additionally, I want to communicate again that no repeal will take place without first having a replacement.”

As has already been noted for the record, Coffman’s “listening tour” next week is not expected to include any kind of open forum where constituents could express themselves to Coffman and be heard publicly while doing so. While that would seem to undercut the legitimacy of any “listening tour,” there’s another, more basic problem.

Doesn’t Coffman already have a plan for Obamacare?

That’s a half-page ad than ran earlier this month in local MediaNews papers, congratulating Rep. Coffman for his “plan to deliver quality, affordable, patient-centered health care.” The ad invites constituents to “thank” Coffman for “proposing access to a quality, affordable health care plan.”

Except he hasn’t proposed anything yet. If he had, why would he need a “listening tour” to figure out what to propose?

Look, we understand the only thing this demonstrates is that Republicans are all over the map when it comes to their central campaign pledge to repeal a law they have spent the last six years demonizing with no regard for fact. Cheerleading from the right-wing media complex about the imminent repeal of Obamacare has been waylaid by the reality that a better plan is not only elusive, but maybe impossible–especially within the narrow range of “free-market” possibilities under consideration by Republicans.

It would be nice to see this acknowledged in the press, instead of pretending there is anything like a consistent message here.