April 21, 2017 01:00 PM UTC

Rep. Scott Tipton's Turn In The Hot Seat

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Peter Roper reports:

[Rep. Scott] Tipton, the Republican who represents Pueblo and the 3rd Congressional District, faced a town-hall meeting crowd of more than 100 people at Pueblo West High School– many of whom were clearly Democrats — but he took questions for 45 minutes and stayed after to talk informally with those who came Thursday night.

Even so, a large number didn’t like what he had to say. [Pols emphasis]

When he repeated his often-used refrain that President Barack Obama had failed to keep health insurance rates low and let the public keep their insurance policies, some in the crowd jeered and called out “Medicare for all.”

When Tipton said he knew of a woman whose health care premiums had grown larger than her mortgage, a woman in the crowd said Obamacare had been a great benefit to her family.

Taunted that he’d voted to repeal Obamacare more than 50 times, Tipton answered that he wasn’t supporting the Republican plan unless it included key pieces, such covering pre-existing conditions and adequate funding for Colorado residents getting Medicaid.

Rep. Scott Tipton’s rough evening last night in Pueblo has a lot in common with the town hall meeting Rep. Mike Coffman held in Aurora a week ago–one notable difference being that Tipton did not make Coffman’s mistake of publicly supporting the so-called “Trumpcare” Obamacare repeal legislation before it was pulled for lack of support.

It’s also worth noting here that Tipton made promises the Republican caucus may not let him keep–in particular that he won’t support legislation that would cut off coverage for pre-existing conditions and preserve the state’s expansion of Medicaid. It still wasn’t enough, given the doubletalk from Republicans about pre-existing conditions: going back to the old system of “high risk pools,” for example, isn’t a real solution. And what exactly constitutes “adequate” funding for Medicaid? Would anyone now eligible for Medicaid in Colorado lose that eligibility under a bill Tipton would support?

Yes, it’s good that Republicans are showing up to town halls now and answering hard questions. But if the answers do nothing to ease the concerns that prompted the questions–or worse, set Republican lawmakers up for failure–is that really a net positive?

Either way, for Tipton the promises are a matter of record now.