President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%↓

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

(R) Ron Hanks

40%

30%

20%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(R) J. Sonnenberg

(R) Ted Harvey

20%↑

15%↑

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Dave Williams

(R) Jeff Crank

(R) Doug Bruce

20%

20%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

90%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) Brittany Pettersen

85%↑

 

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

(R) Janak Joshi

60%↑

40%↑

20%↑

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
July 19, 2017 02:05 PM UTC

Gardner, GOP Senate a Picture of Anger and Frustration

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: President Trump told GOP Senators today to keep bashing their heads against the wall. From Politico:

President Donald Trump told Republican senators on Wednesday that they shouldn’t leave town for August recess without repealing and replacing Obamacare, a point he stressed at least three times.

“People are hurting. Inaction is not an option,” Trump said during a lunch with Senate Republicans at the White House. “And, frankly, I don’t think we should leave town unless we have a health insurance plan, unless we can give our people great health care. Because we’re close. We’re very close.”

Despite the president’s expression of optimism, Republican senators aren’t close to repealing and replacing Obamacare, as they’ve promised to do for years.

Trump also tossed around some vague threats, particularly toward Nevada Sen. Dean Heller. Given the fact that Senate Republicans have all but ignored Trump on healthcare reform to this point, it’s hard to see how today’s luncheon will make much of a difference.

—–

Sen. Cory Gardner and his fellow angry men on Tuesday

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is lunching at the White House today with his fellow Republican Senators. It is a bitter, angry bunch that will meet with a bitter, angry President Trump. As CNN reports:

The GOP turned into the Grouchy Old Party, as recriminations flew after the failure this week to repeal and replace Obamacare — the greatest motivating cause of Republican voters for more than seven years.

Soon after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted defeat Tuesday in his bid to jam the bill through the Senate, President Donald Trump, different factions on Capitol Hill and outside conservative activists started assigning fault for the legislation’s collapse.

Trump, facing criticism of his own conduct in the failed effort to replace his successor’s signature law, suggested simply that the Republican majority on Capitol Hill was not up to the job…

…Meet the 53 angriest people in town. One President who wants to sign something that repeals Obamacare, and 52 Republican senators who can’t agree on how to advance health care legislation without tearing the GOP apart.

Republicans will have a chance to air their frustrations Wednesday as all GOP senators have been invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for lunch, a White House official told CNN. Discussing health care is on the menu, and given the way lawmakers were speaking Tuesday, expect some blame to be doled out as well.

The anger in Washington is acute, not just because overturning Obamacare has become a holy grail for Republicans, but also because six months into the Trump era, while operating a monopoly on power on Capitol Hill, the party has yet to pass a landmark piece of legislation.

Sometimes the greatest frustrations in life come from the realization that there is no-one else to blame for your own failure. That frustration grows larger when you understand that everyone else sees the same thing.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma).

President Trump and Cory Gardner can make feeble attempts to drag Democrats into their healthcare failure, but it’s common knowledge that Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. This spin attempt is even more absurd given the news that Trump apparently had no idea what was happening when the Senate was throwing in the towel on repealing Obamacare. Senate Republicans failed to make any headway on overhauling healthcare because they crafted terrible legislation that would have caused massive harm to tens of millions of Americans. Gardner knows this, which is why he takes the ridiculous approach of insisting that he was undecided on a bill despite standing next to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and expressing anger over the legislation’s failure.

As the New York Times explains:

The Senate bill, which faced a near-impossible path forward after the House passed its version of the legislation in May, was ultimately defeated by deep divisions within the party, a lack of a viable health care alternative and a president who, one staff member said, was growing bored in selling the bill and often undermined the best-laid plans of his aides with a quip or a tweet…

…Making matters worse for the White House, the bill had virtually no support from health care, insurance, patient advocate and disease groups, and was harshly judged by the Congressional Budget Office. Grass-roots opposition to the bill — aided by Democrats like Senator Chuck Schumer of New York — swayed members of Congress in a way rarely seen on Capitol Hill.

Outside of the echo chamber that surrounds Republican Senators, nobody was clamoring for a healthcare bill that would have destroyed protections for pre-existing conditions and made devastating cuts to a Medicaid program that is used by 1 in 5 Americans. As we wrote last month, Republicans didn’t have a messaging problem; they had a math problem.

This entire process badly exposed Cory Gardner as nothing more than a political bomb-thrower with a complete indifference for his constituents and the American public in general. Gardner is a virtuoso at throwing wrenches at Democrats and railing against the policies of the opposing party; indeed, his entire Congressional career is based on complaining about Democrats and Obamacare specifically. But if you ask Gardner to try to craft some legislative solutions — some real, tangible policy ideas — he vanishes into the bushes behind a long string of meaningless phrases.

Perhaps this is the true reason that Gardner hasn’t held a town-hall meeting in nearly 500 days. Gardner’s staff didn’t want to expose the Senator to images of constituents expressing real-life concerns about the GOP’s flawed healthcare proposals because Gardner couldn’t just stand there and smile in response. Gardner’s gibberish on healthcare isn’t fooling anyone — including the local media — which leaves him in a very unfamiliar position.

All of the anger, all of the frustration — this is the real face of Cory Gardner. This is the face of a man who knows that he can no longer smile his way around the truth.

Comments

12 thoughts on “Gardner, GOP Senate a Picture of Anger and Frustration

  1. Anger is the resting bitch face of Corey Gardner.  He wanted the power.  He got a seat in the backroom.  He got the chair of the RSCC.  He got everything he wanted.  The only problem is he isn't up to the task of governing in a way that improves the lives of ordinary Coloradans.  Poor Corey.  All that ambition and no talent.  It sucks to be an empty suited twerp when everyone sees what an absolute coward you are.

  2. The politician who is going to benefit the most from this fiasco is Coffman.  Sure he was given a 'Get out of Jail' pass by Ryan but it is going to work for him in 2018.  Democrats won't be able to label him as a Trump sheep like Gardner.  Coffman lives a charmed life.

    1. Ah, but there's another move coming in the House … a Freedom Caucus move to put a straight repeal package in play. Coffman is going to have to either vote to debate it (and possibly even vote on the measure itself) or sign/not sign on a discharge petition.

      Freedom folks apparently want to do this to identify who needs a primary challenge in 2018.

      I'm not certain there WILL be a primary battle in Coffman's district — but he'd need to raise enough money to prepare for one.

    1. Trump's threats to primary Jeff Flake could backfire. He ran ads against some other senator and they made him shut them down.

      Flake goes down in my book as a republican with a heart. He stood up for his Muslim Democratic opponent when folks were hating on her.

      1. Might be a good idea for some folks in Colorado to make an unusual move and call his office with an attaboy….hmmm.?

        Senator Flakes' Phoenix office number.
        P: 602-840-1891
         

        A nice young man answered the phone a couple of minutes ago…

  3. Could just be lip service, but you never truly know.  

    Updated, 3:23 p.m.: A group of Senate Republicans who opposed earlier plans to repeal and replace Obamacare will meet on Wednesday evening to try to hash out their differences, senators said.

    GOP leaders are still pushing for a way to advance a health bill next week even after two different repeal plans fell apart. Key Republican senators left a health care meeting at the White House sounding more optimistic that they could revive their bill to dismantle and replace the Affordable Care Act.

    McConnell is going to use the recorded vote next week on the Repeal-only bill as leverage.

    I guess Reagan’s VooDoo Economics has spawned Republican Zombies carrying Repeal-ACA legislation for the last 7 years, and the infestation of Washington D.C. isn’t over yet.

  4. What Senate Republicans are really teed off about is not being able to ride to the White House in a bus with free beer.  House Republicans get all the cheap thrills.

  5. Nice to know where ghost-like Con Man Cory is every once in a great while, even if it’s in a den of iniquity, surrounded by two-bit, greasy carny barkers and wheezing, dirty-fingered money changers (a.k.a. his element and natural environment).

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

210 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!