Chelsea Self / Post Independent
Rep. Scott Tipton promised that Republican efforts to change the Affordable Care Act are not over, and repeated calls to dismantle the public exchanges Friday.
“We voted to repeal and replace the un-Affordable Care Act — that fight is not over,” Tipton said at the Garfield County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner.
Speaking at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Tipton said a free market health care, including purchasing healthcare across state lines, would be a better system.
“Those of us who live here in rural Colorado, those of you who live specifically in Glenwood, which is labeled as a resort community, get to pay a higher premium for an identical product compared to our urban counterparts in Denver. How fair is that? It’s not fair,” Tipton said.
Tipton’s keynote speech followed remarks from a host of local and state Republican elected officials, but his speech touted achievements of President Donald Trump, including low unemployment and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
Sen. Cory Gardner also spoke to the group during a private social hour. Gardner departed before the dinner began to attend an event in Grand Junction.
The speech came just a day after President Donald Trump spoke in Colorado Springs, an event Tipton attended.
“Yesterday, I had the high privilege of being able to greet the president as he stepped off of Air Force One,” Tipton said. “He said, ‘What are your issues?’” Tipton recalled.
Tipton said he told Trump the Republican voters of Colorado were most concerned about their families and futures.
Tipton also took time to criticize Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other members of Congress advocating for the so-called Green New Deal, which calls for drastic reduction in fossil fuel consumption.
“We need to point out that the sunglasses they so proudly prop at the top of their heads are made out of fossil fuels,” Tipton said.
Tipton also criticized Gov. Jared Polis’ push to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and said he is working to make the Jordan Cove pipeline a reality.
The Green New Deal and its backers was also a target of Tipton’s primary challenger, Shooters Grill owner Lauren Boebert.
“We really are in a battle for the heart and soul of our country,” Boebert said.
Democrats want to take away rights and freedoms, “and we as conservatives just want to keep them,” she said.
Boebert said she is running because she doesn’t believe Tipton is fighting hard enough for conservatives.
“We need a fighter now more than ever, not someone who appeases the Democrats and chooses to vote with Nancy Pelosi and (Ocasio-Cortez) far more than you would ever expect,” Boebert said.
Another Republican candidate expressed a similar disappointment against state Sen. Bob Rankin (R-Carbondale).
Breckenridge area resident Debra Irvine, who is challenging Rankin for the senate seat he was appointed to in 2018, said that Republicans should not work with Democrats as much.
“Senator Rankin and I are very different,” Irvine said.
All three Garfield County commissioners gave remarks, including chair John Martin.
“The worst thing that we can do is campaign for other people by attacking each other in our party,” Martin said.
