Dick Wadhams needs to stop insulting conservatives

The Colorado GOP has a long history of making poor choices when it comes to Republican primaries (Think Randy Graff) and they've done it again.

So-called "political genius," and state party Chair Dick Wadhams publicly insulted a sitting member of Congress from his own party.

From The Politico.com:

“The most lethal charge against Doug [Lamborn] is that he just doesn’t have the personal and intellectual strength to be the congressman for the 5th District.”

If Wadhams truly wanted to stay out of the CO-5 primary, he would have sat on his hands and said nothing. Given Wadhams willingness to push around Wayne Wolf, Bob Schaffer's primary opponent, he has shown he IS willing to support primary candidates.

Wadhams is wrong to publicly attack a conservative member of congress.

Shame on Dick Wadhams, shame on the state party.

The Truth about S-CHIP

Congrats are due to Marilyn Musgrave, Doug Lamborn and Tom Tancredo for their opposition to the ridiculous S-CHIP legislation.

The Liberal Left has so distorted the facts, that I thought a brief reminder of what S-CHIP really is, would be in order.

Here is some of the analysis done by Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling:

H.R. 976 reauthorizes and significantly expands the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), while increasing cigarette taxes to supposedly offset the bill’s costs. The legislation follows closely the Senate-passed version of SCHIP reauthorization, expanding the program but discarding much of the Medicare-related provisions included in the House-passed legislation. Highlights of the bill are as follows:

Cost: H.R. 976 provides $34.9 billion over five years and $71.5 billion over ten years in new mandatory spending—this spending is on top of the $25 billion over five years that would result from a straight extension of the program. The House-passed version provided $47.4 billion over five years and $128.7 billion in new SCHIP spending (as well as billions of non-SCHIP spending).

The new spending is partially offset by increasing taxes on tobacco products (see below). However, this CBO score overlooks a major gimmick which the bill employs to lower its costs. The bill dramatically lowers the SCHIP funding in the fifth year by 80%, from $14.25 billion in the first six months to $1.75 billion. In all likelihood, such a reduction would not actually take effect, which would make this an effort to generate unrealistic savings in order to comply with PAYGO rules. To that end, H.R. 976 is technically compliant with PAYGO.

Some of the worst parts of S-CHIP include:

Encourages Spending: H.R. 976 shortens from three to two years the amount of time a state has to spend its annual SCHIP allotment. Under current law, states are given three years to spend each year’s original allotment, and at the end of the three-year period, any unused funds are redistributed to states that have exhausted their allotment or created a “shortfall,” i.e. making commitments beyond the funding it has available. In addition, the bill establishes a process through which any unspent funds would be redistributed to any states with a shortfall. Some conservatives may be concerned that this process provides incentives both for states to spend their allotment quickly and to extend their programs beyond their regular allotments into shortfall, so as to be relieved by the unspent funds of other states or the new Contingency Fund (see above).

Expansion to Higher Incomes: Under current law, states can cover families earning up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) or $41,300 for a family of four in 2007 or those at 50% above Medicaid eligibility. However, states have been able to “disregard” income with regard to eligibility for the program, meaning they can purposefully ignore various types of income in an effort to expand eligibility. For instance, New Jersey covers up to 350% of FPL by disregarding any income from 200-350%, allowing them to cover beyond 200% with the enhanced federal matching funds that SCHIP provides.

As of 2010, H.R. 976 increases the eligibility limit to 300% of FPL or $61,950 for a family of four but also continues the current authority for states to define and disregard income. States which extend coverage beyond 300% of FPL would receive the lower Medicaid match rate. The bill also grandfathers states with an approved state plan amendment (or a state about to submit such an amendment in compliance with state law) that already covers those above 300% of poverty. This provision is for New Jersey and New York (seeking to cover 400% of FPL or $82,600 for a family of four). In addition, Section 116 of the bill overturns CMS’ current policy of requiring states to ensure that 95% of the eligible children in their state below 250% of FPL are enrolled before expanding coverage to higher incomes.

Adult Coverage: Under current law, some states cover nonpregnant, childless adults—these states have received waivers in the past in an effort to expand health insurance to uninsured populations, even though the program was intended for children. H.R. 976 would prohibit any further waivers but would provide continued funding for existing coverage of such adults through FY 2008. Beginning in FY 2009, funding for nonpregnant childless adults will be capped at FY 2008 levels, but states would receive the lower Medicaid match and be limited to only covering those already enrolled.

Additionally, the bill also weakens current law regarding illegal aliens recieving S-CHIP monies, increases taxes and penalizes those with private insurance.

The bottom line is simple: the bill would expand the SCHIP program by $35 billion over five years and loosen the program’s eligibility requirements while astronomically expanding the big-government welfare state.

Lamborn Gets Seat On House Armed Services Committee

Press Release Below


LAMBORN BECOMES ACTIVE MEMBER OF
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-5) became an active member of the House Armed Services Committee.

"It is an honor to have the privilege of serving as an active member of the House Armed Services Committee. Colorado’s Fifth District is the proud home of five military installations and is one of our nation’s most military-intensive congressional districts. Our strong military presence is a great source of pride for my constituency, and I am proud to represent them as a member of the Armed Services Committee.

It is critical for Congress to enact strong defense policies that ensure our servicemen and women are provided with the training, the tools, and the resources necessary to keep America safe. Serving on the House Armed Services Committee will afford me the opportunity to ensure our military interests are advanced in order to meet our national security requirements.

The loss of Congresswoman Jo Anne Davis (VA-1) is something the Davis family, friends, and Congressional community will mourn, but her life and dedication to public service will serve as an inspiration to all of us. She will be missed. I intend serve on the House Armed Services Committee with the high honor and integrity she exhibited during her tenure." – Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-5)

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Doug Lamborn: Defending those that condemn him

Great commentary from Backbone America about the current state of Colorado's 5th Congressional District. Do people even know why they don't like Doug Lamborn anymore besides the fact a couple of Jeff Crank bloggers go around and tell them not to? Can someone point to two votes that they would have made differently then Doug has if they were in Congress? Two votes out of hundreds, please point to them!

From Backbone America

Lamborn among the Lilliputians
by Dave Crater

Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO5) couldn’t have known when he first waded into Colorado politics over a decade ago that he would wash ashore on Lilliput. Such seems to be the case, however. As you remember, Jonathan Swift created two fictional islands in his 1726 classic, Gulliver’s Travels, Lilliput and Blefuscu. No disproof having been established, one assumes that both islands are, still today, located in the South Indian Ocean, separated by a channel 800 yards in width,
and inhabited by people “not six inches high.”

More to the point for the purpose of current politics: When a shipwrecked and still asleep Lemuel Gulliver washed up on the shores of Lilliput and was captured by little people who tied him down before he awoke, he discovered that the two islands were permanently at war over the correct way to eat a boiled egg. Still today, the inhabitants of Blefuscu are firmly convinced the correct way to eat a boiled egg is to start at the rounded end. The Lilliputians are equally convicted that, still today, no civilized person eats a boiled egg any way except sharp end first.

Though Gulliver is a giant compared to the Lilliputians, he does not return their hostility in kind, but rather helps to aid them in various ways before, for no other reason than his refusal to take part in their selfish perfidies, he again earns their fickle and shallow scorn.

Naïve people here in Colorado sometimes refer to Lilliput as the El Paso County Republican Party, but we really should get into the habit of calling places and people by their proper names. The little people in Lilliput are particularly active these days, doing their best to tie up Congressman Gulliver — er, Lamborn — before he permanently awakes and takes to himself for many years to come the title of Congressman, a title which the Lilliputians believe rightfully belongs only to a Lilliputian.

The chief Lilliputians in Lilliput these days are one Mr. Jeff Crank and one retired General Bentley Rayburn. To be sure, both are accomplished men by Lilliputian standards; indeed, they appear to know it. Gulliver is equally accomplished and, refreshingly, doesn’t appear to know it. More to the point, by the standards that Gulliver considers genuinely meaningful and which are in truth the only things that can turn a Lilliputian into a Giant — old-fashioned notions that include courageous loyalty to true principles and good men above one’s personal ambitions, and doing the right thing and telling the truth even when it’s not popular, and doing it for a long time — it appears Gulliver is, still today, as lonely as he was in 1726.

The Leading Lilliputians are currently squabbling over who is justified in taking on Gulliver in a primary next year. One says it is properly he because — well, that’s never been entirely clear. Part of it must be a result of his having come so close to beating Gulliver two years ago. As for the rest of it — well, perhaps he eats the round end of the egg first.

The other Leading Lilliputian and his Supporting Lilliputians say he’s a general, and thus a true leader. The question as to why a true leader would challenge an incumbent Giant like Gulliver — remember, a Giant is not necessarily someone who is popular, but someone who does what is right and tells the truth, and has for a long time — does not appear to have yet been posed in Lilliput.

To cap things off, if a newspaper article on Sept 19 was any indication, it appears the Leading Lilliputians are so hostile to Gulliver that they may have overcome their own mutual antipathies long enough to make something of a Gentle-Lilliputian’s agreement: if either is behind in the polls close to election day, that one will drop out of the race. “There is no formal agreement,” mind you – personal interests are not to be sacrificed until it’s clear there is really nothing to be sacrificed and fulfillment of spite toward Gulliver becomes the only remaining objective. “It’s not going to be my ego that causes [Gulliver] to get re-elected,” one Lilliputian said.

The next day, the other Lilliputian’s supporters were again assaulting both his rival and Gulliver for only the vaguest of reasons: “[Gulliver] was not a leader in the (state) legislature, and he won’t be in Washington,” one said. “And [the opposing Lilliputian] has nothing to set him aside, nothing of stature.” Translation: we don’t like Gulliver and the other Lilliputian eats his boiled eggs pointed end

So what does our modern-day congressional Gulliver do amidst these Lilliputians? What Gulliver has always done. “[Gulliver’s] campaign said they had no comment,” the latter story reports. He faithfully continues his accustomed course in the world and in the halls of national government, praying for the welfare of the Lilliputians even in their spite toward him. It’s safe to assume Gulliver realizes life and politics in Lilliput are, still today, fickle, and not likely to change any time soon.

As has been pointed out, Congressman Lamborn definitely is the giant in this story defending the Lillputians to his own peril. I caution those, that continually throw bombs thinking they will not be rebuked, that the giant is presumably getting tired of it and that the same campaign team that smacked you around in 2006 will grow tired of it as well and will have to deal with the Lilliputians.

More hot air in CO-5

El Paso County GOP Chair Greg Garcia is full of more hot gas than a hot air balloon.

In today's Gazette, Garcia is threatening to "punish" any candidate in CO-5's unnecessary primary who doesn't meet with his standard of campaign "ethics."

That process would include some sort of investigation of claims alleged to be false and a requirement that candidates disavow any statements that are made by their campaigns or supporters and are found to be untrue, Garcia said. Not following the rules could lead to punishment, he said, adding that he is still trying to determine what that could be.

I'm not sure that Garcia has any real comprehension of what his job as county party chair actually entails. Garicia has no authority to "punish" campaigns he thinks have gotten too rough, in fact Garcia should be staying out of the whole primary mess in the first place.

However, Garcia is a bought and paid supporter of sore-loser Jeff Crank.

Even liberal Republicans like former El Paso Chair, State Rep. Bob Gardner don't think Generalissimo Garcia's "rules" are enforceable.

“The fact is the chairman has no real power other than the position of the chairman to express disapproval or dissatisfaction with the tactics. You can’t make a candidate or campaigns change their campaign if they don’t wish to.”

The bottom line is that Generalissimo Garcia's statements were made to give him cover when he uses the county party machine to actively campaign against his sitting, conservative Congressman.

Sour grapes in CO-5

The Denver Post has a puff piece on the continued sour gapes of Jeff Crank and his supporters, over Doug Lamborn's victory in last years primary.

Crank and his supporters are sore losers. Lamborn has done a good job so far, in his first months as a minority Congressman. He has represented his constituents and their conservative values well.

Party insiders agree:

Lamborn has support from his constituents, said Greg Garcia, chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party. That county's voters represent about 80 percent of Lamborn's district.

"When I talk to people and ask them, 'How do you think we're doing?' Doug Lamborn is talked about very positively," Garcia said.

Even liberal business groups, a natural "constituency" for former Chamber of Commerce hack Crank, are happy with Lamborn.

Lamborn, he said, has used public appearances and mailings to let voters know his congressional efforts, which many have praised.

"He has supported business issues and Realtor issues," said Terry Storm, chief executive of the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors, which so far is happy with Lamborn.

In fact the piece even goes so far as to claim that Crank is already a primary candidate, in a photo caption.

Jeff Crank candidate for Colorado's 5th congressional district at a meeting sponsored by NFIB at Broadmoor in Colorado Springs on Monday. (Post / Hyoung Chang)

Crank is very clearly only in this to appease his Mount Rushmore sized ego, and not represent the people of Colorado's 5th Congressional District.

If Crank was actually interested in doing the right thing, and not feeding his ego, he'd run for a state house of state senate seat. But he's not interested in that. He's going to take his principles compromising agenda (endorsed gay candidates and tax hikes, while claiming to be conservative) and run a sore-loser primary campaign.