The bitter political ramifications of the federal government shutdown washed from Washington, D.C., to Southwest Colorado and back again in great roiling waves all day Tuesday, with politicians pointing fingers in the wake of voters’ exasperation, anger and blame.
In a telephone interview, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall said the shutdown was the fault of House Republicans. He said they were weaponizing Congress’ “power of the purse” to leverage a legislative win on a policy issue they’d lost at the ballot box.
“Republican leadership is holding a gun – not just to our heads, but to the American people’s head. The Affordable Care Act was debated a great deal last election,” said Udall, D-Colo.
Udall said there were more than enough votes in the House to pass a “clean” continuing resolution, a measure that would fund the government without touching other policies.
“Then we can start talking – immigration, the farm bill. There’s a lot to accomplish rather than get into these partisan fights,” he said.
The shutdown is a nightmare for Colorado, Udall said, putting 40,000 people out of work, hamstringing all the federal efforts to help the state recover from recent flooding and shuttering national parks like Rocky Mountain and Mesa Verde in the prime tourist season.
For tourism in Colorado, “that’s a body blow,” he said.
Contacted on his personal cellphone, Mesa Verde Superintendent Cliff Spencer, who was at home doing “long-neglected chores,” said the park – which receives 600,000 visitors annually – would reopen as soon as Congress comes to an agreement with the White House.
He said he didn’t know how many visitors Mesa Verde typically receives in October and suggested checking the National Park Service website.
On Tuesday afternoon, that website, like most federal websites, was down.
If Southwest Colorado continues to suffer, the fallout might hurt U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, one of the House Republicans refusing to fund the government unless Obamacare is delayed by a year.
Tipton’s office issued a news release defending his stance.
“As I’ve said throughout this process, my constituents have sent a strong message that they do not want Obamacare because it’s raising health-care costs, restricting access to care and costing jobs in our communities,” he said in the release.
Tipton’s release blamed Senate Democrats and the White House for shutting down the government, and said he wanted the government to be open.
Tipton spokesman Josh Green, in an email exchange Tuesday afternoon, would not expand on the news release and did not say whether Tipton would vote for a clean continuing resolution.
At Tipton’s last town hall in Durango, in early September, a few residents did speak out against Obamacare.
But Nicole Mosher, director of Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center, who attended that town hall, said she thought the shutdown was a waste of time.
“I don’t have a problem with Obamacare,” she said. “I really want to see the Dream Act passed. I think Tipton – these politicians – they are just delaying the inevitable. The consensus is that the House doesn’t do anything, and they are just making headlines and letting immigration reform fall by the wayside.”
Seth Masket, an associate professor of political science at the University of Denver, said House Republicans’ stance likely would fail to delay or defund Obamacare.
“At the end of the day, it’s still a majority-rule government and it’s still a Democratic president who’s not going to sign off on his signature achievement.”
He said by forcing a government shutdown over Obamacare, the tea party faction in the House was more concerned with symbolism than legislative success and might relent once “they’ve convincingly demonstrated their opposition to Obamacare.”
“I think most members of Congress realize that the odds of them repealing, delaying or defunding Obamacare are slim to none. But they’ve spent time telling their party supporters that Obama is a great threat to American liberties and central American values,” he said. “So essentially, they are doing this to remind primary voters that they care deeply about the issues that motivate them and stay loyal in next year’s election.”
Masket said by impressing the tea party faction of the Republican base, some Republican lawmakers might profit in the upcoming midterm elections, but he said their calculations were precarious.
“There’s definitely a risk of it backfiring – basically what happened in 1995, 1996, when public opinion turned massively against the Republican Party. There’s a fair chance of that happening today,” he said. “The question is how long they can hold out before the coalition fractures.”
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
