I find Rep. Scott Tipton’s and Rep. (now Senator) Cory Gardner’s call for the federal government to refund to the state of Colorado the “windfall” the National Park Service collected during the 2013 government shutdown to be ironic and hypocritical. Let’s remember that these two went along with the House’s strategy in September 2013 to risk shutting down the federal government and “leading” our country to the brink of financial default by refusing to pass bills to fund routine government operations – unless these appropriations bills also provided for the defunding of the Affordable Care Act.

In my view, all parties to this debacle acted in their own self-interests: Republicans have invested massive capital resisting and then trying to repeal meaningful health-care reform; Democrats and President Barack Obama defended the ACA, which now provides health coverage to millions more Americans; the state of Colorado supplied stop-gap funding in an effort to limit the adverse economic impact of reduced government and visitor spending during the shutdown (payroll, hotels, restaurants, retail shops, gas stations, etc.); and many of the affected federal employees continued to report to work hoping that this chuckle-headed political theater would not last long.

Actions have consequences. As these gentlemen worked purposefully to cause the problem the state of Colorado had to solve, a more sincere gesture might have them offering to refund the state’s expenses out of their office accounts or personal funds.

Tim Miller

Durango