Editors note: This is the Heralds weekly roundup of campaign news.
Sniping over senior citizens continued in the race for Western Colorados congressional seat this week, highlighted by a Republican vote to fundamentally change Medicare.
Rep. Scott Tipton of Cortez joined most other Republicans to vote for a GOP budget that would convert Medicare for future retirees into a voucher system for people to buy private insurance. Tipton voted with the GOP on a similar budget last year.
The GOP budget also calls for cutting taxes, simplifying the tax code and creating just two income tax brackets, 10 percent and 25 percent. The top rate is now 35 percent.
Tipton called the GOP budget a responsible step toward stabilizing Medicare and U.S. government finances.
The American people deserve more than the continued reckless spending put forward in the presidents budget proposal, which would bankrupt our country by expanding the national debt to $26 trillion over the next decade, Tipton said in a news release. If Washington fails to act, the situation could reach a point at which government can no longer fund the programs that so many Americans rely on.
His opponent, state Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, said the budget Tipton supported would end the Medicare guarantee of health coverage for the elderly.
Getting the deficit under control is important, but we have to do it in a reasonable fashion. Eliminating benefits for seniors and replacing it with a voucher program that would more than double what seniors currently pay is not the way to do it, Pace said in a news release.
National campaign committees for both parties piled on, with Republicans accusing Democrats of a taxing, spending and borrowing spree and Democrats chiding Tipton for choosing millionaires over Medicare.
A few hours after the vote in Washington, Tiptons campaign sent out an email blasting Pace for a 2010 vote in the state House to suspend a property tax exemption for senior citizen homeowners. The exemption is likely to be restored this year, thanks to the recovery of the state budget.
Countdown: 87 days until the primary election. 220 days until the November election.
