Colorado Politics

Ex-Colorado GOP chief Steve House calls for cutting off donations to Senate Republicans’ campaign group

Former Colorado Republican Party Chairman Steve House said Wednesday that donors should stop contributing to the campaign committee dedicated to electing Senate Republicans until GOP lawmakers get it together to fix the nation’s health care system.

“We asked them to defund Planned Parenthood. We asked them to defund Obamacare. They did neither. It is time to defund the NRSC until they do what they promised,” House wrote in a Facebook post.

Saying he’d just spent several days in a neonatal intensive care unit with two young parents and his newborn grandson (he noted in another post), House said he was outraged that they could be facing more than $10,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs under Obamacare – even as news broke that health care legislation had again eluded GOP senators.

“I am very upset that the US Senate won’t act. Yes I mean won’t act not can’t act,” wrote House, who declined to seek a second term as state GOP chairman this spring.

House called himself “a fan” of U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but added, “this isn’t about him [it’s] about the [S]enate in total.”

“All we heard in the last two elections cycles was how we need majorities in both houses and the presidency to get rid of ObamaCare,” House said. “We gave them that. For me personally a lot of hard work and sacrifice during that period and now I feel like they just didn’t mean it when they said they would get rid of Obamacare.”

A spokeswoman for the NRSC didn’t respond to a request for comment.

House added that he didn’t buy Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion to delay a full Obamacare repeal until December 2018. “I am not stupid and neither are my fellow Americans,” House wrote. “Our lives, our premiums, our deductibles, our access to care we cannot afford any longer, is not to be bargained with based on when elections are held. Waiting until ‘Obamacare fails’ is also a very bad idea because there are people suffering out there right now waiting on you.”

Colorado GOP Chairman Jeff Hays, House’s successor, told Colorado Politics he didn’t think House had the right idea.

“I respect my buddy Steve House, but I disagree with him here. We’ve hit a couple of foul balls, but our team is still at the plate. We should encourage them to keep swinging, not take their bat away,” Hays said.

Calling House’s suggestion “dangerous and irresponsible,” a top Republican strategist said that losing control of the Senate would mean “los[ing] the ability to fix the broken state of our nation’s healthcare system for years to come.”

 


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