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What has Mark Udall done for us lately?

It must be election time, as Mark Udall’s name is appearing again in the newspapers. He was elected in 2008. That got me to thinking, where has he been? And what has he done for the last almost six years? So I searched the Internet, and the answer was simple – not much! He did vote for the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and he has been rewarded by wealthy financial donors from New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles/Long Beach.

That doesn’t sound like it helps Colorado much. He also was a key vote in passing the Affordable Care Act – better known as Obamacare – which doesn’t seem to be working out very well with its badly botched and outrageously expensive Internet launch, continuing postponements and exemptions from key provisions like the individual and employer mandates and the refusal of about 37 states, at last count, to set up health-insurance exchanges for those who lose their coverage because of Obamacare.

I remember when Udall came to Durango in 2009 to a town-hall meeting on energy and the health-care debate, where he was asked if he would personally sign up for the then-proposed Affordable Care Act, and he coyly responded that he would do whatever would be best for his family. Surely, he knew that he, as a member of Congress, was exempt from the act and already had a far better deal.

Then recently, he had the guts to arm-twist the Colorado Division of Insurance to change the estimated number of Coloradoans who had lost their health insurance from 250,000 to 75,000. And he’s representing Colorado? What would he do if he didn’t like us? Udall is also Harry Reid’s hand puppet in the Senate, voting about 99 percent with the Reid majority. He also has one the highest absentee voting records. I guess he’s off climbing mountains, which he used to do with Outward Bound, where he was executive director for 10 years. Udall was a bad choice. Vote for Cory Gardner who will work for Coloradans.

Jim Beatty

Durango



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