AURORA | A campaign email from Aurora Congressman Mike Coffman says government spending is “out of control.” But opponents of the five-term Republican lawmaker say it’s actually Coffman that needs a reality check.
The email raises eyebrows among Coffman’s critics because of his support of the GOP tax plan late last year, even after making the national debt a major issue in past campaigns — he called it “the greatest threat to the long-term stability of the United States.” The Congressional Budget Office estimated that tax legislation will add $1.5 trillion to the national deficit over the next decade.
“Even though we’re trillions — yes, trillions — of dollars in debt, the federal government continues to spend recklessly. That’s one of the reasons I voted against the recent $1.3 TRILLION omnibus spending bill,” the campaign email said.
CD6 Democratic candidates Levi Tillemann and Jason Crow said the email is both out of touch and hypocritical.
“Given what Mike Coffman has done just this year alone to explode the national deficit and his utterly reckless vote in favor of the Trump tax bill, this may rank among the most disingenuous and hypocritical emails ever sent by an incumbent congressman And, yes, you can print that,” Crow said.
Conservative and liberal critics of the GOP-Trump tax bill said the measure would balloon budget deficits in an attempt to cut taxes, primarily for corporations and the most wealthy citizens.
Tillemann said Coffman “needs to spend more time in the private sector.”
“Clearly the words of a lifetime politician (and right-wing ideologue). Washington Republicans don’t seem to realize that there are two ways to control deficits — reduce spending and increase revenues,” he said. “Like a deadbeat dad who sits at home all day and wonders why he can’t make rent, Coffman is once again myopically focused on one half of a two part equation.”
Tyler Sandberg, a spokesman for Coffman’s campaign, pointed out, as did the campaign email, that Coffman voted against the omnibus budget, which passed with bipartisan support.
But after the vote, Coffman said in a statement he thought the budget contained good policy, it was just a matter of timing.
“While the omnibus contains some very good policy, I could not in good conscience vote on a 2,232-page, $1.3 trillion bill, without adequate time to review it,” he said in a statement. “And let there be no doubt about it — while too many in my party have been obstructionist on DACA, Congressional Democrats have made it clear with this larded-up spending deal that the Democratic Party prioritizes pork barrel spending on items like subsidized trains in the northeast over finding a fix for DACA kids. This is a very bad day in the nation’s capital.”
On the tax bill, which Coffman voted for, Sandberg echoed what Coffman has continued to say: “it’s spurring economic growth that in turn generates more tax revenue.”
On the tax plan, Sandberg echoed what Coffman has said since throwing his support behind the tax plan: it’s spurring economic growth. Sandberg went on to say Colorado’s budget surplus of nearly $1.3 billion is because of the federal tax reform.
State economists credit the Colorado surplus to increased oil production, a rise in wages as well as benefits from the change in federal tax law.
Earlier this year, a national ad campaign targeted Coffman and other Republicans for their vote on the tax plan.
Coffman responded to the 30-second ad by saying, “I’m amazed that the same loud voices that defended voting for $2.7 trillion in deficit spending to grow the size of government, in just the first two years of the Obama Administration, are now suddenly concerned about deficit spending when it comes to reducing the tax burdens on families and businesses in order to grow the economy.”