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Group Protests Rep. Gardner’s Debt Ceiling Stance

About 40 people from Eyes on Congress and the liberal group ProgressNow rallied in front of 4th Congressional Representative Cory Gardner’s Fort Collins office today.
Grace Hood
About 40 people from Eyes on Congress and the liberal group ProgressNow rallied in front of 4th Congressional Representative Cory Gardner’s Fort Collins office today.

About 40 people from Eyes on Congress and the liberal group ProgressNow rallied in front of 4th Congressional Representative Cory Gardner’s Fort Collins office today.They were drawing attention to Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s debt ceiling proposal, which Rep. Gardner has said he will support.

“Incidentally it’s Medicare’s 46th birthday, and many of the Republican proposals that have been brought up regarding this debt ceiling process are savagely curtailing Medicare,” said Mark Evans, executive director of Eyes on Congress.

With the debt ceiling deadline looming next week, constituent Bob Massaro says he feels Congress is “dysfunctional”.

“I’m extremely frustrated with the stalemate,” he said. “I’m in favor of some cuts but not near as deep as they’re making. But we have to raise revenue.”

However, most Congressional Republicans including Gardner have vowed not to raise taxes. Rachel Boxer, a spokesperson for Representative Gardner, said the move would be a bad idea as the economy continues to come out of the recession.

“Raising taxes right now when economy is trying so hard to recover from two years of a recession is the worst thing we could do for job creation and business,” she said.

After demonstrating outside, the group went inside Representative Garner’s Fort Collins office to share their comments.

Across the country, Americans are flooding congressional offices with phone calls, and visits, letting lawmakers know how they feel about the debt limit.