Lauren Boebert campaigns against all government benefits — and it may haunt the GOP in the 2022 midterms

Bob Brigham
July 10, 2021

Zoom question and answer appearance screenshot

Controversial Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) excited the left on Saturday after a clip from her speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) provided fodder heading into the 2022 midterm elections.

While Republicans have largely avoided talking about policy while instead focusing on manufactured culture wars outrages, Boebert laid out her vision.

"We're here to tell government we don't want your benefits. We don't want your welfare," she said.

"Don't come knocking on my door with your Fauci ouchie," she said, probably referring to the effort to go door-to-door in with information about where to get a coronavirus vaccine.

"Republican congresswoman wants to end VA healthcare, VA disability payments and the GI Bill for America's veterans. Can't wait till the vets in her district find out!" he said.

Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson looked at how Democrats could exploit Boebert's speech for political gain.

"GOP wants to repeal the rescue plan and take back your $1,400 checks," Ferguson

"You leave us the hell alone," the GOP congresswoman said.

The idea of cutting Medicare and Social Security has often been called the "third rail" of American politics in reference to the electoral lethality of going after the popular programs.

Democrats were ecstatic, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged Boebert on.

"Tell 'em loud and proud girl! GOP will strip your unemployment protections and dismantle any semblance of a public safety net we have left!" Ocasio-Cortez posted to Twitter.

Occasional New York Daily News columnist Brandon Friedman noted how harshly cutting benefits would impact veterans

"Lauren Boebert's restaurant received a $233,305 PPP check and she receives a $174,000 taxpayer-funded salary," podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen wrote.

"This is one step removed from promising to get the government's hands off of Medicare," said The Washington Post's Helaine Olen.

Georgetown Prof. Don Moynihan noted a 2011 poll showing that 70% of Tea Partiers did not want to cut Medicare.

"One thing that has proven true again and again is that people actually like and want the government benefits that they get," he wrote.

Chef Andrew Zimmern said, "Dangerous, uninformed, naive, … someone should show the congressperson who in her district uses fed benefits of all kinds."

MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan questioned if Boebert's plan would work

Ocasio-Cortez knocks Boebert for call to end extra jobless benefits

Dominick Mastrangelo 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) ripped Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) for remarks regarding government unemployment benefits during a conservative gathering in Dallas over the weekend.

© Getty Images Ocasio-Cortez knocks Boebert for call to end extra jobless benefits

"We're here to tell government, we don't want your benefits, we don't want your welfare. Don't come knockin' on my door with your Fauci ouchie, you leave us the hell alone," Boebert said Saturday at CPAC, the annual gathering of conservative politicians, activists and organizers, referring to infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine push.

"Tell 'em loud and proud girl!" Ocasio-Cortez responded to Boebert in a tweet Saturday evening. "GOP will strip your unemployment protections and dismantle any semblance of a public safety net we have left! Then make working people pay way more for everything on low wages while Wall St gets a meal ticket!"

"Good ol conservative values baby!" the progressive lawmaker added.

Boebert, a conservative currently serving in her first term, was among a bevy of members of Congress loyal to former President Trump who spoke at CPAC over the weekend.

One day before, fellow Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn (N.C.) rallied the crowd by warning against President Biden's proposed "door-to-door" COVID-19 vaccine campaign, claiming the same methods could be used to "take" people's guns and Bibles.

"Think about the mechanisms they would have to build to be able to actually execute that massive of a thing," Cawthorn said. "And then think about what those mechanisms could be used for. They could then go door-to-door and take your guns. They could go door to door and take your Bibles."

Boebert made headlines earlier this year when she appeared to carry a gun on the streets of Capitol Hill in an advertisement.

Ocasio-Cortez has attacked Boebert and Cawthorn's fellow Republicans in the House for downplaying the dangers posed to members during the Jan. 6 insurrection by Trump supporters at the Capitol.

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