Like most folks, we were busy on News Year’s Eve not paying attention to politics (it was our day off), so we missed our own U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner giving the Weekly Republican Address.

It wasn’t just a recitation of GOP accomplishments from last year, but a blueprint of what the party and Gardner plans for 2017, and we like what we’re seeing.

Here are some of the priorities:

  • Repair the damage of Obamacare, that has cancelled the health plans of 750,000 Coloradans and increased costs by 77 percent of 150,000 residents.
  • Fix or rollback the Waters of the United States rule (WOTUS) and other regs that threaten water rights as well as gas, oil and coal, kills jobs and drives up energy costs for consumers.
  • Gardner wants to lend a hand to small businesses to bolster their economic development, and simplify the tax code for the millions of Americans who are not accountants.

It’s a hefty plan that will require a lot of heavy lifting, and we applaud Republicans for taking on the challenge. But, we’ll be watching and holding their feet to the fire. We expected this much from Gardner, and we hope to see that we can count on Trump to do the same.