House lawmakers double-dog dared the Senate to kill a bill to protect cheap gas and prescription drug discounts for Coloradans today.

The bill sponsors are still fuming over a botched Senate amendment that aimed to protect rural gas stations and fuel distributors from big-chain discounts, but ended killing all below-cost deals — from ski-ticket specials to ladies’ night drink deals — in 55 counties.

"Let’s bring the discounts back to the gas pumps for consumers who can no longer afford gas," Rep. Cheri Jahn D-Wheat Ridge, said to applause on the House floor. She sponsored House Bill 1208 with Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, and Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins.

Jahn said she doesn’t believe the Senate "intended to do all this harm" to House Bill 1208, which originally intended to modernize the state’s Unfair Practices Act to allow retailers to offer promotional deals as long as they didn’t drive competitors out of business.

But the hasty amendment by Sen. Jim Isgar, a Western Slope Democrat, didn’t just exempt counties with less than 200,000 population from gas-and-drug deals. Attorney General John Suthers, who backed the original bill, said the amendment ended all below-cost discounts in smaller counties entirely.

Now, some lawmakers are hearing from unhappy constituents and Suthers may investigate whether the amendment violates the state Constitution by favoring rural gas retailers.

"That means your holiday $5 turkeys are gone," Jahn warned. "Buy one-get-one-free deals at the grocery store are gone."

"What’s worse: ladies’ night — gone," she said.

"Whooa!" moaned lawmakers in half-joking horror.

Isgar has offered to fix the amendment glitch in a conference committee.

But on a 63-1 vote, the House took a hard-line stand to stick with its version of the bill. They’re effectively daring the Senate to abandon its amendment or kill the sweet-deals bill popular among consumers — and voters.

"If anybody should have a gas discount, it’s the rural areas," Jahn said earlier. "Not only are they paying 30 to 45 cents a gallon higher, they also have to do more driving just to do their daily chores."

"This shouldn’t be a dogfight between urban and rural. That’s ridiculous."