It’s a political reality: talking about how to govern is far easier than actually governing.

Government, after all, is a reflection of the governed and nothing requires individual voters or “the people” in general to act responsibly.  That observation is not an indictment of the electorate but an acknowledgement that voters are never forced to confront tough choices about government spending. [Read more →]

During much of the last decade December has greeted legislators with gloomy revenue forecasts that confirm there won’t be enough money to pay for the spending they budgeted in April.  Drastic budget reductions ensue in order to balance the budget in final few months of the fiscal year.

Generally, legislators respond as if trapped in the Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day.  Year-after-year they pass budgets in April based on revenue estimates that they surely know will require severe pruning come December.  (Unlike Congress, the Colorado legislature is constitutionally required to balance its budget.)

This week, House Republicans — back in the majority after six years in the cheap seats — signaled that this practice will change, arguing for a spending target nearly $200 million below the more conservative of two forecasts by government economists. [Read more →]

Ed Perlmutter, the Democrat congressman from Colorado’s 7th District, is a likable guy, as I discovered while serving with him for four years in the Colorado Senate — even if his political leanings are not to my liking.  However, the Congressman has a tendency to become piously myopic — and inappropriately sanctimonious — when reacting to gun-related tragedies such as the weekend shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford and others in Arizona.

Earlier today in 850 KOA’s Colorado Morning News, he told hosts Steffan Tubbs and April Zesbaugh that we risk tragedies like the Arizona shooting “when you ramp up the rhetoric” in politics. [Read more →]

As Republican majorities take the reigns of power both in Congress and in the Colorado House of Representatives, they carry the lofty expectations of their supporters alongside the inconvenient reality that Democrats still control half of the legislative branch plus the executive.

Practically speaking, Republicans can do only so much, but that certainly doesn’t mean they are powerless.  Here’s what a good strategy for the next two years might look like:

First, kill bad bills.  There’s truth in the maxim, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”  Legislation that empowers bureaucrats or creates new opportunities for litigation simply cannot be “fixed,” so kill it. [Read more →]

Give at least this much credit to the liberals “progressives” (LPs) in the Democratic Party:  they don’t let little things like losing 63 seats in Congress discourage them.

For LPs, a Robin Hood tax policy – one that extracts higher taxes from the successful and industrious and spends it on expensive social welfare programs for the slothful and underachieving – is an article of faith that cannot be compromised. [Read more →]

Whether “haggling” at a garage sale or for the best deal on a vehicle, most of us understand the give-and-take that often determines a fair price.

A seller asks a price that is more than he needs to cover costs and a potential buyer responds by offering less than she is actually willing to pay.  If the two parties settle on a price, common sense tells us that price is reasonable – i.e., it meets the seller’s need to cover costs and fits the buyer’s ability and willingness to pay.

A 4-3 majority of the Colorado Supreme Court doesn’t seem to understand that the advertised price and the actual cost are often vastly different.  In Volunteers of America vs. Gardenswartz, the court considered whether someone injured by another’s negligence is entitled to recover the amount originally billed for his medical expenses or the only the amount actually paid to the hospital and doctor. [Read more →]

In this year’s race for U.S. Senate, Colorado voters have a clear choice both in substance and in style.

Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet has backed President Obama 97 percent of the time, according to Congressional Quarterly.

His opponent, Republican Ken Buck, opposes virtually every significant measure passed or pending in the current Congress – massive “stimulus” spending, government-mandated health care, and cap-and-tax energy policy. [Read more →]

The Republican Party wasn’t always a conservative party.  Waves of conservative insurgency and resurgency during the past 50 years have transformed the Grand Old Party into the only major party with a core constituency that desires individual freedom and limited government.

The emergence of TEA (for “taxed enough already”) parties and the 912 Project — often referred to jointly as the Liberty Movement — is the newest chapter in this resurgence. [Read more →]

Correction:  The NRA ultimately decided not to endorse Harry Reid.  They gave him money and seemed to agonize over the decision — which should tell you all you need to know.  NRA lobbyist Chris Cox suggested that Reid’s votes for Supreme Court nominees Elana Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor were deal-breakers.  That it was even a close call before those votes is ludicrous.

To anyone who still believes the National Rifle Association cares more about protecting your Second Amendment rights than it does about kissing up to powerful politicians, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.

For the NRA, the Second Amendment has become little more than an expedient tool for raising money, striking political compromises, and maintaining access to those in power.

This week, the NRA’s Political Victory Fund endorsed liberal Democrat Congresswoman Betsy Markey, who cares so deeply about the Second Amendment that she didn’t even bother to return the NRA’s survey when she first ran for Congress two years ago. [Read more →]

What goes around comes around, and today the New York Times reports great news for Republican Cory Gardner.

Just as Betsy Markey (D-Fort Collins) was swept into office in a Democrat landslide when House Republicans were forced to cut their spending to former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-Fort Morgan), it appears that now Congresswoman Markey is about to a casualty of a looming Republican landslide.

The Times reports that Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District may move beyond Democrats’ reach, in which case the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee may cut its losses by pulling its resources of Markey’s race in order to save other vulnerable but stronger Democrat seats.