National debt is silent threat to America’s security

With the election mercifully behind us, Americans should expect those we’ve elected to get to the less-pleasant task of governing responsibly.  While hot-button issues such as immigration, inflation and foreign affairs will garner most headlines, a more pressing concern is too often overlooked: America’s staggering national debt.

Growing faster than the economy and projected to reach a record share of gross domestic product (GDP) within three years, our debt is a national crisis.  If we continue down the current unsustainable path, we are flirting with catastrophe that would dwarf the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

Our next Congress and President must confront this challenge before it is too late.

The current debt held by the public stands at $28 trillion or 98% of GDP.  In three years, that debt will exceed the record of 106% of GDP reach just after World War 2.  However, the WW2 debt was incurred for a specific, important purpose: to preserve freedom and democracy.  Within a decade, it was sliced in half.  Today’s debt is mostly the result of irresponsible budgeting by both parties, years of passing deficit-ridden budgets because our leaders are unwilling to even modestly slow federal spending. read more…

Democrats’ obsession made Trump’s comeback possible

No cat has more lives than Donald Trump’s political fortunes.  To be sure, he is as skilled at retail politics as anyone since Bill Clinton, but he also benefits from being habitually underestimated by his adversaries.

His unprecedented political rehabilitation wasn’t merely a product of Republican support.  Democrats and the dominant liberal media must ask themselves, “Did our relentless obsession with demonizing Trump instead breathe new life into him?”

Democrats were convinced they could beat Trump and certain Americans were done with him.  But they ignored the maxim, “You can’t beat something with nothing.”  They became primarily the party of anti-Trump.  What else explains a coalition of AOC, transgender activists, anti-gun liberals, plus Dick and Liz Cheney?

But instead of occupying the political center, Democrats missed every opportunity to stop hemorrhaging middle-of-the-road voters. read more…

Colorado highways are crumbling due to CDOT neglect

Colorado highways are among the worst in the nation.  That’s hardly news to anyone who travels across our state.

Only two states report a larger share of interstate highway in poorer condition than Colorado.  Less-traveled highways in our state are even worse.

In 2021, the Democrat-controlled legislature passed a $5.4 billion package of new “fees” – including a yearly increase in fuel taxes and that irritating 29-cent charge Coloradans pay on every Amazon order – supposedly to boost the transportation budget.

Despite that infusion of money, Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) predicts the condition of every category of state-maintained highways will get even worse over the next seven years.

In 2022, CDOT analyzed 9,083 miles of state-maintained highway based on drivability life (DL) and categorized them as follows:

  • High DL, drivability life of 11-25 years.
  • Moderate DL, 4-10 years of drivability remaining.
  • Low DL, 0-3 years of drivability remaining.

read more…

For Trump to win, he must be disciplined

In a close election, everything matters.  Just ask Hillary Clinton about taking Wisconsin and Michigan for granted in 2016.

This election looks like another close one because some voters will enthusiastically vote for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, but many others will again be voting against the candidate they dislike most.

Based on recent polling, Trump has a base support of about 42%.  He can likely count on those voters no matter what.  Biden’s lowest numbers were similar, so Harris probably starts in the same or slightly better position depending on how long her media honeymoon lasts.  Support for third-party candidates has collapsed to 5% or less.

A mere 10% of voters appear truly undecided.  If they vote based on the Biden-Harris record of the past four years, Trump wins.  But if their vote is a referendum on Trump himself, Harris wins. read more…

‘The Colorado Song’ recalls a better time and place

On this Colorado Day, I remember the 1970s when our local radio station would open its morning show by playing The Colorado Song: “If I had a wagon, I would go to Colorado,” praising a state known for “Rocky Mountain peaks, climbing up to the sky” and inhabited by “folks who are rugged and bold!”

One verse describes what was quintessential Colorado: “A uniting spiring they will find at the great Continental Divide.”

It’s a fun song, and I’ve taught it to my kids.  But I get a little choked up because it describes a Colorado no longer exists.

The “rugged and bold” Colorado elected both liberal Democrat Governor Dick Lamm and conservative Republican U.S. Senator Bill Armstrong in 1978.  Both received 58% of the vote, so nearly one of every six voters supported both Lamm and Armstrong, recognizing personal qualities regardless of political differences.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t get choked up just because Republicans can no longer win statewide elections or legislative majorities.  What I miss is the Colorado that truly was a live-and-let-live state. read more…

GOP input helps property owners avoid annual tax drama

Property taxes remain a hot topic in Colorado and rightly so.  During COVID, economists expected home values to fall as the economy experienced a sharp recession.  So in 2020, the legislature asked voters to eliminate a 40-year-old law that prevented property taxes from rising in unison with the value of that property.  Voters agreed.

Then something strange happened: the COVID recession was brief and instead of tanking, home prices soared because few homes were offered for sale.  Without the 40-year-old Gallagher amendment to limit residential property taxes, homeowners’ tax bills exploded along with rising home values.

In 2023, legislators offered voters a faux tax cut in Proposition HH.  Smelling a skunk (and probably feeling swindled in repealing the old tax limitation), voters overwhelming rejected Prop HH and demanded the legislature do better.  Instead, the legislature passed solely with Democrat support a teeny, tiny tax cut for one year only.  That left in law an automatic tax hike starting next year.

Seeking a more permanent resolution, lawmakers created a property tax commission, and in the closing days of this year’s legislative session, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced an actual tax cut.  Democrats, still hold overwhelming majorities in the legislature, didn’t need Republican votes.  To their credit, Democratic leaders wanted a bipartisan resolution to put the issue to rest. read more…

Jokes about our state legislature used to be funny

We used to joke that “no man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.”  That’s no laughing matter in today’s Colorado.

The collective sigh heard across our state when 100 legislators finally went home to mind their own business reflects the growing sense of dread that accompanies the Colorado General Assembly convening each January.

Although some of their worst ideas died on May 8 when the annual session ended, many of them will rise again like zombies next January, and Coloradans will again be subjected to this same ritual.

Not long ago, Democrats and Republicans argued mostly about whether taxes and government spending should be higher or lower.  But as Democrats achieved super-majority status – now 46-19 in the House and 23-12 in the Senate – they’re confident voters gave them a mandate and won’t hold them accountable for their excesses.

Voters said don’t raise taxes without our approval.  Legislators renamed taxes “fees,” so they wouldn’t have to ask.  Voters said don’t create large new “enterprises” – government functions funded by “fees” – without asking our permission.  Legislators simply split enterprises into smaller units or exempted them entirely from the voters’ mandate. read more…

Progressive gun bills defy common sense

Although I am less optimistic, I still hold out hope that Colorado isn’t irretrievably doomed to follow California, Oregon and Washington into the hopeless abyss of Progressivism.

A few key indicators will soon reveal if we have passed the point of no return, including whether enough common-sense Democrats remain to stand with Republicans against the Far Left’s relentless assault on our Second Amendment rights.

Senate Bill 131 would prohibit licensed concealed-carry permit holders from carrying their guns in “sensitive spaces,” which sponsors Sen. Sonya Jaquez-Lewis (D-Boulder) and Chris Kolker (D-Centennial) defined as most places outside your home.

The bill would ban legal possession in these gun-free zones by licensed permit-holders.  It would, of course, do nothing to deter criminals whom Progressives prefer to coddle (for example, by killing a bill to increase the penalty for stealing a firearm). read more…

Progressive speech codes have no place in legislative debate

Remember when Democrats fiercely defended freedom of speech and freedom of expression with few limitations?  That was when Colorado Democrats still had to compete with Republicans for statewide elected offices and legislative majorities.

Having grasped the political upper hand, Democrats are now sadly in thrall to Progressivism and its requisite censorship of dissenters.  Instead of proclaiming, “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” Democrats at our State Capitol now practice “free speech for me, but not for thee.”

Consider the prevailing limitations on debate in the Colorado House of Representatives.  Once called “The People’s House,” the chamber majority now shows little regard for core constitutional rights.  Today’s Progressives tolerate dissent only if they can keep it contained in an airtight box where it cannot be heard. read more…

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Quote of the Day

An independent judiciary does not mean judges independent of the law. Nor is the rule of judges the same as the rule of law. Too often it is the rule of lawlessness from the bench.

— Thomas Sowell

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