Perhaps the greatest irony of America’s 250th birthday is the inadvertent role played by international tourists visiting for soccer’s World Cup who remind us that our country is unlike any other.

Much like the 1989 visit by Russian president Boris Yeltsin to a Texas supermarket, World Cup tourists are astonished by the variety and selection available to ordinary Americans at grocery and other stores.  They marvel at the taste of food in our restaurants.  Most significantly, they are pleasantly surprised to learn they can usually walk down our busiest streets without fear of being assaulted or robbed and that our police officers are friendly and helpful.

America is a land of abundance for everyone – not just the wealthy.  Comedian Carlos Mencia once quipped, “America is such a great country, we have fat poor people.”

As Americans, we take all of the above for granted. read more…

Our country’s Bicentennial in 1976 was a glorious experience for a 9-year-old boy.  Communities came together to work on Bicentennial projects.  My home county embarked on a multi-year project to restore the 1905 wooden carousel which had been purchased from Elitch Gardens in 1928.  Picnics, festivals, and colonial costumes were ubiquitous, as were flags adorned with the Bicentennial logo.

A Freedom Train traversed the country with historic documents which the public could view at each stop.  CBS aired a daily “Bicentennial Minute,” detailing an event from exactly 200 years earlier.

Merchants and companies embraced the celebration with commemorative red, white and blue signs, banners and commemorative labels.  The NFL even joined the celebration when, in January, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys wore special Bicentennial patches in Super Bowl X.  Disneyland presented a Bicentennial Parade twice each day from July 1775 through September 1776. read more…

That our two political parties have such different philosophies regarding business and taxes is exasperating because prosperity would serve even the very different interests of Democrats and Republicans.

Democrats want more revenue for government to spend it on social welfare, health care and schools.  Republicans want to stimulate the economy, leading to more prosperity for citizens.  A relatively lighter tax burden would help accomplish both.

Purely for illustration, let’s say the legislature could be guaranteed the same amount of tax revenue whether it set the income tax rate at 5% or 50%.

How could that be possible?  Because at the lower tax rate, many more businesses would be generating income by selling goods and services since ownership would know it could keep 95% of its net profit.  At the higher rate, nobody would start a new business knowing half of its profits will be paid in taxes.  Only businesses unwilling or unable to relocate to another state would be left to pay the tax.

Which tax rate represents better policy? read more…

For the third time in eight years, the United States Supreme Court has needed to remind Colorado lawmakers that when they take an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, they are expected to mean it.

By an 8-to-1 vote the court struck down a Colorado law on “conversion therapy” on the rather obvious grounds that it unlawfully discriminates against the First Amendment rights of therapists to counsel clients who want help to overcome unwanted sexual attraction or confusion.

Proponents of the Colorado law focused on discredited physical interventions like shock therapy, but their law goes much farther, prohibiting treatment which is purely spoken and provided at the explicit request of clients. read more…

The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money. – Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister.

The same can be said of “progressivism,” and Colorado’s ruling progressive Democrats are learning the hard way as they face spending deficits surpassing $1 billion a year.

State budget deficits are usually caused when a recession reduces tax revenue.  But Colorado hasn’t been in a recession and budget projections do not predict one.

Instead, this deficit is due to runaway spending and is entirely self-inflicted, as everyone from the Colorado Sun to Colorado Public Radio to the Gazette newspapers and even Joint Budget Committee staff have pointed out. read more…

During its August special session, the Colorado General Assembly passed several bills to raise tax revenue and partially fill the growing chasm between federal tax policy and progressive Democrats’ insatiable spending.

Although the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) in our state constitution requires a public vote on any “tax policy change directly causing a net tax revenue gain,” lawmakers believe that a Colorado Supreme Court from 2018 allows them to raise tax revenue by closing so-called “loopholes.”

Specifically, the court ruled in TABOR Foundation vs. RTD (2018) that the language of TABOR is “best read to exclude legislation that causes only an incidental and de minimus tax revenue increase.”  Justices arrived at this conclusion by analyzing a 2013 bill that removed some sales tax exemptions and added others to make RTD and state sales tax collections uniform.

Although legislative staff predicted a 0.6% increase in revenue, justices disagreed with TABOR Foundation’s argument that this triggered the constitutional requirement for a public vote.

However, the court added in a footnote, “We do not suggest that TABOR allows districts to raise revenue by increasing taxes without voter approval so long as they do it in small enough increments; while such measures might be de minimus, they would not be incidental.” read more…

I miss John Hickenlooper – and I really miss Roy Romer.

While I often disagreed with their policies, at least we lived on the same planet because they understood that Colorado businesses must prosper to sustain the functions of government.

The recent “extraordinary” session of the Colorado legislature starkly illustrated how the Democratic Party has changed since Gov. Hickenlooper’s term ended in 2019 and even more so since Gov. Romer’s tenure (1987-1999).

Before becoming Denver mayor, Hickenlooper was a restauranteur and worked as a geologist for an oil company in his early years.  Romer, still active today at age 95, coupled his work as a legislator and state treasurer with his family’s John Deere dealerships before being elected governor.

Democrats with meaningful business background are an endangered species at today’s State Capitol.  The current legislative majority seems to view the relationship between government and business like that of a parasite and a host.  Ruling “progressives” rarely hesitate to add more burdens – regulation, litigation or taxation – to the litany of hazards confronting anyone doing business here.

Business, it seems, is a necessary evil tolerated only to fund government. read more…