Coloradans deserve health care choice, not mandates

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it." — Mark Twain.

You might say the same goes for health care.  Politicians are constantly tinkering, making promises they can’t deliver, and usually creating a bigger mess than the one they promised to fix.

Ironically, despite the abysmal record of lawmakers and bureaucrats to produce lower prices or create greater choice, the public still clamors for government to "do something."  Perhaps the more logical outcry should be: "undo something." (more…)

Is our compassion consistent or convenient?

Given the special relationship we have with our pets and the tenderness we feel toward animals that rely on us for protection and sustenance, it’s no wonder that so many of us feel disgust and contempt when we read about people who show blatant disregard for animals.

A Denver man accused of twisting the head off a tame duck in the lobby of a St. Paul, Minn., hotel is the most recent grotesque example.  That deadly, drunken trantrum seems mild, however, compared to the pattern of habitual cruelty exhibited by the likes of former football star Michael Vick who train dogs to rip each other apart for profit and amusement then kill them by horrific means when they are no longer useful.

We express our intolerance for such actions — yes, intolerance can be a good thing — through our laws. (more…)

No wonder Americans won’t do those jobs

Much of our country’s simmering dialogue on immigration sooner or later turns to the question of hiring people to perform certain "jobs Americans won’t do."

Rarely, however, do policymakers address why Americans apparently refuse to do certain jobs while immigrants go to great trouble and expense to come here to perform those very jobs.

Many of the jobs now commonly performed by immigrants were once filled either by students or by adults who saw work as noble and idleness as shameful.

Today, our relative prosperity and appetite for instant gratification is becoming our enemy. (more…)

MUST READS for September

Wrapping my head around Fred
Jonah Goldberg

Trimming the responsibilities of government to a few important and constitutional functions would constitute real reform. Right now, the only bandwagon for a message even remotely like that is the Ron Paul campaign, and unfortunately, that bandwagon long ago barreled past conservatism to swampy territory outside the borders of common sense. Thompson could be different. While all the other candidates have a "can-do" personality, Thompson has a "won’t-do" personality. And that’s something many of us think has long been missing from the White House.

Voters scammed by Ref C ’shuffle’

Two years ago, lawmakers asked voters for a "timeout" from the spending restrictions of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) in order to allow the state budget to rebound from the recession of 2001-2002.

Referendum C, which passed by a narrow 52 to 48 percent margin, erased the TABOR spending limits for five years and permanently increased spending caps thereafter. Voters were promised that K-12 education, colleges and universities, and health care would split the lion’s share of the resources if the measure passed.

Following the 2005 vote Colorado Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald said, “‘We already agreed, if Ref D failed, it would be 33 1/3, 33 1/3 and 33 1/3,’ for schools, colleges and health.”

But a funny thing happened after the election. Spending on programs not associated with Ref C has grown more than twice as fast as spending on education and health care. Now, voters have cause to believe they were sold a bill of goods. (more…)

Property: Rights or privileges

Anyone who has grown up on a farm or ranch hears this maxim, "Take care of the land, and the land will take care of you." A farmer or rancher who doesn’t take care of the soil will soon find that the soil won’t produce enough to make ends meet.

But you don’t need to be a farmer or rancher to understand the importance of private property rights. What’s more, property isn’t simply a piece of land or a home. Property is anything you own — your clothes, your car, your business. (more…)

Rights do not burden others

When we consider drastically altering our expectations of government, we risk undermining the principles on which our country was founded and proving Ronald Reagan’s maxim: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction."

Every expansion of government entitlements masquerading as rights — like a "right to health care" — is a dangerous step along this path, no matter how well-intentioned.

The Founders of our country lived more than two centuries ago in a vastly different era, but they understood that certain principles are timeless, such as the corruptibility of human nature and the danger of unrestrained power. (more…)

MUST READS for Late August

Truth Laid Baird
By James Taranto, Opinion Journal
One Democrat Congressman who opposed the war in Iraq finds reason to keep our troops in place.  To him, it’s more important to do right than to be right.

Tragic Implications
By Thomas Sowell
Nobody names pothole repairs for anybody or puts any politician’s name on the rivets used to repair an existing bridge. Moreover, nobody blames a politician when a bridge collapses years after he put his name on some government building with money that could have been used to make bridges safer.

MUST READS for August

Photo ops take priority over bridges
Thomas Sowell
Some people claim that the problem is how much money it would take to properly maintain bridges, highways, dams and other infrastructure. But money is found for other things, including things far less urgent and some things that are even counterproductive.

Democrats don’t care about the poor
Ann Coulter
Democrats don’t care about the poor. They don’t care about the children. They care about government teachers and other government bureaucrats — grimy, dowdy women who "woo" at political debates. Or as CNN calls them, the "young," "hip" crowd.

Renewables wrecking environment, says Green pioneer
Steve Milloy, Junk Science
“Renewables are not green,” is how Jesse Ausubel begins the article published in the International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology. It’s a remarkable statement coming from someone who beat his fellow Greens to global warming alarmism by at least 10 years.

Smog of Oblivion
By R. Emmett Terrell, New York Sun
What would Democrats do if one of their own think tank sent analysts to Iraq and found that the surge is working?  Bob Terrell dares Democrat defeatists to come out of the left-wing echo chamber and consider the evidence.

WhatsNewsColorado.com
Your best source for everything important that’s happening in Colorado.

Must Reads for JULY

If you’re an internet news junkie, I’d suggest you add these links to your daily surfing destinations:

VictoryCaucus.com
If you’re tired of getting your Iraq news from reporters who can’t seem to see past body counts, then you should check out VictoryCaucus.com.  Here you’ll find information from people on the ground and who see "the big picture."

WhatsNewsColorado.com
The best news source for what’s happening all across Colorado — not just headlines from Denver.  Plus links to the few level-headed opinion writers in our state’s media.