Economics

The Denver Post, Democrats and Gov. Hickenlooper are showing their true colors. They  are spend and tax liberals who are willing to destroy private sector jobs in Colorado in an effort to preserve the jobs of ineffective teachers, unneeded school administrators and state employes who have little useful work to do. The Post endorsed higher taxes in an editorial this morning.

The Denver Post editorial page writer, Alicia Caldwell, continues to hype the findings of its panel of former members of the Colorado General Assembly. I posted the following in the comment section that follows the Post's defense of the panel's feckless findings:

With all due respect, the Big Government spend and tax Republicans and Democrats on the Panel fufilled the mission that the Big Government Denver Post editorial board gave them. 

The mission was to justify higher taxes, protect bloated government programs, call for increased spending on K-12 education and try to stop spending cuts in higher education, subsidies and tax credits for special interests and cuts in spending on transportation. 

Mission accomplished. The panel's report is credible only in the eyes of its members, a few Denver Post editorial writers, public employee unions, the Denver Metro Chamber and contractors and academics who slop at the public trough.

Even the Republicans on the General Assembly Joint Budget Committee appear to be protecting their contributors in the gimme community of government contractors. Frank McNulty, the Speaker of the House, a GOP lawyer, refuses to restructure and cut K-12 education spending and delay new spending on roads, bridges and infrastructure. He's even protecting the increase in the car tax, which the transportation lobby loves. However, Speaker McNulty said last week that higher education will take a spending cut this year.

Colorado continues to look like an Illinois wannabe.

Politicians have neither the skills nor the credibility to fix the state budget in ways that will encourage consumers to spend and businesses to grow in Colorado. 

What Hick and the legislature should do is hire Bain or some other strong management consulting company (not the big accounting firms) that doesn't work for state or federal governmental agencies to put together a turnaround plan. 

What the Post should do is hire two or three strong private sector economists, budget analysts and strategists to write a series of articles that show the public and the politicians how Colorado's laws and regulations can be changed. 

Show how the laws and budgets can be fixed so that Colorado won't follow Illinois, NY, California and other states into some form of default or bankruptcy. It is clear that the current editorial page staff doesn't have a clue.

Frankly, if you haven't figured it out already, I think the Post's panel did a tremendous disservice to Colorado. It was disingenuous and dishonest about what can and should be done. Maybe the panel's members just don't know any better.

Some $7 billion in wasted corn ethanol subsidies will expire Dec. 31, and one of the chief supporters of those subsidies, Al Gore, says those subsidies are a huge mistake that will be politically difficult to fix. Because there are corn ethanol plants in Colorado, its Congressional delegation has voted to impose ethanol subsidies and taxes on voters and force drivers to buy gasoline that is 10% ethanol. This reduces milelage by 12% to 15%. Will Senators Mark Udall, Michael Bennet and the rest of the state's delegation do the fiscally and ethically responsible thing and vote against extending the subsidies and forcing drivers to buy ethanol? Don't bet your farm on it. LINK: U.S. corn ethanol was not a good policy—Gore, by Gerard Wynn.

Sen. Mark Udall wants to put Colorado's coal and petroleum producers out of business. He wants to send consumers' utility bill even higher. And he wants to pick winners and losers among developers of new businesses in the energy and other industries.

He thinks he knows what's best for Colorado, and he won't listen to anybody who disagrees, including voters who almost defeated Sen. Michael Bennet and sent three Colorado Obama Democrat members of the U.S.House packing.

Just how out-of-touch with Colorado economics and economic reality in general Udall is can be seen in this article that he recently co-authored with a couple of other Obama Democrats in the Senate. LINK: Clean energy: Economic key to 21st Century, by Debbie Stabenow, Kay Hagan & Mark Udall.

John Tyner, the passenger who refused to let TSA agents sexually molest him, will be investigated and may be fined $11,000 for refusing to complete the pat down process at the San Diego Airport. Where are Colorado's Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet on this case? Where are Congressmen Doug Lamborn, Mike Coffman, Diana DeGette, Jared Polis and Ed Perlmutter? So far, none of them have posted any comments about the TSA's abuse of passengers on their web pages.

During the last six years, Democrats in Colorado's legislature and Democrat Governor Bill Ritter have sharply increased taxes and expanded the costly Medicaid program. Tom Tancredo today promised about 200 supporters in Littleton that he will not increase taxes to fix the state's budget deficit. He called for restructuring Medicaid and other Colorado governmental programs. New Direction Colorado is doing robo calls today promoting Tancredo's promise to not cut taxes.

Chances are growing that Republicans will take over Colorado's House and Senate. Here's the agenda of the Senate Republicans:

During last Friday's debate, John Hickenlooper said that he would fund higher education in Colorado with a "voluntary tax" on the highly regulated oil and gas exploration and production industries in the state.

That would be "extortion", charged Tom Tancredo, who has promised to not raise any taxes or fees if he is elected governor. Tancredo pointed out that because if Hickenlooper becomes governor and asks the oil and gas industry to accept a voluntary tax, they would have no choice to but to agree. If they didn't agree to the voluntary tax, Hickenlooper would impose even tougher regulations on them than Gov. Bill Ritter has. The Ritter regulations on Colorado's oil and gas producers has cost the state thousands of jobs, according to Repubicans. Democrats say the jobs have been lost because of sharply depressed natural gas prices. There's some truth in both arguments. Tancredo spoke to a rally in Littleton Saturday evening.

The Denver Post is proud to be Colorado's liberal paper, and it's not the only paper controlled by the Left in the state. Under the pretense of backing the best men (which is debatable), John Hickenlooper for governor and Michael Bennet for the U.S. Senate, the Post is showing that Obama Democrats are in charge of the Post's editorial page. This is even though there are three conservatives on its editorial board.

Colorado ballot initiatives 60, 61, 62, 63 and 101 appear to be headed for crushing defeats, according to a Denver Post/ 9News polls conducted by Suvreys USA. 

The most remarkable thing about this year's gubernatorial campaign in Colorado is that the candidates talk about cutting the state's budget and stimulating jobs, but they don't know how they will get either job done. At least they're not communicating their approaches very well.

American Constitution Republican Party candidate Tom Tancredo today announced that if he is elected governor on Nov. 2 he will name Assistant State Senate Minority Leader Greg Brophy and Mesa County Commissioner Craig Meis to his cabinet. Tancredo's announcement is his way of showing that if elected, he would quickly move to take over the leadrship of the state by bringing strong people into his cabinet and putting them to work on Colorado's budget and economic problems. Brophy has a very strong following on the Eastern Plains. He's a strong environmentalist, a farmer and a technology geek who will become the campaign's lede tweeter. Meis brings energy industry expertese to the campaign, and he will win votes for Tancredo on the Western Slope, especially in oil field and coal counties. This will free Tancredo to focus on the Front Range over the next three weeks. He's showing that he not only knows the issues  but also who the problem solvers are and that they will work for him and for Colorado. His news release follows the jump:

In a smart bid for free media, "conservative independent" Tom Tancredo announced that tomorrow he will disclose the names of the people he would appoint to his cabinet if he won the gubernatorial race against John Hickenlooper in the Nov. 2 election. 

Conservative gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo warns that Obama Democrat John Hickenlooper would not only just be another Governor Bill Ritter but also that if Hick becomes governor, he will rush to the hard left faster than Ritter has. And, in last night's Northern Colorado Debate in Longmont, Tancredo cited a book, Rich States and Poor States, and declared that tax policy is critical the the economic welfare of Colorado. In a new report, the Cato Institute gives Ritter an "F", mostly because of his spend and tax record. Governors who have backed tax and spending cuts are very popular in their states, notes Chris Edwards.  LINKS: Fiscal policy report card on America's governors: 2010 and Fiscal report card on the governors, both by Chris Edwards. Rich States, Poor States, by Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams.

Democrats are getting no cheer from the latest WSJ/NBC poll, which shows only 20% of Americans believe the Great Recession is over and that 32% blame President Obama's policies for the recession, up from 17% at the beginning of the year. The latest consumer confidence survey is also bad news for Democrats. LINKS: More Americans blame Obama for economy, by Mary Lu Carnevale. Consumer confidence plunges in September on job market concerns, by Joseph Lazzaro.