Obamacare worse and worse

Conflicts of interest may discredit Colorado's newly formed health insurance exchange, worries Susan Barnes-Gelt in the July round of Head On TV debates. Look closer and you'll see the exchange concept itself is pure corporate statism, replies John Andrews, adding this is one more reason Obamacare must go. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over the 2012 presidential outlook, the Stock Show's move to Aurora, Mayor Hancock's early moves, and the Denver Police Department. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for July: 1. HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGE QUESTIONED

John: Obamacare requires every state to create a new bureaucratic monster called the health insurance exchange. Colorado House Republicans went along when they should have told the Feds to get lost. Now we learn the board of the exchange is big business in bed with big government, pure corporate statism. That helps no one.

Susan: Seems like policymakers all ‘round – the elected’s who appoint and the industry and business people appointed – need a tutorial on conflict of interest. Hickenlooper’s appointments to the Health Insurance Exchange Board are awful. The fox isn’t just guarding the hen house - he’s living in the master suite.

John: Susan, it’s worse than that. The health insurance exchange is a conflict of interest by definition. The board appointments by legislative leaders and the governor were all quite legal. But the exchange law itself rigs the marketplace and harms consumers. Massachusetts could warn us. Obamacare is fatally flawed. Out with it!

Susan: Massachusetts’s residents love their health care system – Mitt Romney got something right as governor. The current, unregulated system benefits health insurance companies – currently enjoying record profits. The current system works for insurance execs and shareholders. Hick needs to revisit his appointments.

2. PRESIDENTIAL RACE HEATS UP

Susan: The 2012 Presidential race is on. The R’s have a fundamental problem – finding a candidate who appeals to the drown-government-in-a-bathtub contingent, dominating the primary process and nominating someone who can appeal to moderates and independents in November. Despite the tough economy, I’m betting on Obama.

John: Your take on 2012 is backwards. The only drowning to we face is a rising tide of unemployment and foreclosures, with Uncle Sam awash in red ink and Barack Obama in over his head. Good luck on that reelection. Republican challengers Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Tim Pawlenty could all beat this president.

Susan: The majority of voters want solutions – not partisan bickering and negative attacks. Ronald Reagan beat incumbent Jimmy Carter because he had a positive message and uplifting vision. The current R frontrunners are negative, small minded dividers. Huntsman is the only viable option and he can’t win the nomination.

John: Obama has made the economy worse. He has made the deficit worse. His policies will worsen health care and worsen national security. He just can’t lead. Maybe one of his fellow Democrats will take him down next year. One of the strong Republicans, Gov. Romney, Gov. Perry, Gov. Pawlenty, Congressman Bachmann, definitely will.

3. STOCK SHOW MAY LEAVE DENVER

John: My first time at the National Western was 50 years ago, but I remember it like yesterday. For a lot of us, the Stock Show is Denver. But money talks, and now Aurora is talking loudest. It’s a tough test for in a down economy for Michael Hancock as Denver’s new mayor.

Susan: The National Western is the only urban stock show in the country. It needs 3 times the acreage it has. The issue is not will they move, but who pays? Denver should not pay for the stock show to Aurora unless we retain the revenue.

John: The larger issue is how the people’s hard-earned tax dollars should be used and where the coercive power of government should be allowed to reach. Massive subsidies to private businesses are on the table here, driven by the Gaylord fat cats. Aurora’s election for mayor may become a referendum on the deal.

Susan: There are no winners when politics trumps policy. The issue ought to be what’s best for the region and the stock show. Balkanized local government pits city against city – to neither’s benefit. There’s a win-win is this challenge. But I’m not sure rational thinking will prevail.

4. HANCOCK’S EARLY MOVES

Susan: Denver’s new mayor – Michael Hancock - has his hands full. A tough budget, belligerent police leadership and the threatened stock show exit. The weak economy and bloated transition process has made identifying the right appointees challenging. Janice Sinden, his first-rate chief of staff is a good start.

John: I like it that Mayor Hancock is not a showboat. The guy seems sensible, steady, and real. I like it that he appointed Sinden, a business-minded Republican. I liked his gutsy, decent campaign style. He didn’t pander to unions or hide his religious faith. Now we’ll see how he governs.

Susan: The quality of his appointments will reveal a lot. He needs to bring in smart people with fresh perspectives, not the usual retreads and campaign payoffs. He’s got to replace tired leadership at the urban renewal authority and other policy commissions if he wants to be effective.

John: Lots of people watching this don’t live in Denver. But wherever you live in Colorado, you’d like to hope that Denver is a city on the rise, not on the decline. The keys to that are dynamic free enterprise, excellent schools, and a proud civic spirit. That should be the Hancock agenda.

5. POLICE DISCIPLINE QUESTIONED

Susan: The majority of Denver cops are great. But one out of 17 have discipline problems serious enough to question their veracity in court. Combined with the costly rash of excessive force cases – the DPD needs systemic overhaul. A chief – new to the department is a start.

John: The whole reason for government is to see that streets are safe, neighborhoods are peaceful, citizens are secure in their persons and property. Law enforcement is tough, thankless work. The men and women who do it deserve our gratitude and the benefit of the doubt. I hope the new mayor knows that.

Susan: Public safety is the centerpiece of government. The police department’s mission is to protect and serve – not abuse and lie. Lack of transparency and accountability destroys public trust and that’s where Denver is now. The department and the city will be better off if the bad seeds are removed.

John: Perfection never happens in this world. Policing is no exception. The outgoing chief, Gerry Whitman, is a man of honor and deserves our salute. The former chief, Jim Collier, was right when he warned against demoralizing the force. Don’t do it. The manager of safety, Charles Garcia, doesn’t understand policing. He should go.

Ready for Some Watershed Thinking?

By John Andrews As conservatives, the only question is not how should we vote. How should we live? How should we treat people? How should we view America and its future? I've long believed that many of the answers are hiding in plain sight, up near the Continental Divide in my imaginary hometown of the heart, Backbone, Colorado. It was the dateline for over a hundred of my Denver Post columns in the past decade, and they're now collected in a new book, Backbone Colorado USA: Dispatches from the Divide.

You can nibble these brief, practical essays like popcorn, but get ready for a healthy jolt -- this is power food for hungry citizens. Or to change the metaphor: it's watershed thinking to help readers draw the line between the postmodern laziness that will sink America and the aroused civic courage we must summon up to save our country. Order your copy today, plus a couple of extras to give as gifts. And please let me know what you think of it.

A lioness in the White House?

(Denver Post, June 26) “The best man in the cabinet.” That’s how Golda Meir was described by her colleague, David Ben-Gurion. She went on to lead Israel to victory in one of its darkest hours, the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Meir once attended Denver’s North High School, and you can visit her girlhood home in Auraria. The little grandmother was revered as “the Iron Lady,” before Britons conferred the title on Margaret Thatcher. The grocer’s daughter was not one to shrink from the sound of the guns either. She vanquished Argentina in the Falklands and helped stiffen George H. W. Bush’s spine (when they were together in Aspen, as it happened) after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. I thought of the Iron Ladies, with their Colorado connections and their heroic leadership of America’s closest allies, last week after Michele Bachmann electified the first Republican presidential debate. Pundits were derisive, one scoffing that her rivalry with Sarah Palin is a "cat fight." Unfair? Yes. Surprising? No.

Palin and Bachmann know you don’t go on the playground unless you can take rough teasing, and both have survived worse. This latest round merely reminds us it’s a liberal man’s world in which conservative women are fair game for putdowns and the non-sexist PC rules apparently don’t apply.

It’s ironic, though -- because there’s evidence that each woman is no common kitty, but a lioness with mettle such as few American politicians of either sex have demonstrated in our times. While Bachmann and Palin can’t yet be compared with Thatcher or Meir, both are on a career arc that could lead there in a decade. What two other women, after all, have ever vied for a major party’s presidential nomination?

As for the evidence I’m referring to, Denver audiences wowed by the Minnesota congresswoman and the former Alaska governor could attest to their remarkable appeal. Colorado Christian University, where I work, brought in Michele Bachmann last summer and Sarah Palin this spring. Each lit up the room.

Bachmann roused a crowd of 600 at Western Conservative Summit 2010 with her fiery yet precise argument for returning Congress and the White House to Republican hands. Palin was equally impressive as she used a speech at CCU on May 2, the day after our forces killed Bin Laden, to spell out a statesmanlike doctrine for the use of U.S. military power.

After some banter about basketball and bear hunting, the alleged airhead from Wasilla (perpetually underestimated, like a certain B-movie actor who won 49 states and took down the USSR) deftly zinged Pakistan’s double-dealing and Obama’s “ill-defined” Libyan folly. Then with Reaganesque toughness she set forth five principles for the American way of war:

(1) “Commit our forces only when clear and vital American interests are at stake.”

(2) “If we have to fight, fight to win. Use overwhelming force. Defeat the enemy as quickly as possible. Nation-building is not the main purpose of our armed forces.”

(3) “Have clearly defined goals and objectives before sending in troops. If you can’t explain the mission to the American people clearly and concisely,” stay out.

(4) “American soldiers must never be put under foreign command.”

(5) “Sending our armed forces should be the last resort. We don’t go looking for dragons to slay.”

Neither of the Bushes, nor Clinton, nor Obama, ever put it so well. America’s day will come, as Britain’s and Israel’s did, to be led by a lioness. Not one but two are in view for 2012. Lady Liberty could do a lot worse than Bachmann or Palin.

Sober up, spenders!

Washington spenders are like drunks on a binge, says John Andrews in the June round of Head On TV debates. It's bad, agrees Susan Barnes-Gelt, but she contends the solution must include tax hikes as well as entitlement reform. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over Hancock's win for Denver mayor, Hickenlooper's first six months, the politics of natural disasters, and the 2012 presidential outlook, and results of Colorado's legislative session. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for June: 1. RAISE THE DEBT CEILING?

John: Washington politicians with borrowed money are like alcoholics with a bottle. They can’t stop themselves. But if they don’t, there’s hell to pay. Every American should root for Boehner and the Republicans to make Obama and the Democrats sober up. Do not raise the debt limit without massive spending cuts.

Susan: Both sides of the aisle are all wet on this one. Of course we need to get a handle on entitlements just as we need to revamp the tax code. And as for the rating agencies – very same who failed to identify the 2008 financial collapse? Gimme a break!

John: Well, you’re half right. Fewer handouts, yes. More taxes, no. We can never tax our way out from under the tens of trillions in impossible promises to future recipients of government medicine and government pensions. The GOP must insist on entitlement reform in return for raising the debt ceiling.

Susan: My prediction: both sides will play cat and mouse with this issue until after the 2012 election. It's a scare tactic typical of the Beltway. Federal government has become increasingly less relevant as both sides move to the extreme. Without serious tax and entitlement reform, and major investment in technology and infrastructure our kids and and theirs are doomed.

2. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

John: “Barack Obama has failed America.” Those words of Mitt Romney sum up the reason why millions of Americans are eagerly watching the field of Republican candidates for 2012. Gov. Romney, Gov. Pawlenty, Speaker Gingrich, Congresswoman Bachmann, Senator Santorum, or businessman Herman Cain, could all do a better job than Obama.

Susan: Mitt Who? Health care Mitt? Pro-choice Mitt? Buttoned up Mitt? Shirt sleeve Mitt? Who is that handsome guy with the unruffled hair? Even in federal races, where there are too many layers between the candidates and the voters, authenticity rules. Can’t trust the messenger – the message is lost.

John: Warning, viewer discretion advised. My Democratic friend dares not mention her party’s president, the underwhelming Barack Obama, or her party’s vice president, the laughable Joe Biden. But no wonder – with unemployment rising, health care unpopular, and bankruptcy threatening, ridiculing Republicans is your only hope.

Susan: I’m proud to wave the Obama/Biden flag. This calm, and collected administration never succumbed to angry rhetoric - right or left. Elections are about differences and there's lot's at stake. Do Michelle Bachman, Mitt Romney or Newt have the judgment to move us forward? I don't think so.

3. HICK’S FIRST SESSION

Susan: Governor Hickenlooper had a pretty good first session. Thanks to a divided legislature, he didn’t have to deal with lefties or right wingers. He angered the K-12 crowd by cutting ed dollars but made up for it by vetoing cuts for kids’ health. Our a-partisan governor came out OK.

John: Does Hickenlooper get it that reckless spending is a dagger at the heart of our democracy? His tough stand on public employee pensions says yes. But the veto on cost-sharing for medical coverage says no. His overall passivity says no. The high-visibility activist mayor is gone. What gives, Susan?

Susan: Hick was a high visibility Mayor, but hardly an activist. He is a moderate whose approval numbers remain very high because of his commitment to please all the people all (well most of) the time. His style is better suited for partisan politics where straddling the middle works.

John: Straddling may boost the governor’s polls for now, but it’s no substitute for real leadership in a state with chronic budget deficits, too much union power, and too little job creation. Colorado needs a gutsy chief executive like Christie in New Jersey, or if you prefer Democrats, Cuomo in New York.

4. HORRIFIC STORMS

Susan: Unprecedented weather catastrophes - tornadoes, floods and storms hit Memphis, Raleigh, Tuscaloosa, Joplin MO, Minneapolis and most recently Springfield MA. Countless deaths, cities and towns destroyed. And the Republican House doesn’t want to pay for disaster relief?

John: In the words of President Grover Cleveland, my favorite Democrat, it is the people’s responsibility to support the government, not the government’s responsibility to support the people. Natural disasters are always with us, and federal aid is already massive. A few severe storms don’t justify a budget blowout or a carbon tax.

Susan: I get it. We pay taxes to wage war, support tax cuts for the rich, protect privilege and ignore the common interest. To bad if public infrastructure fails or natural disasters hit. Let state and local government or the individual carry the burden. There’s a recipe for a toxic tea party.

John: Folks, if you like melodramatic fantasy, go with that. But here’s the reality: FEMA, the disaster relief agency, is getting the extra money it needs with bipartisan votes of Republicans and Democrats. Those tornado and flood victims do deserve help. But Susan, the ultimate storm, fiscal collapse, is still coming.

5. HANCOCK WINS RUNOFF FOR MAYOR

John: Congratulations to Michael Hancock as he moves up from City Council to Mayor of Denver after galloping to win from behind like Secretariat. There will be no political dynasty for the Romers or the Penas, but the Webb dynasty has new life. Now for the hard work of governing.

Susan: I’ve known Michael for twenty years – truth is – the late great John –National civic league – Parr was Hancock’s real mentor. Michael builds a big platform. There’s room for everyone, and that’s the Denver way. He is a good man and has the makings of a great mayor.

John: Hancock has his work cut out. The onetime Broncos mascot takes office facing third and long, with his team behind. Denver has weak job creation, a structural budget deficit, sagging morale in its public safety agencies, and union problems in its public schools. Roll up your sleeves, Mayor Mike.

Susan: Fortunately non-partisan local government facilitates problem solving. No pointless fights over ideology. Michael will have the chance to build a strong team and make structural budget adjustments. Not to mention revamp the cop shop. Public education? A very challenging dilemma.

Save us from the voters

Memo to: Justice Anthony KennedyFrom: Coloradans for Benevolent Despotism Re: Enough with the Uppity Teabaggers

(Denver Post, May 29) Tony, can we use first names? You have your dignity to think of, U.S. Supreme Court and all that – but we have a spending racket to sustain, so here goes. Let’s drop the formalities and lay it out candidly. Barring a Wikileak, this won’t be in the papers anyway.

It was a banner week in Colorado for all of us who know what’s good for the public better than the public themselves. With the filing of Herb Fenster’s federal lawsuit to declare the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights unconstitutional, we may see the end of 20 long years of politicians having to ask citizens for permission to tax them. The galling indignity of it all! As a fellow member of the enlightened elite, Mr. Justice, you’ll sympathize.

TABOR, as the tax limit added to our state constitution by voters in 1992 is called, is alleged by wild right-wingers like House Majority Leader Amy Stephens to have protected Colorado from unchecked spending and California-style deficits. Is she delusional? TABOR’s “bad consequences for economic development and education” are notorious, as true Republicans like former Sen. Norma Anderson can attest.

But we both know money isn’t the real issue here. The issue is position and power. Who knows best? Who are today’s philosopher kings? As a judge, you see one every time you look in the mirror. We 34 plaintiffs in the Fenster suit sense in ourselves the same superiority. Why else would the common folk have elected us to state, county, and local offices, school boards, RTD? Born to rule, all of us – weren’t we, Tony?

Never mind if the district court and the appeals court laugh at our looney legal theory that Article IV, Section 4, “guarantee(ing) to every state in this union a republican form of government,” disallows the taxpayer a chance to vote on how much of his hard-earned money the government can take. Eventually it will come before the Supremes. When it does, since you’re the swing vote out of nine, please do the right thing.

Save us from the voters. Please. Deliver us, rescue us, spare us, Mr. Justice, from a miseducated (with too few teachers, overworked, underpaid), misinformed (with too little public broadcasting), stingy, stubborn, selfish, skeptical, bigoted, unwashed, unruly, SUV-driving, Fox-watching, gun-loving, greedy, grasping, holy-rolling, hard-hearted, ditto-headed citizenry who don’t understand that everything belongs to us – except what little we let them keep.

The reason our anointed guild of educators and legislators, incumbents and used-to-be’s, frank Dems and faux GOP, formed Coloradans for Benevolent Despotism is that it has gone really sour between us and the electorate. They no longer do our bidding. Arnold and Maria aren’t more estranged than we and those uppity teabaggers.

We’re not quite saying one man, one vote, one time – the way Mubarak did things – but honestly we’re sick of the sheep having so much control over their own shearing. “One man, one vote, pony up, and shut up for two years,” would suit us fine. Hence Fenster, unsupported though he is by the Founders or case law.

So we’re counting on you, Antoine old buddy. Understand? The high court can be our Seal Team Six in black robes – except we only need five to win. Yourself plus Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Sotomayor (“wise Latina” is just another way of saying philosopher queen, after all) will stop all this excessive democracy. No more voting on taxes, California here we come, party on, woo hoo!