Why the legislature matters

(Denver Post, Sept. 27) “It’s sucking Colorado dry,” a Republican state senator lamented the other day. He wasn’t talking about the demand on our rivers from Arizona and Nebraska. He meant the massive outflow of campaign dollars to Obama and Romney, diverting money from state races in this election. If you don’t have to think about political fundraising, as do state Sen. Bill Cadman, working to dislodge an eight-year Senate Democratic majority, and state Rep. Mark Ferrandino, trying to oust the House Republicans who took over in 2010, count yourself lucky. Even so, you feel the effects in TV ad saturation, where Denver trails only Cleveland and Reno in the air war this fall. Those spots we’re all tired of focus on the presidential race. You see about as many ads for legislative candidates as for dogcatcher. Of course the White House is the world’s biggest political prize. But voter beware. The legislature matters too. Which party controls the Colorado General Assembly can really make a difference in your life

We elect 100 fellow citizens to make laws for our state. If they prioritize individual liberty, personal responsibility, free enterprise, and the Constitution over big government, collective solutions, and progressivism – or vice versa – this becomes a more desirable or less desirable place to raise our families and better ourselves. Ask yourself these questions:

1. How much economic freedom? Republicans favor entrepreneurship and deregulation to spur growth. Democrats like to pick winners and losers. What’s your pick?

2. Who cares about taxpayers? Republicans favor spending limits and voting on taxes. Dems evade TABOR when they can and are suing to annul it.

3. Who says the budget is out of control? It’s stabilized since the GOP took the state House. Maybe a GOP Senate, facing Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), would help even more.

4. Will the PERA pension bomb blow us all up? Not if the party less beholden to unions takes charge. (Hint: it doesn’t rhyme with “bureaucrat.”)

5. Why not unlock Colorado’s energy treasures? Conservatives like the job creation, the revenues, and the non-Arab aspect. What’s not to like? Fracking, say liberals, armed with junk science and groundless fears.

6. Any way out of the Obamacare swamp? The whole unpopular PPACA law collapses if states resist the health-insurance exchange provision. Both parties in Colorado have fumbled this, but the GOP more nearly gets it.

7. Who will put students first? Democrats just caved to the Chicago teachers union. Republicans just de-unionized Douglas County schools and passed parental choice.

8. Is armed self-defense still a right? Democrats cite recent mass shootings to urge disarming us through gun bans. Republicans prefer tougher enforcement of existing laws, and polls agree.

9. Will we become the cannabis capital of America? Polls also suggest Amendment 64 may pass. Either way, marijuana is on a roll here. Which party do you trust to put the brakes on?

10. Is freedom of expression and conscience still a right? Muslims, gays, and Obama’s administration advocate speech codes and church-busting mandates. Your General Assembly has a role here too.

America’s going through a rough patch. Our genius for self-correction needs to surge. Decentralized government, responsive human-scale institutions, and reform from the bottom up are a big part of that – which gives us an advantage over ungainly rivals like Europe and China. The 50 state legislatures not only matter. They matter as never before.

When I was a state senator, it was always funny to have someone who should know better ask us how it was going in Congress. Sheesh, we’d say to each other – is the legislature that obscure? But I’m betting that you, a discerning reader of this newspaper, are a cut above. You can prove it on election day by voting smart for state House and Senate.

Tax-hungry Centennial wants it all

Centennial's city council, at its 13 August meeting, authorized a November ballot proposal allowing the city to "retain and spend excess revenues." TABOR, our Taxpayer's Bill of Rights in the Colorado constitution, permits a government to retain a limited amount the prior year's revenue increased by the inflation rate plus the percentage increase in real property valuation. Revenue collected above that threshold must be returned to the taxpayers. About 65% of Centennial's revenue is already exempt from that revenue cap. The remaining 35% is temporarily exempt as well. The exemption expires on 31 December 2013. The city's ballot measure would seek to make that expiring exemption permanent.

Several obvious paths should be considered before voters approve granting the city permanent exemption on all of its revenue.

* While continued economic recession still depresses the city's revenue, voters could approve another temporary waiver. Granted that elections are costly, but the city holds elections every other year anyway for city council members and every fourth year for mayor.

* If the amount to be returned is unreasonably small for the cost and effort needed, voters could allow the city to retain excess revenue until the return amount reached some practical, cost-effective figure.

* Rather than asking permission to retain excess, Centennial could lower its taxes and fees. Thus the city would not have the problem of excess revenue.

Lower taxes and fees would promote economic growth and jobs, thus increasing both the city's revenue and the people's well-being. Even the IRS refunds over-payments.

Mountain man Ryan aims high

(Townhall.com, Aug. 27) Is America in decline? Do we need to lower our expectations, aspire to lead from behind or not at all, and warn the kids of tougher times to come? Or are America’s best days still ahead? This election is not only a referendum on Romney vs. Obama for president and on Republicans vs. Democrats for control of Congress. It’s also a test of the American people’s determination to rise up as free citizens shaping our own destiny – saying no to the defeatism that sees us sliding down and helpless to change it. Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin joining the Republican ticket as Mitt Romney’s running mate is a clear signal that the GOP intends to frame the contest in exactly those terms. It won’t just be a resume runoff between the entrepreneurial executive with “sterling” turn-around skills (to quote Bill Clinton) and the community organizer in over his head.

Ryan’s youthful energy at 42, the intellectual command that has propelled him into House leadership, his steely courage as a truth-teller about our fiscal peril and a pathfinder away from the precipice toward prosperity, as well as his unapologetic faith at a time when religious freedom is under attack, make the vice-presidential nominee a clear asset for Republicans and a feared opponent for Democrats.

Add to this the hard-charging congressman’s love for the Colorado high country – he has climbed 40 of the state’s 54 peaks over 14,000 feet – and you have the most potentially transformative VP selection since President William McKinley put Theodore Roosevelt on the ticket in 1900. (Not the genteel Roosevelt, squire of Hyde Park, but his “strenuous life” cousin who ranched in Dakota and hunted bear in Glenwood Springs.)

Why does it matter that Paul Ryan is a mountain man, at home above timberline on the Fourteeners? Because there is no better index of character. It tells of someone’s backbone under pressure, resourcefulness in facing adversity, and trustworthiness for power. Conservative or liberal isn’t the point. The high peaks simply test your mettle. Declinists and defeatists need not apply. Excuses are for flatlanders.

Describing the summit approach for Capitol Peak near Aspen (14,130’), the Colorado Mountain Club guidebook says with jaunty understatement: “Scramble around a pinnacle or two, stroll along the knife edge,” and you’re there. Ryan told me last week that Capitol and nearby Pyramid Peak (14,018’) are his favorite climbs so far.

Can you imagine Vice President Joe Biden even wanting, let alone being able, to stroll the Capitol knife edge? Or forging to the top of a “very rough and steep” Pyramid with its “precariously poised rocks,” warned of in the same guidebook?

I can’t – and it’s not just that Biden always has one foot in his mouth. Nor is it merely differing leisure preferences: golf greens for the presidential incumbent, boulder fields for the would-be veep. Rather the contrast goes to the core of what the men on these two tickets expect of themselves and what they believe free Americans are capable of.

Can you imagine Barack Obama turning around the Olympics from impending failure or mobilizing the volunteers who rescued a lost girl from the mean streets of New York, as Mitt Romney did? Me neither. The GOP nominee has summited some steep ones of his own.

Self-discipline, surefootedness, stamina, grit, gumption, vision, daring, toughness, prudence, drive, the will to rise, the refusal to quit, team thinking, practical intelligence, joie de vivre, a zest for the difficult and a disdain for the allegedly impossible – these are the mountain-conquering qualities we see literally in Ryan and figuratively in Romney.

“Bring me men to match my mountains,” the opening line of Sam Foss’s 1894 poem “The Coming American,” is a favorite of Romney’s on the stump. In Paul Ryan, he adds to the ticket a man indeed well-matched to the mountainous challenges of our slumping economy and soaring debt – and very likely the coming man for a 2016 Republican recapture of the White House if Democrats prevail in 2012.

Romney’s slip of the tongue in saying “next president of the United States” at his introduction of Ryan on Aug. 11 (oddly, the same slip Obama made at Biden’s debut in 2008) would then have come true.

It was on a climb of Mount Shavano last summer – according to Bill Bennett, Reagan’s education secretary – that Ryan nearly said yes to Bennett’s entreaties for a 2012 presidential candidacy. But the younger man sped on alone to the summit (14,229’) while his onetime boss at Empower America rested a few hundred feet below, and so Bennett (in his words) “lost the argument.”

Speeding to the summit comes naturally to the Wisconsin budgeteer turned mountaineer, it seems. Ryan says his next climbing goal may be the Mount of the Holy Cross west of Vail (14,005’) – and after that, presumably, the hiker’s holy grail of bagging all 54 of Colorado’s Fourteeners.

But none of that will occur this year, of course, as the Romney-Ryan convention is now underway in Tampa and election day races toward us in ten short weeks. What a contest it will be. Between the incumbents running on fear (“They’ll push you off the cliff”) and the challengers running on solutions (“This way to the top”), we face a choice as sharp as the Continental Divide itself.

Unenforceable gun bans solve nothing

Mass killings like the Aurora and the Sikh temple are horrific, but more gun control isn't the answer, says John Andrews in the August round of Head On TV debates. No, objects Susan Barnes-Gelt, it's time to curb the NRA's excessive influence at every level of government. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over foreign policy in the presidential race, big money in politics, Denver's proposed TABOR override, and citizen oversight of the police. Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. Here are all five scripts for August: 1. GUN CONTROL AFTER AURORA

John: Another mass murder, this time at the theater in Aurora, has all of us grieving with the victims and looking for ways to prevent these horrific killings in the future. Better early detection of disturbed individuals is one answer. Banning various types of weapons is not. Colorado has enough gun control.

Susan: It’s disturbing. Though the University of Colorado psychiatrist who was treating the disturbed young man, reported her concerns to the appropriate university committee - they did nothing. Also disturbing - the ability to buy 6000-rounds of ammunition on the internet.

John: This monster – I refuse to say his name – could have taken just as many lives with a few hundred bullets or one bomb. Unenforceable gun bans are not the answer. When a bloodbath like Aurora or Gabby Giffords or the Sikh temple is politicized by liberals with an agenda, it’s doubly tragic.

Susan: Liberals with an agenda? Puleeeze! The NRA owns the United States Congress, every statehouse and city hall in the country – THAT’s political. Only New York Mayor Bloomberg has the courage to say what needs to be said: assault weapons and ammunition are weapons of war. Period. The end.

2. ROMNEY VS OBAMA ON FOREIGN POLICY

John: For most voters, the election is a choice between a president who gave us this lousy economy and a challenger who knows how to fix it. Advantage Romney. But it’s also a choice between the Democrats’ weak approach to Iran, Russia, and China, and the Republicans’ strong approach. Advantage Romney again.

Susan: Romney’s oafish behavior at the Olympics - classic CEO posturing - “my product is better than yours.” And Israel and Poland? Divisive pandering puts the best face on his missteps. Downright stupid may be the better characterization. He isn’t qualified to be commander in chief.

John: No presidential term since Carter has seen such an alarming increase in America’s weakness around the world and vulnerability to our enemies. People sense this, and it’s another reason why Romney will defeat Obama. The incumbent is soft on Iran and Russia, but unfriendly to Britain and Israel. That’s just backwards.

Susan: The cold war is over. The last thing our country needs is an inexperienced, pandering lightweight with no foreign policy experience. Blundering into another unwinnable conflict because an arrogant CEO is trigger happy – will ensure a permanent decline of America’s stature on the world stage.

3. INDEPENDENT MONITOR HIRED FOR DENVER POLICE

John: When most people think of the police, they think of brave public servants who protect us the bad guys. That’s true especially in the inner city for minorities and the poor. Cops aren’t a threat. So the independent monitor for Denver Police is unnecessary, and actually an obstacle to good law enforcement.

Susan: Your rosy description fits 95% of the DPD. Unfortunately, habitual abuse of the rogue 5% combined with lack of objectivity and transparency of the arcane internal review process, demands an independent monitor. Good law enforcement requires accountability - on both sides of the badge.

John: The bad apples are less than 1%, and there’s plenty oversight to deal with those, without the independent monitor nonsense. Look at New York. Tough policing made the city safer for everyone. Race baiting may now undo all that. Let’s not take Denver down that path. Give the new chief a chance.

Susan: Chief White isn’t objecting to an independent monitor. He’s smart enough to recognize that the monitor legitimizes police actions in to a skeptical community. Good cops who play by the rules, understand this, too. Confidence in public officials depends on transparency.   4. PRES POLITICS: TOO MUCH MUD & MONEY?

Susan: The 2012 presidential campaign insults voters on both sides of the aisle. Neither candidate has told me what his vision for the next 4 years includes. $53-millon in dark money - Super PACS with no transparency - dominates the dialogue. Both campaigns are defined by gotcha soundbites. We deserve better.

John: We deserve better from our president than the negativity, divisiveness, and fear-mongering of Obama’s campaign. The truth of his failed policies is so damning that he has to change the subject by lying about Romney. The money being spent is not a big deal. The moral bankruptcy of this White House is.

Susan: I think there’s sufficient moral bankruptcy to go around. Republican Super PAC sugar daddy, Sheldon Adelson – who accompanied Romney to Israel, is accused of laundering millions in Mexican drug money. What’s Romney hiding in his tax returns? Now that’s moral bankruptcy.

John: Romney’s taxes? He absolutely paid them to the tune of $3 million a year, according to ABC News. Adelson’s casino business? What convenient timing for those allegations. This is just Democrats with the usual Chicago thuggery. But Americans aren’t fooled, Susan. Obama is finished.

5. TAX HIKE FOR DENVER?

Susan: Despite a weak economy and barely recovering real estate values, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock want to raise property taxes by removing the constraints of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights for sales and property tax. I’d support the city recovering $68-million to catch up, but not a forever blank check.

John: Voting on tax increases is one of our great advantages in Colorado compared to other states. The people of Denver should vote down Hancock’s revenue grab and tell him to try again on spending cuts. And for you, Susan, I have here a special Olympic medal as a Democrat who supports TABOR.

Susan: I decline the medal. I’m no TABOR fan. Rather my point is, Mayor Hancock has no business asking voters in this very tough economy for a permanent tax increase – with no sunset or accountability. He must identify cost savings, specify extra funds will be spent and sunset the measure to reevaluate.

John: When Hancock took office, I said on this program that Denver needed to become a job-creation magnet for the sake of Colorado’s economy and its own fiscal health. The mayor has not stepped up. But as far as TABOR, you are still my favorite Olympic non-medalist, right up there with Oscar the Blade Runner.

Who says we're free?

(Denver Post, July 22) July 4 has seldom been set up more dramatically for Americans to think hard about freedom, than it was with this year’s Supreme Court ruling on health care the week before. If Congress can compel the behavior of individuals through taxation, what’s really left of our liberty? When you read the decision by Chief Justice John Roberts alongside the Declaration of Independence, it’s striking how different America is today from the time of the founding – not just in the vastly greater size and scope of government, but in people’s demand and tolerance for that massive political presence in our lives. Indeed, the two factors feed on each other in a vicious circle. The Declaration’s brave words about our right to “alter or abolish” an unjust government, about resisting oppression “with manly firmness”, about finding George III “unfit to be the ruler of a free people,” still stir the blood. But realistically, amidst our timid and tepid 2012 notion of what freedom even means, they might as well be runes from Beowulf.

For some of us on the right, who had put too much hope on courts to enforce the Constitution, the June rulings on Obamacare and immigration were an overdue reality check. Self-government in America is too far gone for judges to rescue it, or even harm it much. Constitutional make-believe now prevails in all three branches and at the federal, state, and local levels, top to bottom.

Make no mistake: I’m sorry Arizona’s SB-1070 was not fully upheld and the Affordable Care Act was not struck down. I hope the Colorado Supreme Court rejects the Lobato school finance suit and affirms the Douglas County vouchers. I still believe in judicial term limits, and I’d love to see voters “clear the bench” some year; send’em a message. I hope Romney, not Obama, makes the next SCOTUS appointment.

But if you want this new century to be a time when individual liberty still means something in the United States, and when personal responsibility is honored as liberty’s price, the courts are not the ballgame. Liberty and responsibility must be renewed in the same way they were lost – through values and attitudes, 300 million of us getting the government we deserve. A few black-robed jurists are beside the point.

The independence we celebrate on July 4 “was effected before the war commenced… in the hearts and minds of the people,” wrote John Adams. Well before 1775, Americans had already made a “radical change in (their) principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections.” Our supine acceptance of ever-growing unfreedom and dependency today reflects a radical change BACK, since about 1900.

Likewise, in his famous warning that our government is workable “only for a moral and religious people,” Adams was not speaking from theology, but from the same shrewd psychology as before. Unbridled human passions, he explained, “would break the strongest cords of our (paper) Constitution as a whale goes through a net.” Without a self-reliant and self-assertive, yet self-restrained, citizenry the whole thing would implode.

How close is it to imploding now? Just to ask the question sounds alarmist, I know. Looking around us, stagnant economy and all, we see that life is good. We’re still the land of the free. Summer is on, and gloom is out of season. Besides, in about 100 days we’ll all vote, and the great ritual of settling things by ballots, not bullets, will occur again as so often since 1787.

Land of the free? It depends on your definition. Jefferson and Adams wouldn’t agree. The prophet Samuel warned Israel that the king they wanted would take ten percent of everything. Look what the IRS takes now. Implosion is the wrong metaphor. Think rather of the unsuspecting frog, drowsily boiling in socialist soup. Wake up, froggy.