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 (more…)
By John Andrews
Will the USA be around to celebrate 2076? Or will America’s goodness and glory be but a sad memory to our grandchildren? Historians warn that great nations undo themselves with moral and fiscal laxity after about 250 years. My new book, Responsibility Reborn: A Citizen’s Guide to the Next American Century, looks at our chances (more…)
(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. (more…)
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 (more…)
Memo to: Justice Anthony Kennedy
From: 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, (more…)
Paul Ryan’s bold approach to federal deficits and debt will backfire, predicts Susan Barnes-Gelt in the May round of Head On TV debates. Not hardly, replies John Andrews; President Obama left a leadership vacuum on the fiscal debacle, and this lowly congressman has filled it. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)
(Denver Post, April 24) “To the Colorado renaissance.” That’s the oilman’s toast to the steelmaker and the railroad mogul in the new film version of “Atlas Shrugged.” As Ayn Rand’s epic novel of capitalism finally comes to the screen, more timely now than when she wrote it in 1957, our state has a starring role. You never saw the aspens so golden, (more…)
(Denver Post, March 27) A useful new verb was coined the other day when Republicans joined Democrats to propose higher pension contributions by public employees and a union boss called it a “blatant attempt to Wisconsinize the Colorado budget process.” What a great idea, thought many a tired and worried taxpayer. Wisconsinize away, legislators – what took you so long?
Statewide unemployment is record-awful, and metro Denver unemployment worse still. Why shouldn’t these job-secure teachers and state workers kick in a little more (more…)
Taxes in Colorado at this time of record unemployment should be reduced, not increased, says John Andrews in the March round of Head On TV debates. Maybe you’d prefer no taxes at all, replies Susan Barnes-Gelt satirically. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)
(Denver Post, Feb. 27) So Facebook brought down the Egyptian regime. Until now, the only thing I knew it had brought down was my productivity – and that of many other Republicans old enough to know better, after we all stampeded there upon hearing how Democrats rode it to victory in 2008. Obama in, Mubarak out, Zuckerberg to megawealth, and “Social Network” to the Oscars. Such is the Facebook scorecard so far, and there is 90% of the human race yet to be tapped – er, “friended.” Well, call me a dinosaur, but I still believe the front line of self-government in a free society is citizens reading newspapers. (more…)
Activist courts are at it again, this time siding with the right to strike down Obamacare, says Susan Barnes-Gelt in the February round of Head On TV debates. No, says John Andrews, Judge Vinson ruled as the founding fathers would have, and the Supreme Court may well agree with him. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)
(Denver Post, Jan. 23) The indignation was feverish. Teacher-union partisans trembled. Elaine Berman, a State Board of Education member from Denver, boycotted. Mary Johnson, an education consultant from Colorado Springs, raged. “A person known for nearly total lack of support for public education” was “bamboozling” Coloradans. The miscreant was William Moloney, our state’s past Education Commissioner (more…)
The assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is proof we need more gun control, says Susan Barnes-Gelt in the January round of Head On TV debates. Wrong, says John Andrews: gun rights enhance public safety, and the liberties of all shouldn’t be curtailed to deter a few lunatics. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)
Republicans in the state Senate and House huddled with Tea Party leaders on Jan. 6, just hours after my column (more…)
(Denver Post, Jan. 9) “Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish, I wish he’d go away.” The little poem from a century ago should haunt Colorado’s new governor and legislature as they climb the Capitol steps and set to work this week. John Hickenlooper is shrewdly adding Republicans as well as fellow Democrats to his cabinet, but no one has been appointed from the Tea Party. Speaker Frank McNulty, reclaiming a GOP majority (more…)