BackboneAmerica

I’m a no-vote on Prop 103, and so should you be. The ballot issue raising Colorado’s income tax rate and sales tax rate (more…)

Despite the wrong-headed Colorado statute barring party affiliations from the ballot in local elections, we all know it matters a lot (more…)

Obama’s class warfare theme, learned from Alinsky and abetted by the Occupy Wall Street movement, won’t save him in 2012, says John Andrews in the October round of Head On TV debates. Don’t underestimate its Main Street appeal, replies Susan Barnes-Gelt. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)

(Denver Post, Sept. 25) Why are the Democrats so afraid of democracy? Do they worry that the will of the people won’t go their way? So it would seem. Several Colorado court cases illustrate the pattern. The Fenster suit to annul the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the Lobato suit to increase education spending, and the ACLU suit to block school choice in Douglas County, all ask unelected judges (more…)

John Hickenlooper needs to accomplish a thing or two as governor before floating his 2016 trial balloon for president, scoffs John Andrews in the September round of Head On TV debates. Why not, replies Susan Barnes-Gelt, since America loves quirky, and Hick is quirk personified. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)

(Denver Post, Aug. 28) I wish Tom Tancredo was Governor of Colorado. I wish Scott McInnis was. Heck, I wish the ill-starred Dan Maes was governor. Any Republican, any conservative, rather than the limousine liberal Democrat we’re stuck with, John Hickenlooper. Whence these idle fantasies? Not heat stroke from recent egg-frying (more…)

Coloradans had better brace to fend off the same bad idea as President Obama wants to impose nationally: higher taxes, warns John Andrews in the August round of Head On TV debates. No, replies Susan Barnes-Gelt, the idea is a good one and indeed doesn’t go far enough. John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month (more…)

(Denver Post, July 24) Will Barack Obama go the way of Jimmy Carter, and lose reelection after demonstrating weak leadership in a troubled economy? One Coloradan with a keen nose for the political wind signaled last week that he thinks it might happen. Gov. John Hickenlooper told a reporter the president would “have a hard time” carrying our state right now, because “there’s such dissatisfaction over people who have been out of work” (more…)

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…)