Update to ‘Both Ways Betsy’ where I criticized Congresswoman Betsy Markey for her latest TV ads.

Referring to the 2008 TARP bailout legislation,  Markey claims in her ad, “Maybe it’s my 20 years as a small-business owner, but these Wall Street bailouts really offend me… No one ever gave me a bailout.”

I reminded readers of the other bailouts that didn’t offend her quite so much because she voted for them. That’s bad enough, but now I find out (courtesy of a reader) that during the 2008 campaign Markey criticized then current Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave for — guess what? That’s right, opposing the TARP bailout — the bailout that she finds so offensive.

In a Wall Street Journal article dated September 24, 2008, Musgrave stood up to the president (and many others in her own party) and opposed TARP. She said at the time:

For years, Americans on Main Street have heard about the lavish excesses of Wall Street. We heard about their mansions, exotic cars and, above all, record profits… Now, the party is over, and the same bankers are asking working families across the country to bear the consequences of their excess and greed. I refuse to burden families already struggling with soaring energy and food prices with bailing out investment banks that made bad decisions.

The WSJ also spoke with Markey who scolded Musgrave, calling her opposition to TARP a “hasty move.”

Ms. Markey called her opponent’s statement a “hasty move” that demonstrated her inability to cooperate on important issues in Washington. ‘A lot of experts are still looking at options, and my opponent has already made up her mind’ she said in an interview Tuesday. Ms. Markey added that, like many in Congress, she wanted changes to the original Treasury Department proposal, such as requiring any rescue bill to include greater market regulation and to protect taxpayer money.

Maybe Markey wouldn’t have voted for the original TARP bailout but not because bailouts “offend” her but because it didn’t go far enough. Let’s send Congresswoman Markey a new pair of flip-flops, she is wearing out her current pair at a rapid pace.

That’s the nickname that my friends at Complete Colorado have hung on freshman Democrat Congresswoman Betsy Markey.  And it seems appropriate. An article from The Hill and featured on Complete Colorado describes Markey’s new ad campaign where she pretends to be offended with congressional approval of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, a.k.a. TARP.  In fact she claims:

Maybe it’s my 20 years as a small-business owner, but these Wall Street bailouts really offend me… No one ever gave me a bailout.

Bailout is just another word for cop-out…And here in Colorado, that’s not how we do business.

Oh please. Does she honestly expect me or any other voter in the 4th CD to believe that she would have stood up to Nancy Pelosi and voted “No”? Since the vote was taken in October 2008, before she was in Congress, there is no way to know how she would have voted. I guess we are supposed to take her at her word. As someone who has kept track of her voting record, I would bet dollars to donuts that Markey, who went against the wishes of her constituents and with Pelosi on Obamacare, cap and trade, card check and the stimulus, would have voted yes.

Markey has yet to prove that she has or can challenge her party’s leadership. She may be a blue dog democrat, but she’s one with all bark and no bite.

Every year I watch the Greeley Stampede Independence Day Parade. Usually, I am half of the broadcast team for 1310 KFKA. This year, Scooter McGee took my place so I could simply enjoy the parade from the comfort of the mobile studio. Because I didn’t have to broadcast, it afforded me the great luxury of observing the crowd as onlookers watched the parade. And as I have done for the last few years, I provide my parade observations:

First, it was held on Saturday, July 3, to accommodate Sunday religious services, which I think is a kind gesture but it’s odd having the 4th of July parade on July 3rd. This really messed up my internal calendar.  Today, feels like Sunday instead of Monday.

Second, it’s still boring. I’ve been critical of the Stampede parade in the past because it is sterile.  A few years ago, the Stampede Committee put a stop to the traditional water gun fights.  They also put a stop to throwing candy and politics.  As a result, the parade is dull and one dimensional.

There is one thing that really struck me — how they received elected officials, candidates for office and their supporters. The reaction seemed to reflect the mood of a country that has little faith in its political institutions as the economy continues to falter.

When the Democrats, including Congresswoman Betsy Markey, Denver Mayor and gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper, and senatorial candidate Andrew Romanoff, passed by my spot, there was no booing, hissing, clapping, cheering or jeering. There was nothing — just erie silence.  The only attention they got was when my colleague George Gray briefly interviewed all three for the parade broadcast.

Last year , Markey was met with silence as well.  But this was different.  It seemed directed at the entire political class. I have no idea if they got the same reception along the rest of the parade route but it was nothing but silence from my position.

In this very conservative community, Republicans didn’t fare much better. There were polite claps but not the usual cheering.

This tells me that candidates, especially incumbents, will have to work a little harder for every vote.  This is a tough crowd.

A little noticed article in the Fort Collins Coloradoan raises some big questions.  The newspaper reports that bills introduced into both the House and Senate would provide tax cuts for small breweries such as the Fort Collins Brewery and New Belgium Brewing Company.  The purpose of both pieces of legislation is too make the breweries more competitive with larger breweries and to create jobs:

Paul Gatza, director of the Boulder-based Brewers Association, said research conducted at Harvard indicates that the bill would create 2,700 jobs in the first 12 to 18 months and an additional 375 for the next four years for the nation’s breweries.

‘A company the size of New Belgium could save around 12 percent on its annual federal excise bill every year,’ Gatza said. ‘For everyone else in the Fort Collins region, it would mean a 50 percent cut on federal excise tax.’

Congresswoman Betsy Markey, whose district includes both the Fort Collins Brewery and New Belgium Brewing Company , is a co-sponsor of the House bill.

Now for the rest of the story…

Does Markey’s support for tax cuts signal a change in economic and political philosophy?  Could the woman who voted yes on Cap and Trade and ObamaCare, two enormous tax increases, suddenly realize that tax cuts actually spur economic activity and create jobs? Color me skeptical.

Or could her support for the tax cuts be for a different purpose?  According to the Federal Election Commission, New Belgium founder Jeff Lebesch and CEO Kim Jordan donated $4800 each to her campaign. I’ll let you decide, but at least now you know the rest of the story.

In video captured by Who Said You Said, Congresswoman Betsy Markey asks “since when did hope and change become a bad thing?”

I’ll answer that. When the national debt exploded and now is over $13 trillion, more than $42,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. And if they have the nerve to be taxpayers, then their share of the debt is more than $117,000. Throw in ObamaCare, “stimulus,” nearly 10 percent unemployment, cash for clunkers, card check,  cap and tax and other reckless spending, and I can honestly say that under this Congress and the Obama administration, hope and change are horrible things.

Taxpayers should write a big thank you note to the members of the Douglas County School Board. They had the nerve to say “NO” to the school bullies that defend the education establishment.

The Douglas County School Board won’t use taxpayer dollars to sue taxpayers for more — you guessed it — taxpayer dollars, according to a story from Face the State. The state’s third largest school district won’t join Greeley Evans District 6, the Poudre School District, and 15 others across the state in the Lobato v. Colorado case, a.k.a. “Lobatomy v. Colorado.”

Despite pressure from the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB), the Douglas County School Board ultimately sided with Attorney General John Suthers who believes this issue should not be litigated but rather legislated.

Our board has taken a look at it, and we feel that the issue involved is properly dealt with by the elected Legislature, and not the courts, said John Carson, president of the Douglas County School Board.

Even without Douglas County, CASB raided taxpayers’ wallets to the tune of nearly $245,000 to litigate this case.

Thanks to my friends at Complete Colorado for pointing me to this story. You can hear either Todd Shepherd and Justin Longo,of Complete Colorado on my show every Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. on 1310 KFKA for a media wrap up including the most over and under reported news stories of each week as well as stories that could only happen in Boulder.

No regular readers or regular listeners can forget what the failure of New Frontier Bank did to our community.  I’ve said repeatedly how much I hate bailouts because government picks winners and losers, and Northern Colorado was slapped with the “loser” label.

A Fox Business report reminds NoCO residents of our “loser” status. Unlike NFB,  ShoreBank, a Chicago area community lender with ties to the Obama administration, will get a bailout rather than a notice of closure. According to Fox, some of the nation’s largest banks, along with the federal government, will pony up hundreds of millions of dollars to rescue ShoreBank. The bailout leaves some wondering if ties to the Obama administration helped secure rescue rather than closure:

The bailout has been controversial. Senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett served on a Chicago civic organization with a director of the bank, and President Obama himself has singled out the bank for praise in lending to low-income communities.

Another hundred million reasons why the federal government disgusts Americans.

I can’t take credit for the title.  It comes from Poudre School Board member Patrick Albright who, along with fellow Director Barbara Schwerin, had the courage to stand up against the prevailing majority that voted to use taxpayer money to fund Lobato v. Colorado, a class action lawsuit to sue taxpayers for more K-12 funding.

In an email to me, Director Albright described how he called out the school board for its hypocrisy.

The school funding system they seek to overturn is codified into law by the school finance act–this year it was HB10-1369. I asked “What did the Board due to oppose this supposedly unconstitutional legislation that you seek to overturn?” Well, here is what the Board did: We paid a lobbyist (Fofi Mendez) to lobby the legislature in favor of, among other things, passage of HB10-1369.

I asked them “Do we really want to spend taxpayer money to fund a lawsuit to overturn an act that we spent taxpayer money to lobby in favor of?”

The answer?

Yes.

Despite having eliminated 139 full-time employees and offered early retirement to another 63 in order to cover a $12 million budget shortfall, the PSD board decided to give $25,000 to the cause of suing parents and taxpayers in Colorado.

In addition to the cost, Albright cited his concern of an unelected judiciary deciding “adequate” K-12 education funding and the lawsuit’s “unspoken” purpose to further weaken the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

Director Jim Hayes won’t lose any sleep over destroying the only line of defense between parents’ pocketbooks and the education lobby. Albright provided what he called the “quote of the evening.” After Albright defended TABOR, Hayes explained how the voters were duped into voting for it:

You say the public has spoken. Well, I disagree. I think the public is naive and easily swayed and the money has spoken.

Poudre School District residents can take some comfort in knowing they aren’t alone.  While crying poverty, the school bullies in Greeley Evans School District 6 voted to do the same thing with nearly $18,000 of parents’ and taxpayers’ money.

The article below is from my friend Nancy Rumfelt who witnessed the assault on the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.  There is a feeling that this is the progressive left’s last hurrah so their coalition is trying to ram through the legislature as much as possible and HCR 10-1002 is no exception.

HCR10-1002 is Educational Trojan Horse for TABOR

Today at the Capital was a hearing on house bill HCR10-1002 which if passed will ask voters in November to decide if TABOR should be thrown under the school bus so the legislature can be given all power, responsibility and authority to raise revenue (taxes) to fund education without any further voter approval.

If voters pass in November, the bill will allow the legislature to raise revenue for education that will not be subject to voter approval, any spending limits and can be used for anything labeled education. There are no safeguards in the bill that will prevent any future legislature from going on a spending spree and saying: “oops no money left for the children – guess we will have to raise taxes to buy the lil urchins some school books”. This makes as much sense as when President Obama said we have to spend more to reduce our debt!

I listened to three hours of testimony at the Capital today most of which was in support of this bill and the supporters truly believe that government is here to help and that education will NEVER have cuts again. I am a person who does try to understand differing positions but today even after 3 hours of listening to “their side” I could not find logic to support their beliefs.

There was much talk of needing to invest in education but no one could define invest in what or invest how much, we just need to invest lots of money and passing this measure means education will never do without ever again. I would like to applaud Rep. Frank McNulty who tried several times to get someone, anyone to explain, what is an adequate level of funding for education but no one could answer. When Rep. McNulty pointed out that legislators are expected to know what is adequate you could almost hear everyone’s thoughts of: “well duh you are the all knowing all powerful legislator Gods that takes care of us”.

As a Mom of two beautiful teenage girls, I understand parents wanting the best for their kid’s education but what I don’t understand is bankrupting their kid’s future. The desire to fund education and to never have to worry about money again blinds them all to the true nature of this bill which is to annihilate TABOR. It is naïve to believe that government will not mismanage general funds and then use education as a justification for raising taxes to back fill the deficit created. Supporters of this measure lament that Colorado has one of the strictest revenue limits in the country without understanding that TABOR is what has stopped the state from becoming the next California, New York, New Jersey and so one.

All one has to do is look to Amendment 23, Ref C, Mill Levy Freeze, Vehicle Tax and know that it is never a good idea to give the government a blank check without requiring the taxpayers to be a co-signer on the account! The government whether state or federal is like the space creature from the classic movie The Blob – whatever it consumes it destroys and the more it consumes the larger it becomes until nothing is left.

Where is Steve McQueen when you need him?

Nancy Rumfelt

Co-Founder Loveland 912 Project & Accidental Activist

The resolution passed out of the House Education Committee along a party line vote.  It faces a tougher vote in the full House where it needs two-thirds support to pass.

If you are wondering how much this will cost Colorado families, that’s a good question.  No one knows because no one knows how much the legislature would raise taxes. The fiscal note reads “unknown increase.”   Make no mistake, this would mean a lot more money from taxpayers’ pockets.  And it  would give the Colorado Education Association, the teachers union, enormous power to raise taxes for members’ benefit.  A recent Denver Post editorial warned of the union’s power to persuade.

The teachers union has far more influence with lawmakers, many of whom depend upon the CEA’s support and manpower during election season.

HCR10-1002 is not for the children, it’s for the school bullies who profit at the expense of our children.  Like Nancy Rumfelt, I’m a mom who is sick of my children being exploited as cash cows for K-12.