January 12, 2017 11:00 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (January 12)

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• by: Colorado Pols

The State of the State is…pretty good, we guess. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Congress took a step closer to repealing Obamacare late Wednesday evening/Thursday morning, though Republicans are still fighting about whether anybody actually has a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act with something else. Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) was tracked down by Grey DC and promised that Republicans will definitely have a plan for replacing Obamacare. That’s the plan, anyway:

 “When it’s repealed it will be replaced there is no doubt it will be replaced with an idea that is better than the disastrous results of Obama care,” Gardner (R-CO) said.

Uh, yeah. How about giving the rest of us some actual details about this big plan, eh Sen. Gardner?

► Governor John Hickenlooper delivers his State of the State address today with an eye toward securing his legacy. From John Frank at the Denver Post:

The Democrat’s list of accomplishments is lengthy, but many of his biggest challenges remain — notably how to address what he calls the state’s “fiscal thicket” of spending rules tied to TABOR, an issue he identified in his first address after being re-elected.

Other unfinished business includes implementation of a generational water management plan, a tax hike to improve the state’s roads and transit, a crackdown on the illegal marijuana market and a push to reduce homelessness — one of the issues that led him to public office 13 years ago.

His 11 a.m. speech to a joint session of the General Assembly will diverge in tone from a year ago, when he peppered his remarks with a pop-culture montage and basked in the glow of a new marriage. Instead, he will focus more soberly on the challenges ahead and the need to tackle the most complicated political questions.

► Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was less than thrilled with some of the answers provided Wednesday by Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State. As Politico reports:

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is narrowly divided, with the GOP holding just a one-seat advantage. And most Democrats, if not all, sounded skeptical about Tillerson’s performance before the panel. So Rubio may determine whether Tillerson’s nomination can successfully win committee approval — or come to a floor vote after being given an “unfavorable” recommendation by the panel.

On Wednesday during multiple rounds of questioning, Tillerson largely failed to satisfy Rubio’s obvious desire for tough talk on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte and Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women. Tillerson, the former chief executive at oil giant ExxonMobil, wouldn’t call Putin a “war criminal,” or criticize reports of extrajudicial killings by Duterte’s police forces, leading a seemingly exasperated Rubio to repeatedly ask Tillerson what it would take for him to do so.

The clashes forced Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) to step in several times, in an effort to get Tillerson to clarify that if he had access to classified information detailing atrocities by Putin or Duterte he would endorse Rubio’s critiques. And remarkably, at one point Tillerson protested that he and Rubio had gotten off on the wrong foot and insisted they share the same values.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► House Democrats are angry at retired Gen. James Mattis after Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense abruptly cancelled a scheduled meeting today with the House Armed Services Committee. As CNN reports, Mattis’ last-minute change could be a real problem in regards to securing his confirmation for the job:

The move is triggering a backlash from top House Democrats who say without hearing directly from Mattis they will oppose legislation paving the way for his confirmation.

“The Republicans have been spending eight years complaining about the executive branch usurping legislative branch power and here’s their first move from the new administration is to ignore us on something,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, the top Democrat on the panel told reporters Wednesday.

Smith added, “This is a law. We have to pass it and we want to hear from him and if we don’t we are going to vote no.”

► D’oh! Donald Trump’s choice for CIA Director, Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, apparently agrees with intelligence reports that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. From the Washington Post:

Pompeo’s confirmation hearing comes on the heels of the president-elect launching another broadside at the intelligence community, dismissing as “nonsense” a classified report summarizing allegations that Russia had gathered damaging personal information about him. Trump suggested that intelligence officials might have deliberately leaked the uncorroborated report to smear him, adding: “That’s something Nazi Germany would have done.”

Pompeo told senators that he considered the intelligence community’s report on Russia to be “sound” as an analytical product.

“It’s pretty clear about what took place about Russian involvement in efforts to hack information,” Pompeo continued, saying he was “very clear-eyed” about the intelligence report’s findings, and promising to relay his take “not only to the president, but to the team around him.”

Pompeo also said on Thursday that he would refuse any potential orders from Trump to deploy enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding.

► Colorado’s two U.S. Senators disagree on the timeframe for confirming appointees in Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

► Coloradans are keeping a close eye on confirmation hearings for Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Sessions has been relatively vague thus far as to whether or not he would try to disrupt the legal marijuana industry in our state (and elsewhere).

► Donald Trump finally held a press conference on Wednesday, and it didn’t go particularly well.

Elsewhere, Trump cost biotech investors a hefty sum after publicly criticizing drugmakers for manufacturing drugs outside of the U.S. and for charging excessive prices for certain medications.

► Republican legislator Tim Leonard (R-Evergreen) has hired former Jefferson County School Board member John Newkirk as his legislative aide. No, this is not a good idea.

► Democrat Crisanta Duran officially became Colorado’s first Latina Speaker of the House on Wednesday. The Colorado Independent has more from Day One of the 2017 legislative session.

Legislation targeting Colorado’s health insurance exchange as well as proposals for construction defects reforms highlight some of the early activity at the State Capitol.

► Democrats officially took over control of the State Board of Education on Wednesday for the first time in decades. Boulder Democrat Angelika Schroeder was unanimously chosen as Board Chair.

► Broomfield has postponed a planned vote on creating a six-month moratorium on oil and gas drilling. 

► Debate is heating up in Denver over extending hours of operations for marijuana dispensaries in the city. As Jon Murray writes for the Denver Post:

Advocates point to late-night closing times in all neighboring cities that permit recreational marijuana sales — up to midnight in Glendale and Edgewater — and appeal to customer convenience and lost revenue when customers cross city lines to buy weed at night.

“We are closing our doors at the point at which LoHi is heating up, and it is devastating to us,” Simply Pure co-owner Wanda James told council members at a meeting this week. “It’s confusing to me why Denver would want me to give all of that money to Edgewater,” she added, also nodding to sales tax proceeds the city might be forgoing.

“I would like to keep more money, and I would like you guys to keep more money, so help me help you keep more money,” she said, sparking applause from other supporters.

Longer hours have been on many dispensary owners’ wish lists since before the 2015 municipal election, when industry representatives engaged candidates.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► U.S. troops hailing from Fort Carson have entered Poland as part of a plan to poke Russia in the ribs. 

► The Denver Nuggets are in London today for a game against the Indiana Pacers as part of the NBA’s efforts to expand its outreach beyond the U.S.

ICYMI

► The Denver Broncos have a new head coach, and it’s a familiar name: Former University of Colorado player Vance Joseph.

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