May 28, 2025 11:04 AM UTC

Get More Smarter Roundup for Wednesday (May 28)

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado Rockies have three more chances in May to get to 10 wins for the season; the Rockies are on track to become the losingest team in the history of Major League Baseball. Let’s Get More Smarter! 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 an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast.

Warm Up Those Brains…

► Congressman Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd (R-Grand Junction) is back in Colorado after voting last week for a House Republican budget bill that will decimate Medicaid, SNAP, and a whole bunch of other programs in order to cut taxes for rich people. After once claiming to be opposed to gutting Medicaid, Hurd is now working hard at spin-spinning his way into an explanation for his ‘YES’ vote. Much of what Hurd told Nathan Deal of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel is complete nonsense, including this preposterous response:

Sentinel: What else about this bill stands out to you?

Hurd: The bill that we passed is an important part of delivering on the promises I made when I was campaigning: securing the border, saving hard-working families more of their own tax dollars, lowering the costs of gas and groceries and utility bills…

Whaaaa??? This legislation does no more to lower the price of gas and groceries than it does to award a free pony to every American.

Democrats, meanwhile, are launching digital ads in 26 congressional districts across the country hitting Republicans for supporting massive cuts to Medicaid.

► The Washington Post reports on short-lived discussions in the Republican House to actually raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. 

House Republicans rejected a push by some allies of President Donald Trump to include tax hikes on the rich in sweeping legislation they passed last week — a decision that could carry repercussions into next year’s elections.

The legislation House Republicans approved last week extends tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017, cutting rates across income groups, including large benefits for the Americans who pay the highest share of federal income tax — those in the top 5 percent of the income distribution. The measure excluded a “millionaire tax,” and other proposals to raise taxes on top earners pitched by Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s first-term chief strategist, and other allies of the president. The Senate could make further changes, but Republicans in the upper chamber are expected to prove even less likely to back higher taxes on the top income bracket, several analysts said.

The issue may help define the upcoming battle over the GOP’s key legislative achievement ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. While Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) told reporters last week that Trump is still pushing legislation to raise taxes on private-equity groups, the GOP is poised to largely reprise the strategy of its 2017 tax bill, which the party struggled at times to sell to voters the following year. Democrats attacked that legislation as skewed for the rich — and won control of the House in 2018 — but efforts to reorient the GOP around a more populist policy program this year appear to be stalling.

But at least Grover Norquist is sated.

► So much for Rep. Gabe Evans’ claim that deportations would target “gangsters, not grandmas”:

Here’s that story.

► New seasonal forecasts from NOAA predict that it’s going to be hot as shit in Colorado this summer. Note: “Hot as shit” is not a technical term.

As for today, watch out for more thunderstorms and the potential for severe hail in southeastern Colorado.

Click below to keep learning things…

Get Extra Smarterer…

► With freshman Congressman Gabe Evans (R-Fort Lupton) looking like a one-termer, Democrats are rushing to run against him…which is changing the political board down-ballot.

► Olivia Prentzel of The Colorado Sun looks at opposition to efforts to build a new gigantic gas station called Buc-ee’s between Denver and Colorado Springs.

► Jesse Paul of The Colorado Sun details some interesting takeaways from a discussion with Attorney General Phil Weiser.

► Lindsey Toomer of Colorado Newsline has the latest story about Colorado businesses struggling due to President Trump’s nonsensical Tariff War:

Colorado small businesses from various sectors have made changes to their operations and even lost customers as a result of uncertainty around Trump administration tariffs.

Grady Cope, CEO of Reata Engineering and Machine Works, a Colorado-based manufacturing company, said his company spent most of last year working to bring a Canadian customer on board. But in February, that customer said it would stop working with Reata because it was their only U.S.-based vendor, and “our people would just be really upset if we were buying from a U.S. vendor.”

“So they’re gone after a year’s worth of work,” Cope said at a press conference Tuesday with U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and other small business leaders.

► Bill Scher of Washington Monthly takes down the Republican canard of claiming to be cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse”:

The Medicaid work requirements may have a more severe impact than CBO projects. An analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, based on the results of a similar work requirement policy implemented in Arkansas, concluded, “9.7 million to 14.4 million people at risk of losing Medicaid coverage,” in part because “requirements frequently end up pushing eligible people off Medicaid because they don’t receive or submit the necessary paperwork, or because the state fails to process the paperwork.”

It gets worse. On top of the 7.7 million estimate, CBO projects another 900,000 will lose coverage from restrictive rule changes to the Affordable Care Act in the One Big Beautiful Bill. (And the total dollar figure of health coverage spending cuts from both Medicaid and ACA is $912 billion.) …

…Remember when people lost their minds over Barack Obama saying, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan,” because that didn’t mention how higher minimum requirements for health insurance plans would impact plan availability? Today, you have top Republicans claiming their health policy changes will only curtail “waste, fraud, abuse” when, in fact, they would take away Medicaid eligibility, make it harder for those eligible to access Medicaid benefits and take away tax credits millions use to obtain private coverage.  [Pols emphasis]

► Elon Musk says he is “disappointed” in the “big, beautiful bill” that House Republicans passed last week. So, there’s that.

► Sam Brasch of Colorado Public Radio reports on struggles by environmental justice groups to keep their doors open amid federal funding cuts.

► As Jessica Seaman of The Denver Post reports, education funding in Colorado next year has been set at $10 billion. Individual school districts will receive the same or more money than they did in the 2024-25 school year.

► Eli Stokols of POLITICO reports that President Trump is losing patience with his good buddy, Russian President Vladimir Putin:

Trump on Tuesday signaled that his patience with Vladimir Putin is running thin, warning the Russian leader that he is “playing with fire” by refusing to engage in serious peace talks about ending the war in Ukraine.

But Trump, frustrated that Putin has shrugged at his offer to reset relations with the U.S. following a peace settlement, still hasn’t decided to shift gears.

Meanwhile, Russian state media is laughing at Trump for his toothless fist-shaking:

Russian state media mocks Trump’s post.

[image or embed]

— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) May 27, 2025 at 10:51 AM

► Colorado abortion clinics are seeing a rise in protesters and trespassing since the 2024 election.

► Mike Littwin of The Colorado Sun digs into President Trump’s war on smart people. 

► Two students from Colorado are still in the running for the top prize at the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Say What, Now?

D’oh!

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► A proposal backed by Gov. Jared Polis to build a fancy pedestrian bridge from the State Capitol to Lincoln Veterans Park is running into opposition. 

► This thread from Caitlyn Kim of Colorado Public Radio is worth a read:

ICYMI

► Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr is making major changes on COVID vaccination recommendations. From The Washington Post:

Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that his agency would no longer recommend the coronavirus vaccine for healthy pregnant women and healthy children — a rare move that bypasses the traditional system of vaccine recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a 58-second video posted on X, Kennedy said the vaccine had been removed from the CDC’s immunization schedule for those two groups of people.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to announce that as of today the covid vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule,” Kennedy said. “Last year the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another covid shot despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children.”

Currently, the CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older receive the coronavirus vaccine annually.

► New polling data from Navigator Research should come as no surprise:

► Check out the latest episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast while you’re reading: