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December 09, 2016 11:43 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (December 9)

  • 1 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

You basically have about two weeks to finish your Christmas shopping. 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…

► President-elect Donald Trump’s approval rating a few weeks before Inauguration Day is historically bad. From CNN:

Americans say Trump has also done too little to distance himself from white supremacists. And a majority are concerned that his business ties will present conflicts.

As Trump prepares to take office, 41% say they approve of the job he has done explaining his plans and policies for the future of the American people, while 55% say they disapprove of the job Trump has done.

That 41% approval rating is lower than President Barack Obama’s 72% in December 2008 and President George W. Bush’s 50% in January 2001 — in the wake of a disputed election. It’s also lower than President Bill Clinton’s 62% in January 1993 and President George H.W. Bush’s 65% in March 1989.

That 41% is most definitely not a Yuge number.

 

► As Greg Sargent writes for the Washington Post, many high-profile Republicans seem to be grappling with the reality of the hypocrisy of their own Party:

The other day, president-elect Donald Trump cheerfully urinated all over an idea that Tea Partyers have long held aloft as one of their most sacred founding principles. “Sometimes you have to prime the pump,” Trump told Time Magazine, explaining why he wants a big infrastructure spending package — the sort of Keynesian economic spending policy that Tea Partyers regularly denounced as a dire threat to the republic throughout the Obama years.

As Time put it, Trump “has little patience for the organizing principle of the Tea Party: the idea that the federal government must live within its means and lower its debts.”

Today Politico reports that some congressional Republicans are suddenly deciding that this alleged organizing principle isn’t so hallowed, after all. Politico quotes multiple Republicans either embracing Trump’s infrastructure spending idea in principle or going through laughable contortions to avoid directly denouncing it. One comes out squarely for a “federal commitment” to spending on “world-class infrastructure.” Another actually uses the dreaded S-word — stimulus — arguing that it would “make sense” to “examine” how to do some projects “through a stimulus and infrastructure package.”

For more, check out the full story from Politico.

 

► No Cabinet position for you! Sorry, Bob Beauprez — President-elect Trump has selected Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to lead the Interior Department.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is really hoping that the incoming Trump administration doesn’t make things to complicated for Colorado in regards to legal marijuana.

 

► That Electoral College challenge spearheaded by a few Coloradans is running out of steam.

 

► President-elect Donald Trump plans to remain an executive producer of “The Celebrity Apprentice,” because he needs a hobby or something. No, seriously, that’s really the explanation from Trumpland.

 

► The debacle-to-come that could see Congressional Republicans axing Obamacare without presenting a replacement is getting sillier and sillier by the day. From Politico:

The already fragile Obamacare markets — beset by soaring premiums and fleeing insurers — are likely to collapse unless Republicans take deliberate steps to stabilize them while they build consensus on a replacement plan, say health care experts. That could lead to a mess for the roughly 10 million Americans currently getting coverage through the government-run marketplaces — and backlash against the GOP.

“It’s basically a hostage situation,” said Jeff Goldsmith, a veteran health care consultant. “They’re going to have to negotiate something that is safe enough for these insurance companies to tell their boards, ‘We’re not going to get hung out to dry if we provide coverage to these people.’”

But the enticements most likely to keep insurers in the exchanges are the ones in Obamacare that Republicans spent years denouncing as industry “bailouts” — subsidies that were supposed to insulate plans from big losses.

Whether Republicans are willing to pay for that, or some other sweetener, simply to preserve the exchanges for another few years is a political conundrum that could blow up in their faces if they play it wrong.

They are already playing it wrong.

 

► President-elect Donald Trump is taking a softer tone toward illegal immigrants in the United States. Republicans are not happy, but some — like Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) — just continue to say meaningless words. From Salon:

Donald Trump’s new promise to “work something out” for young immigrants is dividing fellow Republicans, underscoring how difficult it will be for Congress to take any action on immigration, whether it’s building a wall or dealing with immigrant youths.

During the campaign Trump pledged to “immediately terminate” President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration, including the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, which has extended work permits and temporary deportation relief to more than 700,000 immigrants brought illegally to this country as youths.

But in an interview in Time magazine, Trump adopted a far more sympathetic tone toward the young immigrants known to their supporters as “Dreamers.”…

“I can tell you I’m very relieved at his comments today and I think folks back home in my district and across the country are going to be very relieved as well,” said Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colorado. “Obviously Dreamers is one part of the equation, I clearly hope we do more. But I think that’s got to be the top priority.” [Pols emphasis]

To paraphrase, here’s what Coffman really means: I’m glad that Donald Trump has to deal with this problem so that I don’t have to pick a side.

 

► Of course he did.

 

► Congress is paving the way for new development near the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.

 

► Despite what you see in those happy-go-lucky pro-fracking commercials, people who live near oil and gas drilling areas don’t really want this happening nearby. From the Boulder Daily Camera:

Broomfield is taking another shot at imposing a moratorium on oil and gas development — this time one significantly shorter than the one invalidated earlier this year after the Colorado Supreme Court struck down bans in Longmont and Fort Collins.

The City Council this week took the first step, to vociferous applause and a standing ovation, in approving a temporary moratorium that would halt any new oil and gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing and processing applications until June.

Between 350 to 400 Broomfield residents filled the 120 seats at the council chambers Tuesday night, lined all three walls of the room and spilled into the lobby, where chairs were brought out to accommodate the crowd.

A public hearing and a second reading of the ordinance will take place Jan. 10. At that time, the council could pass the ordinance, which would halt oil and gas activity until June 13 and give Broomfield, and its residents, time to review regulations the local government could impose and speak to state legislators about oil and gas laws.

 

► As the Colorado Springs Independent reminds us, elections for the Colorado Springs City Council are just a few months away.

 

► President Obama wants to know what role Russia may have played in influencing the 2016 election in the U.S.

 

► Republican Nic Morse floats his name for State Treasurer, and Colorado Springs Gazette reporter Joey Bunch dutifully responds. We took a look at Morse’s campaign finance reports from his 2016 run against Rep. Jared Polis, and we found some odd things.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► A $375 million school bond proposal has prevailed in the Poudre School District after a close recount.

 

► R.I.P., John Glenn.

ICYMI

► Of course, Colorado Pols readers already knew this. 

 

Don’t forget to check out The Get More Smarter Show. You can also Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!

Comments

One thought on “Get More Smarter on Friday (December 9)

  1. Repeal on Day 1? Would you believe 3 years if all goes well? Then it will be almost identical to what we have today, only with a different name. As House Majority Leader McCarthy is finding out: words matter. Those 63 repeal votes look a little silly right now: (equally as applicable to our junior senator. When I wrote this in ’13 he had only 37 repeal votes under his belt)

    On Obamacare repeal, GOP ideology is colliding with reality

    California reports more than 1.2 million subsidized insurance buyers, receiving an average $309 a month, or $4.6 billion a year. Reliance on these subsidies is especially heavy in counties such as Kern, where 93% of the 17,900 enrollees receive subsidies averaging $447 per month, and Tulare, where 96% of the 10,880 enrollees are subsidized to the tune of $592 per month. These happen to be in the congressional district of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, one of the leaders of the Obamacare repeal movement.

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