January 19, 2017 10:36 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (January 19)

• 11 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

It’s your last night in the White House, so you know what that means…who is picking up the keg? 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…

► Congressional Republicans continue to push ahead in trying to repeal (and possibly replace, maybe) Obamacare despite the fact that public opinion polls regularly show rising support for the Affordable Care Act. As the Washington Post reports, this has led to a political strategy whereby GOP elected officials go out of their way to avoid talking about the issue to other people:

After Sen. Thom Tillis said he would be talking to constituents live on Facebook Wednesday, more than 200 people submitted questions — many of them pointed queries about his views on health care.

While Tillis’s office had advertised a 30-minute event, the senator ultimately appeared on camera for 11 minutes, answering eight questions read to him by a staff member…

…Tillis did not acknowledge any of the follow-up questions that popped up in the comments alongside his video, including requests for more details on the GOP replacement plan. But he did avoid the sort of viral spectacle that many of his fellow lawmakers have encountered over the past week as the debate over repealing the Affordable Care Act got underway in Washington…

…Seven years after unruly Democratic town halls helped stoke public outrage over the Affordable Care Act, Republicans now appear keen to avoid the kind of dust-ups capable of racking up millions of views on YouTube and ending up in a 2018 campaign commercial. Only a handful of GOP lawmakers have held or are planning to host in-person town hall meetings open to all comers — the sort of large-scale events that helped feed the original Obamacare backlash in the summer of 2009.

There is definitely a very good plan somewhere, so don’t you worry about that. Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) wouldn’t lie to you, now would he? Jason Salzman calls on Colorado media outlets to be specific in their questions for Republicans about actual replacement specifics.

► Congressman Tom Price, Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, took a heavy grilling on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in his first batch of Senate confirmation hearings — with a good deal of discussion focused on Obamacare and the mythical Republican “replacement plan.” Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Denver) sounded fed up with this vacant talk of a replacement plan and absolutely went off on Price.

► If you are planning on attending the “Women’s March” in Denver on Saturday, the Denver Post has some suggestions for navigating the event. More than 40,000 people are expected to descend on Civic Center Park on Saturday morning.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, probably couldn’t have performed much worse in her first Senate confirmation hearings. The under-prepared DeVos made a strong case for rejecting her nomination by failing to respond to some pretty obvious questions.

► Sorry, ladies, but you can keep your glass slippers at home; there’s no prince to be found at this ball.

► Donald Trump likes books, okay? YUGE fan of books.

“I like a lot of books. I like reading books.”

Pick a book — any book — and Trump will read some of it right now!

► Jefferson County activists are celebrating an apparent victory in preventing rezoning of “Dinosaur Ridge” in order to make room for more car dealerships. As John Aguilar reports for the Denver Post:

After a hearing that clocked in at more than 11 hours, Jefferson County commissioners voted to kill a controversial plan that would have placed up to four car dealerships in the shadow of a nationally recognized treasure trove of dinosaur bones and tracks in what had become a highly contested rezoning fight near Dinosaur Ridge.

The 2-1 vote was greeted with disappointment from Greg Stevinson, a partner in Three Dinos LLC and co-owner of the site under consideration at the northwest corner of West Alameda Parkway and C-470 in rugged Rooney Valley. He said he had worked on his rezoning request with the county for more than a year and felt he had made enough concessions on lighting and landscaping that it would be seen as a win-win.

But all day Tuesday, dozens of residents in west Jefferson County decried the concept of 28 acres of car dealerships in an area that is quickly disappearing in fast-growing metro Denver: a place with truly dark night skies.

We have no doubt that there are plenty of good potential locations for new car dealerships that don’t also happen to home to a trove of dinosaur bones and fossils.

► Donald Trump officially becomes the 45th President of the United States on Friday, but he may not be able to roll out any of those “first day in office” promises from the 2016 campaign trail. From the Washington Post:

In rally after rally, and speech upon speech, Donald Trump built a verbal skyscraper of campaign promises about what he would do on his first day in the White House.

Begin building a wall at the nation’s southern border. End the “war on coal.” Label China a currency manipulator. The list went on and on.

But now, as Trump prepares to take the oath of office Friday, his Day One executive actions and policy plans are a closely held secret, another prop in the Donald Trump show waiting to be unveiled with his trademark flourish and fanfare. And, his aides are playing down how much will be done during that first day, while also sending conflicting signals about whether the real work of governing will begin Friday, when Trump officially becomes president, or Monday, his first full workday in the White House.

In fairness to Trump, we imagine it would be difficult to come down from the high of a “3 Doors Down” concert.

► There will be few, if any, “winners” if Congressional Republicans succeed in repealing Obamacare. The “losers,” on the other hand, won’t be hard to find. From the Denver Post:

Hospitals across the state could be forced to cut back services or even close if the Affordable Care Act is repealed without an adequate replacement, several health care executives in Colorado warned on Wednesday.

A hospital in the San Luis Valley, for instance, may not be able to maintain a level of care that means patients currently don’t have to leave the valley for chemotherapy or to have surgery on broken bones, its CEO said. A hospital in Delta County — already with a profit margin only in the low single digits — could see its revenue dip dangerously close to the red, its CEO said.

Across Colorado, as many as eight hospitals “could have sustainability problems” if the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is repealed without a similar replacement, said Steven Summer, the president and CEO of the Colorado Hospital Association.

“Our concern,” Summer said, “is it will create considerable disruption in the community and put at risk care throughout the state.”

► Both former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara Bush, are recovering from recent unrelated hospitalizations.

► Some Republican legislators in Colorado apparently believe that suicide-prevention measures at mental hospitals are a waste of money.

► CBS4 has a detailed update on efforts to create regulations and operating procedures for Denver’s first public “marijuana clubs.”

► Is Donald Trump’s administration ready for the job of running the country? As Politico reports, lots of empty desks and unfilled positions have observers worried about Trump’s readiness for the top job in the land.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The state legislature is considering a bill that would mandate fingerprint-based background checks for medical professionals in Colorado.

► Right-wing gasbag and Breitbart News Technology Editor Milo Yiannopoulos will speak at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs on January 25th. Most people aren’t particularly thrilled about the idea, as the Colorado Springs Independent reports.

ICYMI

► Aides to President-elect Donald Trump continue to insist that His Hairness will deliver a whopper of a nice Inauguration speech on Friday that will make him look totally Presidential and stuff.

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