CO-04 (Special Election) See Full Big Line

(R) Greg Lopez

(R) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%↓

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

(R) Ron Hanks

40%

30%

20%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(R) Deborah Flora

(R) J. Sonnenberg

30%↑

15%↑

10%↓

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Dave Williams

(R) Jeff Crank

50%↓

50%↑

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

90%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) Brittany Pettersen

85%↑

 

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

(R) Janak Joshi

60%↑

35%↓

30%↑

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
March 10, 2017 10:49 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (March 10)

  • 1 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Fifty. That’s how many days Donald Trump has now been in the White House. Let’s go ahead and see if we can 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 a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Congressional Republicans are nervously awaiting the results of a Congressional Budget Office assessment of Trumpcare. As Politico reports:

The fate of Obamacare may lie in the hands of a number-crunching Republican appointee whose bottom line might single-handedly blow up the GOP quest to repeal and replace it.

Congressional Budget Office Director Keith Hall was handpicked two years ago by top Republicans in Congress — including now Health and Human Service Secretary Tom Price — to lead a nonpartisan office that will soon release its estimate of how many Americans the Republican health care bill will cover and whether it shrinks or balloons the federal deficit…

…Hall, in the post for two years, has already signaled that his office won’t soft-pedal the coverage assessments. If a health plan doesn’t have comprehensive benefits, it won’t count as coverage. Fearing a bad CBO “score,” Republicans facing backlash in their drive to gut Obamacare are turning the budget agency and its team of professional economic analysts into a punching bag as they try to discredit it. [Pols emphasis]

Republican leaders, meanwhile, are finding that it is difficult to enact new healthcare legislation at the same time that President Trump is sowing widespread confusion with differing remarks on a potential compromise policy.

 

► Colorado business leaders (and the Denver Post editorial board) are praising a potential legislative compromise that could place a tax increase for infrastructure improvements on the November ballot. As the Denver Business Journal reports, that doesn’t mean some conservative Republicans won’t continue to oppose the idea:

Conservative politicians and organizations savaged a bipartisan transportation-funding bill Thursday as offering a burdensome tax hike without commensurate spending cuts, while liberal groups gave it better reviews, despite the proposal containing less transit funding than they had sought.

The reaction — particularly a statement from state House Republican leaders that they will “aggressively oppose” the plan — showed that House Bill 1242, introduced late Wednesday, will have tough roads to travel even to get onto the November statewide ballot.

That path is difficult enough, in fact, that the Colorado Contractors Association, one of the primary supporters of this and past road-funding measures, will go ahead and file its own tax-increase ballot measure on Friday as a back-up plan in the event that the Legislature kills HB 1242.

The Denver Post has more on the predictable knee-jerk reaction from conservative Republicans who don’t have a solution of their own to Colorado’s transportation problems but simply oppose any effort to raise taxes for any reason whatsoever.

 

► Politico takes a look at the prospects for President Trump’s border wall with Mexico, which may or may not end up being built out of Legos:

Trump is claiming that the ambitious — and hugely controversial — construction plan is “way, way, way ahead of schedule,” but in reality, there is growing evidence that Trump’s central campaign pledge is in political peril…

…As the issues mount, several prominent Republicans are making their concerns more explicit.

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told constituents during a telephone town hall Wednesday that “billions of dollars on a wall is not the right way to proceed” to secure the border, according to audio obtained by POLITICO on Thursday. “I don’t support a tariff to pay for any kind of wall.”…

…”We shouldn’t just build a wall and add billions of dollars because that’s what somebody said should be done,” Gardner said.

Federal budget gurus are trying to figure out the most cost-effective material for a wall, but they still haven’t even begun to deal with the “eminent domain” problem that could skyrocket the potential price tag.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Donald Trump likes to make wild, unsubstantiated claims about former President Obama “tapping” his phones and causing all sorts of imaginary mischief. But he also can’t stop himself from taking credit for things that are really successes from the Obama Administration. As the Washington Post reports, Trump’s team is trying to take credit for everything from economic gains to missile-defense systems that are largely the result of Obama-era policies.

Employment numbers are looking better, which could portend another interest rate hike, but fact checkers say it has virtually nothing to do with Trump:

President Trump claimed undue credit for ExxonMobil’s investment announcement — the latest example of the new president’s now-predictable formula: A company announces a U.S. jobs plan that predates Trump’s presidency. The company gives a nod to Trump’s anti-regulation policies. Trump then takes credit for bringing jobs back to the United States. Repeat.

 

► Healthcare experts and patient advocates, including prominent organizations such as the American Medical Society, are not being shy about their opposition to Trumpcare.

 

► State Treasurer Walker Stapleton’s heavily-advertised “term limits rally” turned out to be one very expensive dud.

 

► House Speaker Paul Ryan makes it clear that Trumpcare is really not about trying to provide healthcare access for more Americans.

 

► Residents of Summit County are already feeling the impact of President Trump’s plans to significant cut back the Environmental Protection Agency.

 

► Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is taking a tour of Asia next week, but he’s doing his best to keep the media in the dark: 

Tillerson plans to leave the U.S. media behind, a break from precedent that has news outlets up in arms. Editors from The Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, NPR, BBC and CNN are among those who have signed a letter to the State Department, saying they are “deeply concerned” about the decision and requesting a meeting to discuss press access in general…

…Tillerson’s State Department has been largely walled off from the press. The department finally held its first briefing on Tuesday, and Tillerson has refused to take questions from reporters in his few public appearances.

When NBC’s Andrea Mitchell attempted to ask questions during a photo op involving Tillerson and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin this week, she was escorted out of the room.

Read that last sentence again. A reporter for NBC was escorted out of the room because she had the audacity to ask a few questions.

 

► The Denver Business Journal reports on how Colorado officials view the state of the oil and gas industry in a Trump administration. Governor John Hickenlooper warns that a significant change in policy outlook will actually slow the development of oil and gas in Colorado.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

 

► The State House has approved a bipartisan plan to make major changes to TABOR. The proposal now moves to the State Senate, where common sense goes to die.

 

► Conservative Republicans in the Colorado legislature are big fans of Trumpcare, which would likely be a devastating blow to rural healthcare efforts. But at least there will be a “Rural Hospitals Day” in Colorado.

ICYMI

► Lawmakers are once again considering doing away with Daylight Saving Time. It won’t happen before this weekend, however, so make sure to set your clocks one hour ahead on Sunday.

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

Tweet
Share

Comments

One thought on “Get More Smarter on Friday (March 10)”

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

233 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!