Author Archives: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Last week, after Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met with Colorado Republican state senators, including Kevin Grantham of Canon City, Beth Martinez Huminek of Westminster, and Randy Baumgardner of Hot Sulpher Springs, he meandered up to Steamboat Springs, where he gave a lengthy interview praising Trump and warning against blaming climate change for Colorado’s wildfires.

Grantham tweeted that Zinke, who’s in charge of public lands, was doing a “great job,” but the Steamboat Springs Pilot asked Zinke not about his boosters but about how he felt about his critics.

Zinke said they don’t “even want to look at the truth.”

“There’s a lot of angry people out there, and quite frankly, they don’t even want to look at the truth, and it’s just a series of attacks without merit. At the heart of it, you do right, and you fear no one. I’m passionate about public lands. I’m passionate about never selling them, never transferring it, but we have to manage it, and there has been a consequence I believe of almost environmental terrorism, where we’re limiting access, shutting down roads, not having the ability to remove dead, dying trees. It comes at a cost.”

Zinke led the charge to reverse Obama’s efforts to preserve lands at the Bear’s Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.

Trump is “delightful to work for,” Zinke told Steamboat Springs Pilot reporter Matt Strensland, adding that the president is “actually doing exactly what he said he’d do.”

The phrase “delightful to work for” and the word “Trump” are not often paired with each other, according to a Google search.

“President Trump is a businessman, and it’s really easy to figure out the direction where the president is going because in the White House he has a huge chalkboard — you know, whiteboard — that has campaign promises,” Zinke said in the interview. “And many of those campaign promises are crossed off.”

“I think people have to look at removing the hatred, which is I think shameful,” Zinke told the Pilot. “And the intolerance. When President Trump is mentioned in some quarters, there is anger and intolerance.”

Zinke defended himself from attacks on his travel, saying he followed all procedures. He denied having any relationship with Whitefish Energy, other than having graduated from White Fish High School.

Zinke went on to deliver a lecture at the Steamboat Insitute, where a protester yelled, “Why won’t you acknowledge that climate change is causing and accelerating wildfires, even in Routt County?”

Zinke shouted back, “You know what? You haven’t served and you don’t understand what energy is. I’d like to see your child have to fight for energy.”

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

In a post Tuesday, the Colorado Times Recorder reported, among other things, that KHOW 630-AM’s morning host Ross Kaminsky said Social Security is “clearly” a “Ponzi scheme,” like U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) said a few years back.

In response, Kaminsky submitted the following opinion piece, posted in its entirety below.

Kaminsky wrote:

Regarding your article on my conversation about Social Security as a Ponzi scheme…

I’m sure you know this because I made it clear on the air, but just in case:

THEY CALLED ME and asked to be on the show to “explain to (my) listeners why Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme.” I told them that I think it is in almost all important aspects similar to a Ponzi scheme, and I’d be happy to have the debate but they need to be prepared for a host who will challenge almost every assertion they make.  I think I won the debate easily, because the facts are so clearly on my side. But that’s not my main point with this note.

One thing that I thought was slightly off, at least in tone, was when you say I “dredged up an old conversation.” I was accommodating the wishes of a group that I disagree with to address my audience. I enjoy real debates on real issues, as you know. It’s not very important but to the extent that you make it sound like I went back to some old conservative talking point(s), you make it sound like I do predictable conservative radio. I think I do neither, and it was the liberal guest who “dredged up” the topic, not I.

Secondly, PLEASE STOP calling me conservative. I am NOT conservative. My listeners know I’m not conservative. And you’ve known it for years. I’m libertarian or, if you prefer a little more specificity, Objectivist (though most people wouldn’t know what that means, so I’m fine with libertarian with a lower-case ‘l’), in my thinking. If you’re going to put adjectives in front of my name, I expect you to be accurate. How would you like it if I started talking about you on the air as Communist Jason Salzman? Or even Socialist Jason Salzman? (Maybe you are socialist…I don’t actually know…but I’m pretty sure you’re not communist.) Or, how about this one: Conservative Jason Salzman? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

I’ve always been responsive to your requests for comment from me, and the least I expect from you in return is to characterize me and my show accurately.

Finally, on the merits of the issue, yes I’m against Social Security as it’s currently structured and in a libertarian ideal world this would not be a government function. But we live in the real world and what I was pointing out primarily yesterday is that people think that Social Security represents 1) actual savings by the government on workers’ behalf, 2) something very much like either insurance or a pension in terms of how those things function and are structured in the private sector, and 3) a contract with the government. None of those things is true.

So you and I will disagree about whether Social Security is a legitimate function of government, but to the extent that the system pays former contributors out of current workers’ wages because there are not any actual assets underlying the “trust fund”, and secondarily that there is no enforceable contract between a worker and the government, it is mendacious to claim it does not have significant characteristics of a Ponzi scheme. It’s just one that has been blessed by Democrats when they had the power to do it and which subsequent Republicans didn’t have the courage to undo or fix because, really, they got in on the fun of raiding nearly $3 trillion of taxpayer money.

As a listener quipped, if Charles Ponzi began operating now, he’d be charged with running a “Social Security scheme.”

You should be honest enough to just say that you’re fine with the government running such a scheme, as I am honest enough to say that in my ideal world the program wouldn’t exist…and Americans would not have been trained out of being responsible for their own retirements.

Finally, you didn’t address an issue I raised which should trouble conservatives liberals like you: because it’s the biggest tax that many/most low-wage workers pay, because it’s not inheritable by one’s children, and because lower incomes correlate substantially with lower life expectancies, Social Security goes a long way to keeping poor people (and poor families) poor. Of course also having a horrendous “rate of return” also keeps them poor because richer people can put some money into real investments with better returns. Liberals should be ashamed of their refusal to consider personal accounts as part of the Social Security mix. But clearly the fear is that when those are available for a person’s first investable dollars (which are now taken as payroll tax), nobody will want the government program. Which should tell you all you need to know about it. It is a scheme that only still exists because government compels participation.

Coffman is right. I’m right. It’s not a close call.

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Members of the Ku Klux Klan march in a parade on Larimer Street in Denver, Colorado May 31, 1926.

The Denver Post published a few thoughtful letters over the weekend about whether the New York Times erred in reporting on the potential impact of Republican candidate for governor Walker Stapleton’s family ties to the KKK.

The letters responded to Post columnist Mario Nicolais’ June 29 piece titled “The New York Times kneecaps Walker Stapleton.”

In his column, Nicolais complained that the Times article, titled “Family History Haunts G.O.P. Candidate for Governor in Colorado” by Julie Turkewitz, was a “hit piece.” “It’s dirty, it’s wrong, and it contributes to the dumbing-down of the electoral process,” wrote Nicolais.

One letter writer, Ryan Bauer of Thornton, points out that Nicolais, who’s normally super detail-oriented, somehow failed to note that Walker Stapleton once bragged about his great-grandfather, Benjamin Stapleton, who was a leader of the Colorado KKK in the 1920s,

As the Times article points out, Stapleton touted his great-grandfather’s public service in at least one campaign ad as a candidate for state treasurer in 2009. He has avoided the issue more recently with rising public awareness of Benjamin Stapleton’s Klan affiliation, i.e. efforts to rename the Stapleton neighborhood as well as an eponymous school.

If Walker Stapleton felt it was appropriate to highlight his great-grandfather’s accomplishments for electoral gain, he also must decry the ugly, racist side of that legacy. It’s a loose end that, unless Stapleton officially comments, voters will be left to wonder whether his sympathies lie with the white nationalist bloc under the Trump-GOP tent.

A second letter, by Nancy Banks, states. in part:

Nicolais correctly argues that Walker Stapleton isn’t responsible for the sins of his great-grandfather; however, he ignores the fact that Walker Stapleton is not a self-made politician, but instead is the beneficiary of the political dynasty started by his great-grandfather — a dynasty that had initial success based on Benjamin Stapleton’s support for white supremacy and his support by white supremacists.

Voters are entirely within their rights to ask Walker Stapleton what that dynasty means to him, and to get a clear answer from him.

A third letter writer wrote:

I note that Denver attorney Mario Nicolais in his op-ed justifiably lambastes the New York Times for its association of Colorado gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton with the membership of his great grandfather Benjamin Stapleton in the Ku Klux Klan.

It is rather ironic to say the least that on the very next page George Will begins his criticism of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez by noting that “For three months in 1917, Leon Trotsky lived in the Bronx, just south of the congressional district where Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez recently defeated a 10-term incumbent in a Democratic primary.” C’mon George.

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Rep. Mike Coffman (R).

Conservative talk-radio host Ross Kaminsky dredged up an old conversation Tuesday, saying Social Security is “clearly” a “Ponzi scheme” and a “fraud.”

To his credit, Kaminsky didn’t just proclaim the 80-year-old program a “Ponzi scheme” and move on. Instead, he had a six-minute debate with Max Richtman, director of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Listen here..

A search of Colorado politicians who agree with Kaminsky that Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme revealed U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO), who told a radio host a few years back that Social Security is “obviously” a “Ponzi scheme.”

In fact, a Ponzi scheme is defined as an “investment swindle in which supposed profits are paid to early investors from money actually invested by later participants.” Maybe that’s what Social Security sounds like to people who think government shouldn’t collect taxes and devise programs to help people, because the program relies on the ongoing collection of Social Security taxes.

But if you’re ok with basic taxation for the benefit of yourself and others, you probably understand that Social Security is no swindle, but actually a successful government-run retirement system based on a funding formula that’s worked, with rational adjustments, for 80 years.

Asked about his Ponzi-scheme comment later, Coffman told Fox 31 Denver’s Ron Zappolo:

Zappolo: You are never afraid to say controversial things.

Coffman: It’s true.

Zappolo: I’ll give you just a couple. You went on somewhere the other day and said that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. You’ve also talked about how all ballots should be in English. Correct?

Coffman: Right.

Zappolo: Do you ever think about, as a politician, some of these things, I might be better off steering away from?

Coffman: You know, no. [smiles] My staff wishes I would. [laughs]

Zappolo: The honesty comes out. [laughs]

Coffman: But I don’t. The thing with Social Security. I think it is, although I agreed with Ponzi.

Zappolo: You scared people in your district who are 65 and over.

“Social Security is social insurance,” said Richtman Kaminsky, who’s the morning host on Denver’s KHOW 630-AM. “You need to try to wrap your head around that, Ross. Social Security is a program of insurance for families. Social Security pays old-age survivor and disability benefits. A third of Social Security benefits goes to non-retired workers, spouses, survivors, disabled, children. About 3 million children get by because of Social Security. So this is insurance for families. [With Social Security,] you are buying insurance in the event that something happens to your framily and to have some modicum of decent living when you do retire.”

“Insurance is a contract,” countered Kaminsky. “You don’t have any contract with the government. They could change this. The only thing that’s keeping them from changing it, ending it, whatever, is political realities, which political realities, which is better than nothing I suppose.”

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department manages America’s national parks and other lands, met with Colorado Senate Republicans today, prompting Colorado Senate President Kevin Grantham (R-Canon City) to send a tweet stating that Zinke is doing a “great job.”

Grantham: “Look who dropped by our offices today to meet Senate Republicans and discuss public lands issues. That’s right. It’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke! You’re doing a great job, Mr. Secretary. Thanks for stopping in.”

The politics of yucking it up with top Trump officials are dicey for Colorado Republicans these days, as the president enjoys low approval ratings here.

Republicans must win the governor’s office or retain control of the state senate, in which they have a slim one-seat advantage, to stop Colorado Democrats from gaining complete control of Colorado state government.

The Republican candidate for governor, Walker Stapleton, has invited Trump to campaign with him in Colorado in his race against U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO).

State senate Republicans haven’t extended an invitation to Trump directly, but embracing Zinke would appear to signal that they are not scared of cozying up to Trump.

In fact, State Sen. Tim Neville (R-Littleton), whose seat is considered vulnerable, backed Trump this year and during the presidential campaign. Neville faces Democrat Tammy Story.

Zinke, formerly a businessman, has reportedly welcomed meetings with right-wing activists who advocate transferring management of federal lands to the states.

Since his appointment to lead the Interior Department, he’s been heavily criticized by scientists, American Indian tribes, ethicists, and others.

He’s been investigated for billing taxpayers for the use of private jets, reportedly flown to meetings with political donors. Zinke has denied the allegations.

Zinke was in Colorado to tout his effort to boost maintenance of national parks.

“Our parks, as many of you may know, are $11.7 billion behind in infrastructure, most of that roads,” Zinke told the Ft. Collins Coloradoan. “It’s not a Republican or a Democrat issue, it’s an American issue.”