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Home Archives for Republicans

5/29/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Ask Congressman Mike Coffman to Sign On to Federal Reserve Transparency

It won't be the first time I write it, nor likely the last. But Republican officials in Washington D.C. cannot hope to return to power simply by pointing out that they aren't as socialist as the Democrats. A vital piece of a successful 2010 and beyond involves the need to unite aggressively behind an affirmative platform of fiscally responsible government reform. Robert Romano on the Americans for Liberty blog brings our attention to a specific bill that represents a golden opportunity to do right by the taxpayer:Most of the financial bailouts have been conducted by the Federal Reserve, and on February 26th, Congressman Ron Paul introduced the legislation that would require an audit of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, liberty, National Politics, PPC Tagged With: 2010, 6th Congressional District, advance, affirmative, agenda, aggressively, Americans for Liberty, ask, attention, bill, blog, Board of Governors, bonds, buzzword, cause, Colorado, Congress, Congressman, consent, contact, Democrats, do right, Federal Reserve, financial bailouts, first time, fiscally responsible, fix, golden opportunity, government reform, growing, HR 1207, inordinate, insight, interest rates, issue, join, last time, ledgers, Mike Coffman, monetary policy, more closely, mortgage securities, necessity, officials, operations, oversight, platform, pointing out, power, representatives, Republican, Republicans, return to power, Robert Romano, Ron Paul, secret, shine the light, sign on, Socialist, successful, taxpayer, timeliness, Transparency, treasuries, U.S. House, unite, Wall Street Journal, Washington DC

5/26/2009 By Ben 1 Comment

RMA Blog Talk Radio Tonight at 8:30: Statewide Races, Higher Education

Tune in tonight at 8:30 PM local Mountain time for the 28th edition of Rocky Mountain Alliance Blog Talk Radio. Guests for tonight's show are: Longtime GOP political consultant Patrick Davis to dissect the state of play in Colorado's major statewide races for 2010, as fields of Republicans seek to challenge Governor Bill Ritter and appointed U.S. Senator Michael Bennet Jessica Corry from the Independence Institute, to talk about the ongoing budget controversies at the University of Colorado and possibly the increasing attention on the drug legalization debate If you miss the live show, you can go back and download the podcast, or just use the handy widget on my sidebar to listen directly from Mount Virtus. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: blogging, clean government, Colorado Politics, Education, Fiscal Policy, General, liberty, National Politics, PPC, property rights Tagged With: 2010, appointed, attention, Bill Ritter, Blog Talk Radio, budget controversies, challenge, Colorado, debate, drug legalization, GOP, Governor, guests, increasing, Independence Institute, Jessica Corry, major, Michael Bennet, Patrick Davis, podcast, political consultant, Republicans, Rocky Mountain Alliance, sidebar, statewide races, tonight show, U.S. Senator, University of Colorado, widget

5/20/2009 By Ben 11 Comments

Memo to NRSC: Stay out of Colorado’s Republican Senate Primary

Update, 5/20: John Hawkins at Right Wing News has posted the following petition to the NRSC (to which I have added my name at the end):Dear Senator Cornyn, We the undersigned believe that the National Republican Senatorial Committee should be committed to serving ALL the members of the Republican Party. Additionally, the NRSC should be focused on defeating Democrats, not Republicans. Towards that end, we believe it was completely inappropriate for the NRSC to endorse a candidate in the Florida primary race. Therefore, we request that both you and the NRSC alter your position on the Florida Senate race, maintain neutrality, and promise to spend no money directly or indirectly in that race. Sincerely yours, Ben DeGrow Mount … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, National Politics, PPC Tagged With: announcement, candidates, chairman, Charlie Crist, Colorado, decide, developing, endorsement, Florida, foolish, friendly memo, Jim Geraghty, John Cornyn, Mario Rubio, National Republican Senatorial Committee, NRSC, open primary, race, Republicans, skeptical

5/5/2009 By Ben 1 Comment

Sign of Bill Ritter’s Sagging Popularity

Governor Bill Ritter is wrestling with another veto decision over a labor issue. But there are plenty of other reasons why his popularity has hit the skids with Coloradans. A faithful Mount Virtus reader snapped this photo of a sign near Highway 285 and 291 in Chaffee County: Colorado Republicans are revving their engines in search of a candidate who will lead them down the right road to victory and back to lower taxes and responsible limited government in 2010. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Education, Fiscal Policy, General, Labor, liberty, PPC Tagged With: 2010, Bill Ritter, candidate, Chaffee County, Coloradans, Colorado, decision, Governor, hit the skids, issue, Labor, Mount Virtus reader, photo, popularity, reasons, Republicans, responsible government, sign, veto, wrestling

4/13/2009 By Ben 2 Comments

Denver Tax Day Tea Party vs. Democrats’ Overreach on State Budget

It's almost time for the Tax Day Tea Party at the State Capitol in Denver (with a great idea for an official logo, compliments of Ben Hummel). Here's where it gets good: While we citizens will be standing outside, protesting government overreach and proclaiming our rights, inside the members of the state house will be wrestling with the tough decisions of a budget vote. Funny thing is, the decisions wouldn't be nearly so tough if the Democrat-led legislature had voted three years ago to create a rainy day fund (PDF) proposed by Representative Cory Gardner and Senator Josh Penry. Instead, the same day as the Tea Party takes place, the Democrats will be trying to avoid tough decisions by raiding hundreds of millions of dollars from the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, liberty, My Life, PPC, property rights Tagged With: bad name, bailout, Ben Hummel, best option, budget vote, citizens, complacent, Cory Gardner, demand, Democrat legislature, Denver, government overreach, hogwash, illegal, indirect tax, information, Josh Penry, Kent Lambert, meet-and-greet, members, mobile updates, official logo, people, Pinnacol Assurance, private, proclaiming, protesting, rainy day fund, Republican Study Committee, Republicans, rights, RSCColorado, shortage, State Capitol, state house, state legislators, successful, Tax Day, Tea Party, tough decisions, workmen's comp

4/3/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

What Kind of Online State Spending Database Will Colorado Get?

Update, 4/4: The editors of the Denver Post agree with my commonsense observation, saying "We would prefer to see Ritter's project hew more to the kind of details espoused in the legislative proposal." What kind of online state spending database are Coloradans going to get if they are going to hope to keep an eye on state government and help find cost efficiencies to save us all money? This is the question of the hour, after Governor Bill Ritter's weak executive order came out yesterday. We're also learning that the Governor is working to kill bipartisan House Bill 1288, which would provide the real detail that is lacking from his watered-down order. The highly impressive new State Representative B.J. Nikkel is the sponsor of HB … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, liberty, PPC Tagged With: advocates, Americans for Tax Reform, B.J. Nikkel, Bill Ritter, Coloradans, cost efficiencies, credit, current course, database, Democrats, good legislation, Governor, highly impressive, hour, House Bill 1288, interests, issue, keep an eye, kill, lacking, limelight, members, memo, money, National Taxpayers Union, online, opposing party, plaudits, playing games, pointless, protects, question, real detail, Republicans, save, share, state government, state representative, state spending, steal, taxpayers, toothless tiger, Transparency, weak executive order, yesterday

4/2/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Colorado Democrats: Governing Themselves Out of the Majority?

Are the Democrats at the State Capitol trying to govern themselves out of the majority? They sure are making it easier for the GOP - with a string of shenanigans and assorted bad ideas just from the past several days: From slamming the door on school spending transparency To ignoring critical scholarly arguments in order to push through a nakedly partisan ploy to weaken Colorado's political influence and undermine the Electoral College To cravenly moving a vote while a Republican lawmaker was out of town (aiding a relative with Alzheimer's) - all to pass a constitutionally dubious bill that grants in-state tuition to illegal aliens To talking out loud about exploiting a partisan, anti-taxpayer state supreme court ruling to repeal some … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Education, Fiscal Policy, liberty, PPC Tagged With: 2010, Alzheimer's, anti-taxpayer, bad ideas, Colorado, comprehensive list, constitutionally dubious, Democrats, electoral college, exemptions, exploiting, GOP, govern, illegal aliens, in-state tuition, lawmaker, majority, partisan ploy, policy outcomes, political influence, power, recessionary strain, Republicans, ruling, scholarly arguments, school spending, severe, shenanigans, State Capitol, supreme court, tax credits, Transparency, vote, weaken

3/16/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Undeterred by Plain Reading of Constitution, State Supremes Stick It to Colorado Taxpayers

Update, 3/17: Law student Constructively Reasonable says the decision is a cause for "outrage". A watcher says Colorado may not as well even have a constitution. The Colorado Supreme Court has done it again, showing its disdain for taxpayer protections in the state constitution. From the majority opinion:When it issued its declaratory judgment order, the district court did not have the benefit of our recent decision in Barber v. Ritter, 196 P.3d 238 (Colo. 2008), in which we held that a statute challenged under article X, section 20 must be proven to be unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt. The trial court erroneously held that the relevant test of SB 07-199s constitutionality came from the interpretive guideline included in the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, Judiciary, PPC, property rights Tagged With: 49 states, Allison Eid, arbitrary rule, Ari Armstrong, boss, campaign issue, Cary Kennedy, clairvoyance, Colorado Supreme Court, common sense, compelling case, conservatives, constitutional sanity, constitutionality, Cory Gardner, Democrat, Denver Post, dissenting voice, downgrading, faith, fiscal restraint, forthcoming, full retreat, government, Governor, Grand Junction Jon Caldara, higher threshold, inescapable, Josh Penry, just, justice system, kudos, law, legal arena, libertarian, life support, local elections, local tax revenues, loyalist, most partisan, observation, offense, other ideas, partisan interests, plain reading, realization, reasonable, Republicans, SB 07-199, school districts, senate minority leader, simpler, state constitution, state house, state legal system, state of Colorado, state representative, state senate, state treasurer, tactical idea, tax dollars, tax policy change, tax revenue gain, taxpayer protections, Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, The Colorado Index, violated, voter permission, weigh in, writer

2/28/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Democrat Shell Game: Raise Your Car Fees to Grow State Government

John Ingold at the Denver Post reports, not surprisingly, that Governor Bill Ritter plans to sign SB 108 (aka FASTER) the Democrat bill in the state legislature to raise car fees by an average of $41 a year per vehicle. A reminder for Colorado: You put Democrats in charge, you pay more taxes for bigger government entitlement programs. What, you say? The state has legitimate transportation needs that SB 108 is designed to fund. Those aren't entitlement programs. Except that the so-called "FASTER" bill is merely half of a liberal shell game. The other half is SB 228 - which would rip away limits on state appropriation increases and enable the Democrats to divert hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to the highway fund (PDF) … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Tagged With: backfill, bill, Bill Ritter, car fees, Democrats, Denver Post, divert, entitlement programs, FASTER, filibuster, future years, government, government spending, Governor, highway fund, highways, increases, John Ingold, raise, reminder, Republicans, shell game, state appropriations, state legislature, transportation needs, vehicle, violated

2/27/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Eagle County’s Tom Stone Tosses Hat into Ring for State GOP Chairmanship

On March 21, Colorado Republicans convene to select party leadership for the next two years. Before today, it seemed the only real competition would be for party vice chair between Nathan Chambers incumbent Perry Buck [editorial correction based on updated information] and Leondray Gholston. An official announcement today from former Eagle County commissioner Tom Stone means there also will be a challenge for Dick Wadhams' position in the top spot. Here is the pledge Stone has posted on his site: … [Read more...]

Filed Under: blogging, Colorado Politics, General, PPC Tagged With: activists, collaborative leadership, Colorado, commissioner, conservative, Dick Wadhams, Eagle County, leadership, Leondray Gholston, Mount Virtus, Nathan Chambers, official announcement, Peoples Press Collective, process, real competition, Republican, Republicans, Rocky Mountain Alliance, Tom Stone, top spot, vice-chair, vision, worthwhile reading

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About Me

Ben DeGrow
Grateful and growing Christian, devoted husband and father of 3, public policy analyst, returned to Michigan by way of Colorado, conservative writer, lifelong learner, Detroit Tigers fan.

Recent Posts

  • Common Learning Disabilities in Children
  • Tips to Teach Kids to Set and Achieve Goals
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