Shut 'Er Down!

Two stories in today’s Denver Post show how cynically the mainstream media are playing the story about what they misleadingly call a “government shutdown.” Of course, it’s really not a shutdown, just a slowdown—more on that below. And in our constitutional system the states, not the feds, are the primary line of government. The states […]

And You “Can’t” Defund Obamacare . . . Why?

Freedom and popular government in Britain and America became possible because over the course of many years the House of Commons, and later the American colonial legislatures, were willing to exert the power of the purse to discipline an overreaching executive. In Britain, the House of Commons—Parliament’s lower chamber—sometimes defunded the executive in order to […]

Colorado Medicaid expansion would make 86,000 college students eligible

by Linda Gorman Gov. John Hickenlooper wants yet another expansion of Colorado Medicaid. This one will cover the more than 86,000 college students in Colorado that the Census Bureau estimates have incomes below the federal poverty level. It also will cover the unknown number of otherwise healthy single students above the poverty level who have […]

In 2013, Get Ready For An ObamaCare Tax Onslaught

At Forbes.com, Grace-Marie Turner summarizes the new taxes imposed by Obamacare: (1) Medical Device Tax; (2) A new Surtax on Investment Income; (3) A new Medicare Tax; (4) The new Flexible Spending Account Tax; (5)ObamaCare also tightens the screws on Itemized Medical Deductions. Continue reading

Medicaid expansion has hidden costs

by Linda Gorman The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has radically restructured federal subsidy programs for medical care. For the first time in decades, Colorado can begin bringing state expenditures in line with tax revenues by using federal money to reverse the excessive growth in its Medicaid and child health insurance programs. […]

Did the Founders’ Constitution Permit Federal Tort Reform?

NOTE: The photo shows the author at the sundial in James Madison’s garden at Montpelier, VA. On behalf of the national Chamber of Commerce, super-lawyer Paul Clement has authored a new paper arguing that federal tort reform is constitutional. The paper begins with a section purporting to show that the Framers’ Commerce Clause was broad […]