THE LIBERAL WINDS ARE BLOWING
IN OUR COLORADO LEGISLATURE

In a propaganda "special” to Sunday’s 2/1/09 Longmont Times-Call titled “Mounting an offensive drive for Colorado’s economy,” Democratic state Sen. Brandon C. Shaffer who represents Longmont points to several “innovative and creative” programs that he and his liberal colleagues are working on, but in no case does he mention who is going to pay for them and in most cases the details are as thin as rarified air. Let’s take a look at the programs Shaffer cites.

--Sen. Dan Gibbs(D) and Rep. Joe Rice(D) introduced a bill called FASTER that allegedly will create thousands of jobs fixing structurally deficient roads and bridges without raising fees and/or taxes?

--Sen. Rollie Heath(D) and Rep. Jim Riesburg(D) have a plan to “improve and expand the development of clean technology discoveries” at our colleges and universities. Fine, but Shaffer should explain how this is going to be accomplished without raising taxes and/or tuition amidst a recession, and what about the private educational institutions of higher learning that are not supping at the public trough?

--Sen. Gail Schwartz(D) has a plan “to put hundreds of Emergency Technicians to work almost immediately” after they relocate to Colorado. She actually wants the state to issue provisional licenses allowing them to compete for existing EMT jobs immediately upon moving here? How do we know that the state they came from has adequate rules governing EMT qualifications?

--Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter has a nice-sounding plan, which Shaffer endorses, “to increase the availability of credit” to small businesses throughout the state. How this can be done without expanding the federal and state bureaucracies and dealing with their endless red tape, which already hinders most small businesses, would be a miracle indeed.

And lastly, where is the bipartisanship in all of this? They are all designed by tax-and-spend liberals.
P.