Freedom Unaffiliated

Alexander Fraser Tytler was a judge, historian and professor of history in Scotland, born in 1747, who observed that, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship.”

Tytler further observed, “The average of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again to bondage.”

In this, America’s 250th year, we’ve beaten the average, but this sequence has a spooky resemblance to our trajectory and offers a dire warning. Our founders had the wisdom and foresight to craft a constitution designed to protect individual liberty and limit government. Government is necessary, but government isn’t society. It’s a subset of society and subservient to the people, it’s not their master or their mother.

The American Dream isn’t winning the Powerball lottery. That’s just a lucky windfall. It’s about the opportunity individuals have in this country to achieve success and even greatness through ingenuity, hard work, and personal responsibility. As government at all levels has expanded, the American dream has decayed into the American entitlement, with government assuming the role of supreme benefactor — “sharing the wealth,” as President Obama put it — with punitive income taxes on productive taxpayers redistributed to net tax receivers. When the number of net tax receivers exceeds that of taxpayers, we’re on the road to Tytler’s prophesy. Government policies should encourage the expansion of societal wealth, not discourage it in the name of compassion and “social justice” that rewards dependency and punishes effort and achievement.

Total government spending at all levels in our welfare state is now 46% of GDP, the measure of our economy. Government compassion and charity are fine up to a point. It becomes counterproductive if there’s no limiting principle. The needs of net tax receivers are inevitably surpassed by their wants.

What the federal government calls “payments for individuals” — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and a cornucopia of so-called welfare “entitlement” programs — now consumes more than 70% of all federal spending compared to 26% in 1960, leading to endless budget deficits and the current national debt of $39 trillion. The top one percent of taxpayers already pays 40% of total federal individual income taxes while the bottom 50% pays just 3%, which is greatly exceeded by the cost of government handouts they receive. Soaking the rich can’t balance the budget, even drowning them won’t do it.

Yes, Americans have earned their Social Security benefits, but the system is on the brink of insolvency. It’s been an intergenerational transfer of income with taxes paid by current workers shifted to current recipients. But benefits have been expanded and increasing life expectancy and lower birth rates have dropped the ratio of workers per beneficiary from 16:1 in 1950 to barely 2:1 today.

Republicans in Congress are concerned about all this, but the public isn’t. Attempts to reform these programs are politically hazardous. Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisconsin) courageous but futile efforts at entitlement reform prematurely ended his political career in 2019, at the age of 48. Democrats aren’t concerned and have no limiting principle on government spending and taxation on the way to creating their socialist paradise.

During the Covid pandemic the feds ran massive budget deficits to flood state governments with money. This is standard Keynesian economics to head off a recession by creating artificial monetary demand unattached to productivity that invariably leads to a future inflationary spike, as we saw.

In Colorado, especially Denver, where progressive Democrats have total government control, they became addicted to that temporary binge and made it their new permanent spending level causing huge budget deficits they intend to fill by gutting TABOR and raising taxes. Of course, “soaking the rich” is a key ingredient. Common sense and economic reality dictate an obvious alternative remedy. Duh: prioritize spending and cut it back to a manageable level. Instead, Colorado Democrats are foolishly repeating the mistakes of California, New York, and Illinois, which have driven businesses and upper-income taxpayers to red states like Florida and Texas.

Destructive progressive ideology reinforces Professor Tytler’s explanation of the death of democracies. Ironically, the true danger to democracy isn’t Donald Trump, it’s Democrats.

Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for Complete Colorado.

We the people of Colorado no longer control our own state constitution. I found this out the hard way.

In Colorado, a government for, by, and of the people is a fib.

We lowly citizens no longer have much of a say in altering our own state constitution. Even though that seems to violate the whole meaning of our constitution in the first place.

Like the US Constitution, Colorado’s constitution contains a Bill of Rights making clear we are the ones who empower the state government, not the other way around.

Check out the first two of these rights:

First — All political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government, of right, originates from the people…

Second — The people of this state have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves, as a free, sovereign and independent state; and to alter and abolish their constitution…

Did you catch that? We the people have the sole and exclusive right to alter our constitution. It used to be true, too.

We used to alter our constitution through the initiative and referendum process.

Without that process, we would not have limits on governmental power. Laws reining in the legislature could never pass a vote by those same politicians. They’d never vote for open meetings laws, term limits, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, ethics laws, and so much more.

Recently, when the legislature arrogantly exempted themselves from open meetings laws, it started a chain reaction I’ve never witnessed in all my decades in politics.

Independence Institute, which I run, helped bring together nearly 50 highly diverse organizations that are usually at each other’s throats. We all shared a common concern: government in Colorado is turning opaque.

Open records are getting harder to access, open meetings are closing. The “people’s” work is being hidden from the people.

And when I say organizations from all over the political spectrum worked together, I’m not exaggerating: Independence Institute, the ACLU, Heidi Ganahl’s conservative Rocky Mountain Voice, the progressive Colorado Times Recorder, Colorado Public Radio, League of Women Voters, Colorado Press Association, Colorado Broadcasters Association, Common Cause, Colorado Black Women for Action, and many, many more.

Over a year-and-a-half of work we crafted a constitutional reform based on what many other states already have, called “Right to Know.” It’s simple: a fundamental right for the people to access public records and government deliberations, with reasonable exceptions.

But you won’t see this proposed amendment on your fall ballot.

The normally sober state Title Board voted 2–1 to block it. The appointees of Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Attorney General Phil Weiser voted against you being able to vote on governmental transparency.

Were they ordered to do so? I’ll let others speculate.

Their argument was that your “right to know” the affairs of government isn’t a single subject, and only “single subjects” may go to the ballot.

Legislators’ bills must also have a single subject. The difference is they get to decide for themselveswhether a bill qualifies. By contrast, we “the people” must get permission from an unelected board. A set of rules for them; a different set for us.

The powerful Title Board said our amendment was too broad.

I countered that the state constitution is supposed to contain broad amendments. That didn’t matter.

Our team pointed to existing rights guaranteed by Colorado’s constitution, like freedom of speech, religion and the right to keep and bear arms. I asked if we were bringing one of those rights as a citizen initiative today, would it pass “single subject” muster as they now interpret it?

They essentially said no.

By their interpretation, such basic rights as freedom of speech or religion might be too broad and vague to be considered a single subject.

We considered appealing the Title Board’s bizarre decision to the Colorado Supreme Court, but on the advice of lawyers from across the political spectrum, we decided not to.

The high court has shown little interest in expanding the public’s right to know what’s going on in their judicial branch.

So now, hiding behind the “single subject” rule, altering our constitution to include fundamental rights — like speech, religion, or even a right to know the affairs of government — can be denied to the very people who are supposed to be the government.

Some things you can’t make up.

Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

DENVER–A Democrat-sponsored Senate bill changing the boundaries of the Front Range Passenger Rail special taxing district passed through its first committee hearing on Monday. The bill excludes certain conservative-leaning communities from the district as a tax hike looms for the November ballot.

As previously reported by Complete Colorado, the Front Range Passenger Rail, recently named CoCo, short for Colorado Connector, has been in the works since 2021. The plan is to have an up and running passenger rail system operating from Fort Collins to Pueblo by 2029.

The current special taxing district is the largest in the state, comprised of 13 counties along the I-25 corridor. All of which are highly likely to be asked for 0.5% sales tax hike this November to fund the project.

Senate Bill 26-172 dramatically changes these boundaries, dropping about 40% of the existing special district population. Rather than incorporating every county along I-25 between Wyoming and New Mexico, the proposed legislation includes taxing sweet spots along the rail line.

“Of the scenarios that we explored, [this] has some of the highest, but not the highest, tax base, to be able to pay for what we’re proposing to pay for while keeping the tax rate relatively low,” Sal Pace, general manager of the taxing district, said to lawmakers.

The new district would include 30 municipalities and would allow others to opt in upon voter approval. The bill also allows incorporated areas to create subdistricts to ask residents to further increase taxes as they see fit.

While sponsors claim the redrawing was centered around areas in which 20% or more of the population live within a five-mile radius of the planned stations, the bill notably cuts out more conservative communities including Greeley, Lonetree, Monument, and Castle Rock.

“The railroad only has so many options as to where it can go south of the city, if that’s the case, why are you including Sterling Ranch and tiny places and not including large areas that’ll be served like Castle Rock and Lone Tree,” Joshua Sharf, senior fellow in fiscal policy with Independence Institute* told Complete Colorado. “If you’re going through the trouble of naming specific municipalities why are you leaving out large population centers?”

SB-172 was approved by the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee on April 27. Three amendments were made to the bill, including the removal of Northglenn from the taxing district after Democrat Sen. Kyle Mullica requested the removal on behalf of the Northglenn city government.

Randal O’Toole, director of transportation policy at Independence Institute, predicts this rail line, like many others, will end up needing yet more money while pushing its completion date.

“Front Range Rail is not going to relieve traffic congestion. It is not going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is going to be a huge money sink, costing a lot more than projected, and it probably won’t operate until long after projected,” O’Toole told Complete Colorado, “Almost no rail passenger project in the last 60 years was done on time or under the originally projected cost; cost overruns of 50 to 100 percent are typical.”

The bill was approved 8-1 with GOP Sen. Mark Baisley being the sole no vote. It will now go to the Senate Appropriations Committee in the coming weeks.

* Independence Institute is publisher of Complete Colorado

DENVER—The Colorado Senate Agriculture Committee on April 22 rejected two of the three appointments made by Governor Polis to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission.

By state law, the CPW commission contains 13 members, 11 of which are appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate. The remaining two members include the executive director of the Department of Natural Resources, and the Colorado Agriculture Commissioner.

Frances Blayney, co-owner of a fly-fishing business in Colorado Springs, was approved by the committee unanimously to represent outfitters on the commission, but two others were denied.

Chris Sichko, a Boulder resident and research economist who has worked with the Department of Agriculture, was shot down by the committee on a 3-4 vote.

Tapped to represent sportsman on the commission, Sichko claims he actively participates in small game bow hunting and fishing, but had no support from any Colorado sportsman groups, and has no experience with big game hunting,

“I just don’t think we should have somebody filling the sportsman’s seat that has not garnered any support from the sportsman community and doesn’t have the experience to recognize CPW’s funding source from the sportsman community,” Committee Chair Sen. Dylan Roberts said at the meeting.

Hunting and fishing licenses make up 58% of CPW funding, and with 12 other applicants with big game hunting experience, the commission turned Sichko away.

John Emerick received the most criticism from the committee, voted down 2-5. A retired environmental biology professor, Emerick has a background in environmental and anti-hunting activism and was appointed to the at-large seat in July 2025.

Emerick was the Treasurer for Colorado Wild a wolf advocacy group who heavily supported the forced reintroduction measure. He also voted for Proposition 127, the mountain lion hunting ban, that ultimately failed at the ballot box.

Emerick defended his positions, saying he was appointed to this seat based on his experience and passion. “I’m not an agriculturalist, I’m not a hunter, but I certainly use our parks. ”

Colorado Wildlife Conservation Project wrote a letter the committee, which included 15 sportsman organizations and former CPW staff, urging the senators to “advance appointments that fully meet statutory requirements, avoid conflicts of interest, and rebuild trust with the diverse constituencies that depend on CPW.”

“You have a history of very specific activism, which is absolutely your right, and you seem to have done a good job in that space,” Sen Roberts added. “But given the responsibility that the commission has, I do not think you are qualified or prepared or suited to serve in the at-large position.”

Rick Enstrom, a former CPW commissioner, says the wildlife agency has become more politicized as of late, due to outside influences.

“Much like lobbyists in the legislature, there are NGOs that are feeding direct lines to these commissioners, and it’s muddied up the system.”

Enstrom also notes the influence of First Gentleman Marlon Reis, an outspoken animal rights activist, over the decisions of his husband, Governor Polis.

“The sportsmen were outraged, nobody could believe it, but once again this isn’t the Governor, these are Marlon Ries’ picks,” Enstrom told Complete Colorado. “Government agencies are not there to be politicized.”

The great 20th-century historian Lord Acton said it best: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Acton was building on the teachings of his mentor, Homer Simpson, who put it more plainly: “The more power you have, the more you can mess things up. Woo-hoo!”

And many in Colorado’s political elite have studied under the original oracle of power, Eric Cartman: “Respect my authoritah!”

If there were a motto for the progressive machine that now rules Colorado, it would be simple: “Because we f***ing can, that’s why.”

Ethics don’t matter. Consistency doesn’t matter. Respecting the will of the people, or even the institution of democracy itself, doesn’t matter.

It started, as these things do, by avoiding consent. TABOR refunds? They stopped even pretending to ask. They know their “fees” wouldn’t survive a vote of the people. Not one of them. So why bother with democracy?

The elite know what’s best.

And when the rabble express themselves at the ballot box, their will can be… corrected.

Voters rejected mandatory setbacks for oil-and-gas drilling. The response from the machine? “That’s adorable,” we’ll pass Senate Bill 181 to do it anyway.

Twice I put flat-rate income tax cuts on the ballot. Twice they passed overwhelmingly. So, the legislature moved to make sure voters could never do that again.

They added “poison-pill” language to future tax cut initiatives. The ballot must now read: “Voting for this tax cut will cripple small children, steal old ladies’ wheelchairs, and cause cancer in laboratory animals.”

When President Donald Trump helped ignite the modern gerrymandering wars, Colorado’s progressive choir howled in outrage.

Now Colorado’s progressive machine is using the same trick.

The Front Range Rail Authority wants a choo-choo tax. But first, it conveniently trims conservative-leaning counties out of the voting pool.

Even Chicago would slow-clap that move.

We’re told Trump is a threat to democracy. Maybe. But as far as I know, he hasn’t stripped elected offices away from voters.

But our legislature is.

The Regional Transportation District is Colorado’s fourth-largest government, run by a 15-member elected board because…the people voted for it to be that way. Senate Bill 150 would gut two-thirds of those elected seats to replace them with insider appointees.

When Trump does something heavy-handed, it’s “no kings.” When Colorado’s ruling class does it, it barely earns a shrug. I mean not even a lame fake excuse why it’s not hypocritical.

And then there’s the lying.

When Trump lies, it’s a five-alarm fire for democracy. But when our elite lie to get what they want, it’s just Tuesday.

Senate Bill 135 sends a measure to the ballot to take your TABOR refunds permanently, handing the legislature a blank check. Yet the ballot language conveniently says it’s for “teacher pay” and “smaller class sizes” and, of course, “without raising taxes.”

As the state Title Board proved last week, there is no guarantee the money will be spent that way, and 85% of the cash goes straight to lawmakers. Translation: We’re taking your money, but we’re not telling you where it’s going.

Lying isn’t an exception anymore. It’s standard operating procedure.

And if you want to see Acton proven in real time, look no further than the legislature voting to exempt itself from Colorado’s open meetings law.

Read that again slowly, raw power grabbing more power.

They’ve decided the transparency rules apply to you, not them.

Their confidence has grown so unchecked they now believe they can legislate physics.

The governor is expected to drop a last-minute bill, with no time for debate, to move Colorado to 100% renewable energy by 2035.

With a stroke of a pen, a state that gets two-thirds of its energy from fossil fuels will do what no state has ever done and do it in nine years.

I’ve seen drug-fueled homeless in Denver violently arguing with imaginary people who felt more grounded in reality.

And because lording over us is such a burden, Senate Bill 87 would require private employers, at their own expense, to hold jobs open for legislators while they’re off playing Nobles.

Raw political power to impose their will — that’s all that matters.

Maybe if Republicans had this kind of unchecked power for this long, they’d be just as thuggish. Maybe. We’ll never know.

In other words, someone else should cover my job while I’m busy playing Lord Acton.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Denver and hosts “The Devil’s Advocate with Jon Caldara” on Colorado Public Television Channel 12. His column appears Sundays in Colorado Politics.

Obviously, that hasn’t come to pass. There’s little doubt that congressional Democrats who’ve attacked Trump’s every move in this Iran war would be praising a Democrat president who had the foresight and courage to do so on his watch. None did, but if one had, most patriotic Republicans would have surely cheered him on. As for the dominant liberal media, the negative spin in their news stories and commentary about the war have been blatantly dishonest about this overwhelmingly successful campaign.

From the very start of the war the stock market plunged, crude oil prices and gasoline at the pump spiked, and an uptick in the CPI signaled price inflation. This was to be expected. The market hates shocks and uncertainty and is very short-sighted. But this war is for long-term security. Stock prices have already recovered, and gas is up less than a buck-a-gallon, that’s still lower than it was during Bidenflation. This isn’t a large-scale war and not likely to last very long. Sacrifices to consumers will be trivial compared to WW II when rationing stamps were issued to all Americans for four long years limiting meat, butter, dairy, coffee, gasoline, coal, tires, cars, shoes, nylon, paper, metal products, and much more.

Public opinion polls casting this as an “unpopular war,” are foolishly simplistic and the disapproval percentage is misleadingly skewed by the mass of knee-jerk Democrats who oppose anything associated with Trump. Wars, by their nature, are unpleasant. The small number of U.S. military casualties has been, thankfully, astonishing. (Compare it to the hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides in the Russian war against Ukraine.) To be sure, this war is far less popular with the ayatollahs on the receiving end. The essential justification for the war is the necessity of it if you can imagine the horrors of nuclear weapons in the hands of the fanatical ayatollahs were they to be launched at their hated “infidels” (that’s all the rest of us).

In 1960 during the Cold War, Nikita Krushchev, Chairman of the Communist Party and head of the Soviet Union, spoke at an international conference at the United Nations building in New York. At one point, in a fit of rage (or performance) he took off a shoe and pounded it repeatedly on the desk in front of him, shouting, “We will bury you!” Most people misunderstood his meaning. He was just spewing Marxist ideological dogma that communism would replace capitalism when the workers of the world inevitably rise up in revolution.

The Soviets had nukes, but Khrushchev understood that a first strike would be suicidal, triggering an instant nuclear retaliation by the West. Unlike Iran’s ayatollahs, Soviet communists weren’t religious fanatics (they weren’t religious at all; they were atheists). The Cold War nuclear standoff was a stalemate known as “mutual assured destruction” that not only deterred a nuclear war but also a conventional war between the Soviets and NATO in Europe.

It’s true that, strategically, Iran’s ayatollahs want nukes as a similar deterrent to protect their regime, just as they used the Strait of Hormuz shutdown to force a ceasefire in this war. But the ayatollahs, as religious fanatics, can be suicidal. If they had nukes, when the inevitable overthrow of their theocracy was imminent, they could joyously launch their nuclear missiles at the infidels to reap their reward in Islamic Heaven.

Trump’s recent announcement that Iran accepted his “deal” and met his demands, including opening the Strait and surrendering their enriched uranium, appears to have been premature. The ayatollahs are not known for keeping their promises. If they ultimately do, that’ll be a win for us and the world. If regime change follows, that will be a crowning achievement, especially for most of the Iranians who detest the ruling ayatollahs’ government. Trump-hating congressional Democrats and their media echo chamber, blinded by TDS, scoffed at Trump’s proclaimed good news absurdly stating that, even if true, this expensive war accomplished nothing. To back that argument up, one media wag exclaimed, “The Strait was open before the war; now it’s open again, nothing’s changed.” So much for partisanship ending at the waters’ edge.

Mike Rosen is a Denver-based American radio personality and political commentator.

I know this will shock you, but the system is rigged.

Maybe not in the conspiracy-theory, tinfoil-hat way. In the simple, obvious, right-in-front-of-your-face way: politicians get to play by rules you don’t.

And every now and then they get so brazen about it, you have to stop and admire the hustle.

We Coloradans have been painfully clear for decades: We want our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). We want government spending limits. And, yes, we want our refunds when government takes too much.

How many times do we have to say no?

1998, Referendum B. No.

2011, Proposition 103. No.

2013, Amendment 66. No.

2019, Proposition CC. No.

2023, Proposition HH. No.

And none of these elections were even close.

At this point, voters aren’t whispering. We’re screaming: live within your means.

But like shrill children demanding mommy buy them something, politicians don’t stop asking. Like the kid, they know they can wear you down. Because if they get a “yes” just once, it’s game over. TABOR refunds disappear forever.

And I mean forever.

TABOR originally said they could keep excess revenue for four years and only if we voters approved it. Then the Colorado Supreme Court later clarified “four years” actually means… forever. I guess because “four” and “forever” sound kinda the same.

Good to know words still have meaning and our political elite keep fighting to “protect democracy”

Now comes Senate Bill 135. And you’ll never guess what it does. It ends your TABOR refunds, forever.

But don’t worry. This time it’s “for the kids.” Cue the violins. Quite literally what you’ll read on the ballot says the money will go to education. There is no mention of a penny going anywhere else.

The ballot language the legislators who want your money wrote practically tucks you in at night:

“Shall state investment in K-12 public education increase… increase teacher pay… improve retention… lower class sizes… increase access to career and technical courses, without raising taxes.”

It’s beautiful. Inspiring. Almost makes you want to cry.

It’s also nonsense. Because buried in the fine print of the bill is the part they hope you never notice.

The legislature’s own analysis says this lets the state keep about $1.3 billion extra starting in year one alone.

Want to guess how much goes to education? About $200 million. That’s a mere 15%!

The other 85%? That’s a blank check for the legislature to spend however it wants. You’d never know that from the ballot language they wrote for themselves.

And here’s where it gets fun.

When politicians refer something to the ballot, they get to write the ballot language you read on Election Day. That is, they get to lie through their teeth.

When we lowly citizens propose something, a group of three unelected people called the Title Board writes what voters read at the voting booth. Again, one set of rules for them, a different set for us.

So I tried an experiment. I took SB-135 and submitted it, word for word, as a citizen’s initiative.

Here’s how the Title Board translated it:

“Shall there be a change… allowing the state to keep and spend… and requiring the state to use a portion… for education… and allowing the state to use the rest of the money for any purpose determined by the legislature?”

Same policy. Totally different honesty level.

So if you vote yes and kiss away your TABOR refunds, education will get a “portion” of it (15%) and the legislature will get “the rest of the money for any purpose.” Their words, not mine.

One version sounds like a gift to schoolchildren. The other sounds like what it actually is — a cash grab.

And then the legislature had the nerve to call this cash grab “without raising taxes.” There’s no such wording in the Title Board’s language.

Which is impressive. If I take more of your money but claim I didn’t, jail time is in my future. When our political elite does it, they’re only encouraged to lie even more next time.

So, go ahead. Vote yes this fall if you like the idea of kissing your TABOR refunds goodbye, forever.

Just know full well it’s not for the kids. It’s for our lawmakers to cover their rear ends after increasing Medicaid enrollment 200% and over-spending the state into a fiscal hole.

Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think in Denver.

In 2024, Donald Trump was elected president by 77 million Americans, two million more than voted for Kamala Harris. Republicans also won a majority in the U.S. House and Senate, giving the GOP a federal trifecta and a governing mandate. Democrats had a similar governing mandate during the first two years of both the Obama and Biden administrations.

Now relegated to minority party status, progressive Democrats are powerless to deliver their socialist paradise on Earth. So, they’re frustrated, angry, stricken with Trump Derangement Syndrome, and have gone stark raving mad. Lacking a realistic or rational public policy agenda of their own, Democrats have descended into a simplistic “We Hate Trump” resistance-movement flooding the courts with anti-Trump lawsuits, grid-locking government, and attempting to block any and every Republican initiative in Congress.

A case in point is the Democrats’ relentless war on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an essential instrument of Trump’s plan to find, arrest and deport illegal immigrants (especially criminals) who were ushered into our country under the Biden administration’s open-border policies. Having paved the way for those immigrants to illegally enter the U.S. and remain here, Democrats value them as a key political constituency and hope to harvest their votes forever when they become citizens.

Radical mobs around the country in Democrat controlled states and cities have provoked and obstructed ICE officers from doing their duty while Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, hatched a plot to shut down the entire Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is an agency. Schumer, of course, was well aware that ICE had already been separately funded by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), signed into law by the president on July 4, 2025. So, the Democrat Senate filibuster shutting down DHS on February 14th was just a ploy and a bargaining chip to hold DHS hostage to Democrat demands to handcuff ICE. Another consequence of this piece of Democrat extortion was cutting off the paychecks of TSA workers (another DHS agency) at airports across the country, causing many of those workers to stay home.

DHS is a collection of numerous agencies including ICE, TSA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Coast Guard, Federal Protective Service, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security, and others that were combined under the DHS umbrella after the 9/11 attack on America to coordinate their missions more effectively. Stubbornly turning the screws ever tighter, just before the Easter recess Democrats demanded that Republicans accept a phony “compromise” that still hobbled ICE and also undermined the Border Patrol, knowing this bill would never be approved by House Republicans. Under pressure from Trump to make a deal, Senate Republicans took the bait and passed that bill, which was promptly rejected by House Republicans, to the delight of the conniving Chuck Schumer, who predictably blamed Republicans for the impasse. Trump later intervened with an emergency workaround instructing DHS to pay TSA workers retroactively with leftover funds from the OBBB.

It’s despicable that Democrats would stoop to these tactics causing millions of airport passengers to languish in lines for hours, disrupting air travel throughout the country, and shutting down DHS when our nation is especially vulnerable to Islamist terrorist attacks. Some have already occurred here in the midst of the war with Iran.

For now, Democrats are powerless to advance their agenda or “demand” much of anything from the elected Republican majority. How ironic it is that radical progressive Democrats claim Trump and Republicans are “a threat to democracy,” when this is precisely how democracy works when electoral shoes are on the other feet.

Rampant TDS symptoms are glaringly on display in Democrat behavior like the incoherent series of national “No Kings” anti-Trump demonstrations, with three so far. Masses have turned out costumed as everything from chickens to bunnies to outer-space aliens. Elderly women hippies from the 1960s abound joyously dancing and singing silly lyrics amidst a sea of signs praising Antifa, foreign terrorists, democratic socialism, communism, and the universe of woke progressive identity-politics LGBTQ tribes.

Others expressed hatred of Trump, America, Isreal, capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. If this is a serious political protest, the mixture of rage and partying seems schizophrenic. It’s more like a group psychotherapy session reminiscent of the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for Complete Colorado.

Politics is a game of narrative. Whoever controls the narrative wins.

Sure, the truth is interesting. But truth doesn’t sell. It takes time to uncover, assuming people care enough to go digging for it.

Narratives are easier. They’re simple, comforting and come pre-approved by the crowd.

Groupthink isn’t just easy. It’s safe. The truth, on the other hand, requires work and enough bravery to risk being out of step with people who judge you.

And we’re busy. So, we outsource our thinking to the media, entertainment and schools, and go with whatever story they hand us.

Take this one: “Teachers are underpaid.”

It’s airtight. Say it at a cocktail party and everyone nods like they’ve just solved poverty.

But start factoring in full compensation packages, insurance, pensions with guaranteed lifetime payouts, a work calendar with summers off, fall and spring breaks, and two weeks for whatever they call Christmas these days, and suddenly the narrative gets…well, frayed.

Sidenote — studies confirm for an employee to afford a pre-paid retirement plan with the same guaranteed payout of a teacher’s pension, one’s salary would have to be increased about 27%.

Here’s another: “Fossil fuels are destroying the planet.”

That one has moved beyond narrative into religion. Question it and you’re not debating policy, you’re committing heresy. You will be canceled.

But here’s the part that never makes the sermon.

Roughly 2.3 billion people still cook over wood or dung. If we move them to portable propane stoves it would remove as much greenhouse gas as if we ended all air, rail and boat traffic combined.

Oh, not that it matters, but it would save women in impoverished nations about four hours a day toiling to collect fuel for the fire.

So, fossil fuels could save our climate. But the power of narrative will keep it “in the ground” choking our economy, potentially keeping the globe warming. But at least third-world chicks will never advance. So, we got that.

Narratives aren’t designed to inform you. They’re designed to manipulate you.

Which brings us to political lying season. Again.

The stories being planted right now as the legislature argues “budget cuts” will be set to bloom just in time for the fall election. And the anti-taxpayer choir is already warming up for its heart-rendering performance of “The State Needs More of Your Money.”

The script never changes.

There’s a crisis. It’s urgent. It’s not their fault. And fixing it requires reaching deeper into your pocket.

A couple years ago, Kyle Clark from 9News was one of the first to poke a hole in that script during the Proposition HH debate.

“Governor,” he said, “We know you’re smart. I hope you don’t think we’re stupid.”

That moment mattered. It cracked the narrative just enough for others to question it. HH went down by 20 points.

Turns out, when the story collapses, so does the manipulation.

Which is why this year’s push will be all about getting the story right.

Ending TABOR refunds won’t be sold as a tax hike. It’ll be “for the kids,” even though school enrollment is dropping fast.

A graduated income tax won’t be about chasing Colorado’s most innovative to a low- or no-income tax state. It’ll be about “fairness.”

And don’t forget the transit undead. We need a round of statewide trolley taxes to get us a train named after a drag queen. “And on stage 3, give it up for CoCo!” Forget about two decades of neglecting our roadways. It’ll be about “the future of transportation,” somehow with technology from the 1800s.

The details don’t matter nearly as much as the storyline.

Their schemes stand no chance unless they can develop an unchallenged storyline: The budget cuts will hurt the most fragile, and the budget crisis wasn’t their fault.

They will make sure the budget cuts really do hurt the most fragile. And they’ll never take responsibility for bloating the Medicaid roles 200% with people who are not disabled.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is a spot when and how they and their allies develop and test their narratives over the truth.

Watch which programs get highlighted. Watch which words get repeated. Watch how quickly blame is redirected.

Because if the narrative holds, the tax increases follow.

But if it cracks, even a room full of politicians can suddenly discover fiscal restraint.

Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

This is a selfish column. The legislature is about to hurt my disabled son.

My son, Chance, has Down syndrome and a few years ago would have been labeled “retarded.” Then “developmentally delayed.” Now the hypersensitive prefer “intellectually disabled.”

Whatever the term is this week, the reality hasn’t changed.

This 21-year-old man cannot consistently count to five, can’t read and can’t write his own name. He needs constant supervision for choking risks. He still needs help toileting. And that’s just the start.

Medicaid was designed for people like him, our most vulnerable. And I am grateful for it.

In between passing laws barring misgendering and expanding tax credits to buy electric bicycles, the state legislature plans to cut in half the Medicaid support Chance, and people like him, receive.

This is the funding he requires to live. So yeah, this one’s personal.

Not many years ago, the following sentence would be unimaginable. Medicaid spending is now a larger percentage of our state budget than education spending.

So, if Medicaid is the top priority, why are they cutting Chance’s life support by 50%?

Because, since 2009 Colorado’s population grew about 20%. Medicaid enrollment grew 200%. That’s not a demographic shift. That’s a policy choice.

Either that or every single person who has moved to Colorado is severely handicapped.

What else could explain the explosion of Medicaid enrollment?

Or maybe, just maybe, the state has been encouraging people who are not handicapped to enroll into Medicaid. Maybe they’ve been encouraging able-people to swell the ranks, which (and who could have predicted this) means less for the truly needy.

During COVID the federal government put our great-grandchildren-to-be into debt and printed money out of nowhere to shower it on to the states. Colorado had an orgy of free money.

Now, it was clear from the get-go this temporary emergency money from D.C. wasn’t permanent; it was, how to put it, temporary. Responsible states used it for short-term purposes like emergency services, unemployment payments, etc.

Other less responsible states (I’m looking at you, Colorado) used the windfall to get healthy people addicted to wealth-transfer entitlement programs, guaranteeing a painful hangover when the Feds stopped the benevolence.

A more cynical person (obviously not me) might think they knew exactly what would happen if they grew Medicaid enrollment to obscene levels. When the temporary gusher of free money stopped, it would cause massive budget shortfalls.

What gets people to say yes to new taxes? Seeing our most vulnerable hurt because the rich don’t pay their share, TABOR is mean, or Trump sucks (I wonder if they’re planning any tax elections this year? Nah.).

In other words, use people like my son as a political prop to raise taxes. These legislators exploit the severely handicapped as human shields to hide their inability to set budget priorities.

Their “Cover All Coloradans” program to give illegal immigrants Medicaid benefits wasn’t supposed to cost much. Just $14.7 million taken from folks like Chance. It’s now pushing $105 million. That’s a 611% miss.

Funny thing happens when you give away other people’s money. They come over borders to take it.

Blame Joe Biden for opening the floodgates to tens of millions of illegal immigrants. Blame our legislators for tempting them to relocate here for the free goodies. But just don’t be surprised by the oldest political ploy on the books — “the most vulnerable will hurt if we don’t raise taxes!”

In other words, our leaders’ decisions are hateful, not accidental. They knew this would happen. They planned on it.

I’ll find ways to keep Chance living with me, fed and clothed after these easily avoidable cuts are made. But other families will not have the means to keep their loved one at home.

With half the money needed to hire caretakers, therapies, food, transportation, rent and supplies, families will be forced to forfeit their own children to an institution or group home.

Basically, these cuts will force parents to give their vulnerable adult children to the state.

My son will lose half the help he needs to live.

But don’t worry. The state will still find plenty of money for people who never needed it in the first place.

Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.