Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Michael and guys like Booker brandstand think that Trump and
Dozer the problem. And here we are spending fifteen million
dollars just to do a study. Give me a break, people,
wake up. Both these democrats out.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So continuing on our path of stupidity today on the
thirty first Monday, the Democrats in the Colorado Pullet Bureau,
I'm sorry, let me start that over. Continuing down our
path of stupidity today on Monday, the Marxists and the
Communists and the Colorado Pullet Bureau introduced as Joint Resolution
(00:38):
twenty five Nash ten twenty three. Bear with me, because
you need to hear this. Whereas the Enabling Act of Colorado. Now,
the Enabling Act is the legislation that Congress passes to
create a state. Now, remember we've been through this whole
thing with Greenland before. It is new states may be
(01:01):
admitted by the Congress into this Union. This is Article four,
Section three, Clause one. New states like Colorado may be
admitted by the Congress into this Union. But no new
state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of
any other state, nor any state be formed by the
junction of two or more states or parts of states
(01:24):
without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned,
as well as obviously to consent of the Congress. So
Congress passes the Enabling Act of Colorado. And that's what
the Democrats, I'm sorry, the communism of Marx is referring
to in this resolution. Whereas the Enabling Act of Colorado
required the Territory of Colorado to adopt and maintain a
(01:47):
constitution that adopted the Constitution of the United States and
was quote republican in form And whereas under the guarantee
clause of Section four of Article four of the United
States Constitution, quote the United States, meaning the Feds shall
(02:08):
guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form
of government. And whereas the drafters of the United States
Constitution envisioned the guarantee of a republican form of government
entailing a representative democracy in which legislative bodies determine policy
(02:32):
by enacting laws through deliberation and compromise. And whereas Section
twenty of Article ten of the Colorado of the State
Constitution removed fundamental legislative authority and powers in matters of
revenue and expenditure from the institutions of representative democracy, namely
(02:58):
the General Assembly and the policy making bodies at all
levels of local government, and instead listen closely subjected that
authority and power to direct democracy, namely plebasit. And whereas
(03:21):
Section twenty of Article ten of the Colorado Constitution has
removed necessary and essential powers of its representative institutions and
so deprived the state of a republican form of government,
And whereas it is necessary for the General Assembly to
determine the scope of and protect both its role as
(03:44):
a representative institution and the proper extent of its legislative
authority and power in matters of revenue and expenditure. Now
therefore be it resolved by the House of Representatives of
the seventy fifth General Assembly of the State of Colorado,
the Senate concurring herein one that in the judgment of
(04:05):
the General Assembly, it is a matter of extreme importance
and critical to protecting the core functions and interests of
the General Assembly to determine whether Section twenty of Article
ten of the State Constitution violates the enabling Acts of
Colorado and the guarantee of a republican form of government,
set forth in the guarantee clause of Section four of
(04:25):
Article four of the US Constitution, by nullifying the authority
of the Colorado General Assembly to assess taxes and infringing
upon the plenary authority of the General Assembly to appropriate
money for public purposes. And two that the General Assembly
authorizes and directs the Committee on Legal Services to engage
appropriate legal counsel to file a lawsuit in the name
(04:49):
of the General Assembly and State District Court to determine
the constitutionality of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights Section twenty
of Article ten the State Constitution OOH nineteen ninety two.
The people of the State of Colorado adopted thirty three
(05:12):
years ago the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, commonly referred to
as TABOR. It's been in existence for thirty three years.
What's changed in thirty three years. I'll tell you what's changed.
Colorado has been like drunken sailors, with all due respect
(05:33):
to drunken sailors, spending their money on whores and prostitutes
and everything else that is totally unnecessary.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You gotta pay for it. Something wrong with you, really,
So you.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Find yourselves in a one point five billion dollar budget
deficit and you're scrambling around, you're running out of time,
you can't figure ot where to cut, you don't want
to cut, you can't cut, you won't cut, and Tabor
prevents you from increasing taxes without going to the people.
(06:10):
Now I find this whole Now, Corey Gains has written
an incredible article about this, which I'm going to just
told him last night in an email. I'm going to
totally plagiarize it today, which I'm going to in a minute.
But I want to establish a couple of baselines before
we get to it. So what's the gist of this
resolution that Tabor has somehow violated the concept of a
(06:38):
republican small R form of government. That's Section four of
Article four of the US Constitution, which reads as follows.
The United States shall guarantee to every state in this
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each
(07:01):
of them, including Colorado, against invasion and on application of
the legislature or of the executive when the legislature cannot
be convened, against domestic violence. So we guarantee, viz. Of
the the federal government, that every state shall have a
(07:25):
republican form of government.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Have you ever thought of that? Is.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Now, I want you to first think about Article ten
whatever it is of the Colorado Constitution that contains the
taxpayer Bill of Rights, which has a formula by which
the legislature is limited in the amount of money it
can spend without raising taxes. And if it wants to
(07:55):
raise taxes, then it must go to oh the people
in order to get approval to either impose a.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
News tax.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Or to increase the rate of taxation on an existing tax.
So the people, you and me get to decide whether
or not the legislature can increase taxes. Now, let's go
back and think about what a republican form of government is,
(08:29):
because the crux of this resolution is is that somehow
Tabor takes away the republican form of government by limiting
the ability of the legislature to tax and spend. That's
kind of a circular argument in my opinion, because a
republican form of government is a government where the power
(08:53):
ultimately resides in the people, you and me, and we
exercise our power or through the people that we elect
our elected representatives, as opposed to you know, exercising our
power if we had any through say a monarchy or
a small league group of people. The power is in
(09:14):
the people, you see. The core principle is the core
principle of a republic is that the government's authority stems
from the consent of the governed. You and I give
our consent to be governed, and we can withhold it.
(09:37):
If we give our consent, we can also withhold our consent,
we can vote and say you can't do this.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Will allow you to.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Do this and this and this and this and this
and this, but you can't do this without coming to us.
Because where does the power ultimately reside. It resides in
the people. So they may sit over there at Colfax
Broadway and they may think to themselves that all power
(10:09):
rests in them. They fully holy and purposely, and I
think truly more on purpose than anything else. Don't believe
in nor understand the republican small or form of government.
Citizens like you and me. We elect our representatives to
(10:34):
make laws. We elect them to govern on our behalf.
Rather than having a democracy, you know, where we directly
participate in every stupid decision that goes on. And Republican
governments have checks and balances that prevents any one branch
of government from becoming too powerful. But never forget that
(10:57):
in a republican form of government, all power ultimately resides
in the people, and we exercise that power through the
people that we vote for. Typically, a republican form of
government is characterized by a system of laws that apply
equally to everyone and listen closely, including those in power.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
This is.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
This is fundamental to understanding how our system of government works.
You and I, and particularly in Colorado, where we have
initiatives and referendums, we can say, you know, wait a minute,
you're failing to do something. So whatever that something is,
(11:48):
and we want it done. Let me give you an
example of an example of where we wanted something where
some people wanted something done done that I didn't, but
a majority voted for it, and so we're getting what
the majority wanted. The reintroduction of wolves. I didn't want that,
(12:08):
but I voted on it. I voted against it, and
I lost, as did many of you. Did that somehow
by telling the Colorado legislature that they had to introduce wolves,
did that take away their authority?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Because remember, in a republican form of government, who ultimately
holds power? You and me, we ultimately hold all the power.
So when we passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. For example,
we say that you have this, We've given you the
(12:49):
power of taxation. Our constitution and the Federal Constitution gives
For example, before the Sixteenth Amendment, Congress could levy tax
citizen excise taxes and tariffs and all of that, which
we're going to hear about today, but they couldn't tax
our income. So we passed the sixteenth Amendment to tell Congress,
(13:11):
the federal government that stupid us, that we want you
to tax our income. So we amend the Constitution so
that they can do that. Does that take away a
Republican form of government? No, So if we allow them
to tax us, we can also take away that power
(13:32):
to tax us. It's really quite simple. It all starts
from the idea, which I know that Democrats have a
really difficult time with this, particularly Democrats that are fascist,
communist Marxist socialists, like everybody at the Colorado polit Bureau
and some Republicans. If you're offended by that, I'm talking
to you too. If you're offended by it, I'm talking
(13:52):
to you. Power ultimately resides in the people, and we
exercise our power through our elected representatives and sometimes we
exercise our power through initiatives and referendums. We decide, and
in the case of the Taxpayer Bill Rights in nineteen
ninety two, we decided that listen, we want you, our
(14:16):
elected representatives that we elect and send over to Colfax
in Broadway. We elect you, but we're going to limit
your ability to take more money out of our pockets.
And so we passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. And
by the way, that i'd have to where's my note?
Where are my notes? I don't think I wrote down
(14:37):
the case. But the ten Circuit Court of Appeals is
already upheld the Taxpayer Bill of Rights once, but that
was a federal court. So now the Colorado legislature, because
they find themselves in a one point five billion dollar deficit. Now,
when you know, guys, this is has been tested in
the federal courts. Let's go try to state courts. Now,
why would they want to do that? Oh, because they
might find somewhere. They might find a sympathetic judge that
(15:03):
you know, that the governor appointed, they voted on and
they got it, they got into that seat. We might
find a sympathetic judge that will see our way and
say the taxpayer bill rights is unconstitutional. Now that will
still get a appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, and
then eventually you look at appeal from the Colorado Supreme
Court to the US Supreme Court, and it's going to
(15:23):
be upheld. Why because a republican form of government is
one where we decide, and we decided thirty three years ago.
And now that you find yourselves on a spending binge,
as you have been for the past thirty three years,
and now it's finally reached its ultimate conclusion. You got
a one point five billion dollar deficit. You can't figure
(15:43):
out where to cut. You know where you could cut,
but you don't want to do it because well, it's
it's gonna hurt yourself, it's going to hurt those mngos,
it's going to hurt you know, the ability to pass
out money to keep buying votes. And so now you're upset.
So now let's go to court. Let's go to court,
and let's see if we can't get the taxpayer bill
rights overturned. Every taxpayer in this state should be livid
(16:12):
because let's think about what they're really doing in the
name of protecting a republican form of government. They're actually
trying to diminish a republican form of government. Now, why
would I say that, Because if a republican form of
(16:32):
government is where the power ultimately resides in the people,
and we have exercised that power by saying, yeah, we're
going to elect you and you can go to you
can go down to the to the polic bureau, and
you can pass laws, but we're going to restrict what
you can do in terms of our taxes.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
And we decided.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That that's the very inherent nature of a republican form of government. Well, hey,
what that rule that constitution? They want that ruled in
violation of the US Constitution. Chrish, by the way, says
that they will guarantee a republic and form of government.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Do you see how twisted and demented these people are?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Zero two seven seven here that mega amount of money
going to improve DEIA entrants. How much of that will
turn back into donations to the Democrats and the city council.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Is there a way to track that? Can they find
out who they give it to?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
They'll just give it to their employees and then they
can just make donations to keep the city council right
with cash.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Well, that's how you are. That's exactly how you would
have to track it. So, a fifteen million dollar contract
to what was it, Peak Consulting, So then you have
to find all of the officers and employees of Peak Consulting,
and then you would have to track their contributions to federal, state,
(18:00):
local officials. And while it's not going to show causation,
it certainly is a correlation. You get a fifteen million
dollar contract, and then you can compare and contrast how
much did they give prior to the awarding of the contract,
how much money do they give post award of the contract,
(18:22):
And you can make an inference that, oh, you got
a fifteen million dollar contract, and of that fifteen million
dollars a million.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Dollars of it or whatever the number might be.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Suddenly now they're making contributions to Jared Polis or to
certain Democrat senators or certain Democrat representatives. And then wallet
you've got you've got some evidence circumstantial at best, but
you've got some evidence that, well, yeah, there's some.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Kickbacks going on.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
But and while that's kind of a given that that's
kind of what's going on, you have to be more
outranged that if you live in Denver, You're spending fifteen
million dollars to study what you ought to do to
improve ingress and negress from Denver International Airport. I understand, Look,
(19:13):
I understand this consulting firm will have engineers, they'll have
environmental scientists, they'll have they'll have all this, all these
different professions to put together this report, and fifteen million
dollars might be a reasonable amount. I seriously doubt that
it is. Did they bid it, did they put an
(19:35):
RFP out? Did or did they just oh, listen, Uh,
we've we've been talking to Peak, and Peak says they'll
do it for fifteen million dollars. And we like Peak
because we've got relationships with Peak, and you know they're
they'll they'll use the so called right people, and well,
we'll just we'll just give it to them. Now, do
(19:57):
you think that, for example, that the story that I
used for that came from nine News. Did nowhere in
that story did nine News ask or comment or have
any sort of journalism about any of those questions. It
was just a simple I think it was printed on
(20:20):
the front and back. Denver's going to spend fifteen million
dollars to be consulting to figure out how to handle
traffic going in and out of Denver International.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
I'd be curious as to back in the day, right
before t REX started, and for those who don't know,
is the expansion project for the twenty five I would
be curious as to how much was spent on that
kind of a study or even if there was one.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Well, I'm sure there had to be a study because
because of the expansion of it, they had to do
some sort of environmental impact statement. So they had to
hire somebody to do that because the state of Colorado
coloridle doesn't have the expertise and I'm I'm not sure
they could do the eis is in the house, So
I'm sure they hired some But yeah, what was the
process in doing that?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah, what's what was the dollar amount?
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Beyines And that was the dollar amount middle of city
versus out of the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
So back to TABOR.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So if you go to the Colorado Accountability Project on
substackt h Colorado Accountability Project. That's Corey Gaines's substack columns,
and today's entry has this headline, Colorado democrats want you
to fix their mistakes such as mismanagement and overspending, and
(21:36):
they will take tabor in the bargain. Inform yourself to
counter the assault that they're launching. A very well written headline,
and he starts out with, just let's think about how
did we get to this one point five billion dollar deficit. Well,
(21:58):
Corey goes into great detail in three parts, and the
first part is titled the mismanagement of the Unemployment Insurance
Fund in the Family Medical Leave Act Fund. Have you
looked at your paste ub Have you seen that deduction
for FAMLI the Family Medical Leave Insurance Program? Yeah, I
(22:23):
pay for it. I'm not even sure that I pay
for it. I haven't thought about this dragon because of
my contract. I'm not sure I'm entitled to use it.
Huh h that just crossed my mind. So I'm having
(22:47):
money taken out. It's not pre tax, post tax, so
I get no benefit from it, and I'm not sure
I can take advantage of the program.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Well, I'm not under contract here, so I'll be happy
to use yours.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
And I'd be happy to donate mine, thank you elf,
as a charitable contribution of some sort.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
So let's just start with.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Well, Cory points out that here's an example of mismanagement.
They can't figure out how to fill a one point
five billion dollar deficit. Well, maybe the first thing you
ought to do is look at the uninsurance, unemployment insurance program,
the Family Medical Leave Act insurance program and figure out
just exactly how you are mismanaging that. Let me just
(23:38):
read you one. This is quoting from an article that
he has linked about a state auditor's report.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
The problems uncovered with the labor Department's two largest.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Programs were numerous.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
For instance, the department the caud Ol Department of Labor,
did not ensure that all employers required to register family
did so. On top of that, the Labor Department did
not properly track and document the one hundred and twenty
seven million dollars that had owed employers that were exempted
(24:16):
from the program.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
And Colorado quote.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Colorado's Labor department also miscalculated what employers owed toward funding
unemployment insurance, setting incorrect rates for roughly thirty thousand businesses.
The errors resulted in some employers overpaying by about five
(24:42):
million dollars, while others underpaid. The state auditor said these
problems violated federal requirements. The problems with the unemployment insurance
stem from a box rollout of a new computer system.
According to Colorado Public Records CPR's earlier reporting, business owners
in June told CPR they were being charged penalties and
(25:05):
interests they didn't know for unemployment insurance taxes.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
At the time, companies.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Could not get an answer from the state's Labor Department
about what was going on. The same is true with
the Family Medical Leaf program.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
He says.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
The reason I put this post with the one about
the budget is that they are thematically, if not topically related.
The problem with UEI and Family is not because of
tabor limits. The problem is not inflation. This government department
cannot function correctly, a problem stretching back even through years
(25:46):
when Colorado was flushed with federal dollars, because it is
not competently run. Remember I told you today was about stupid.
Today was all about rapidity. So you've got a department,
the department in labor that is not competently run, which
(26:07):
was you know, now has this new you know, family
Medical Leaf insurance program. It's not being properly calculated, properly operated.
We're not quite sure how it operates. If you want
to know the truth, you got the unemployment insurance program
which is rife with waste, fraud and abuse, and we
don't have a DOGE program. And the yahoo's at the
(26:29):
Colorado Polloit Bureau can't figure out maybe rather than spending.
Because listen that resolution that wants to challenge Tabor. Remember
when they hired It wasn't Perkins Cooley. Who did they hire?
Howard Sherman. I forget who they hired, But remember when
when the mayor was going to testify before Congress and
(26:52):
they paid a I think it was a minimum of
one million dollar retainer, maybe a more than that, but
for some reason a million dollar sticks.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
It may have.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So they paid a minimum of a million dollar retainer
just for the mayor to go testify. Now, once you
think about hiring a law firm and you're going to
go test the constitutionality of a thirty three year old
program voted on and approved by the taxpayers, which has
already been through the federal court system, but you now
(27:24):
want to take it through the state court system. What
do you think that's going to cost in legal fees?
And where are those legal fees are going to come from? Oh,
a budget that's already in the whole one point five
billion dollars. So interestingly, they can find somehow the money
to spend to hire a law firm to go challenge
the constitutionality of something that I think is absolutely an integral,
(27:47):
if not inherent, part of a republican farm of government.
We the people deciding that, we're going to tell you,
the people that we elect, that when it comes to
taxing and spending, we're gonna put some limits on that.
What could be more constitutional than that? Nothing, but they're
gonna spend money on it. And then, as Corey points out,
(28:10):
they can't even manage the unemployment insurance program. They can't
even manage the family Medical leave insurance program. How about
fixing that before you sue? Because you can't fill a
budget deficit. Corey has another part. It's called Colorado's Unsustainable budget,
(28:31):
And I'll do that after the break.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Yeah, I can't go number two anymore?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
What?
Speaker 6 (28:41):
Yeah, I can't go number two anymore.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I can't go number two anymore? Is there reallybody said yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
I can't go number two anymore.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
I know you just play them, but sometimes I need
a translator, and you're not going to help me out.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
In this one.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
I got nothing Okay, all right, Uh, Dragon is going
to put the link to the Colorado Accountability Project, which
is Corey gained substack up on.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Michael says, go here dot com. So I I really
do encourage you to go read this. This is you know,
the the ironic thing is, well, let me finish Corey's points,
let me plagiarize him.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Just read him for a minute. He writes.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
In the past years, when our state was flushed with
cash from the Feds, among others, the politicians and summary
Republicans engaged in this too, way over commit, over committed
the state. They used federal dollars to pay for things
they wanted to do, handouts, giveaways, programs that straight our
government away from its core functions like education and infrastructure
(29:54):
by giving state employees a union, increasing the size of government,
et cetera. But now that the federal money is dried up,
rather than tightening their belts and reprioritizing, rather than trimming
the fat and the budget and revisiting earlier giveaways, the
politicians running this state bemoan the lack of money and
want to penant to measures that enforce fiscal responsibility. No,
(30:17):
he writes, it's a spending problem. It's not a revenue problem.
And then he goes on to link to a video
which is the between the Free State of Colorado and
Natalie Menton, which is it's about fifty two minutes long.
You can fast forward through parts of it, but it's
worth your time to watch. But I want to leave
(30:40):
you with this what's happened now. So here we are April.
They've got what maybe a month or so left in
the legislative session, and they are panic stricken because they
can't figure out how to fill this one point five
billion dollar budget deficit.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I think it's freaking hilarious. I want to see.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
I want to you know, Republicans, you should just stay home.
You can't, you can't not doing anything anyway. Sometimes we
just stay home and let them, let them just scream
and holler and you know, bitch and moan and do
everything else because they made this pilot poop. Let them
crawl out of the pileot poop. Now, what they're trying
(31:26):
to do is the point that I want to drive home.
They don't want to trim spending. They know they can't
get a tax increase, so what do they do. They
want to eliminate Tabor. Now, Tabor has survived attack after
attack after attack, and I don't think this one is
any better than any of the other attacks. But it's
(31:48):
deliciously ironic that what they're doing is they're taking something
that is the very nature of a republican form of government. Peoples,
a constitutional people who are the sole source of power
in government.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
You and me. You may think you don't have power.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Tabor is a great example of the people exercising the
power and saying to those elected officials, here's what you
can do, but here's what you can't do. You can't
raise our taxes without our approval, and you can't impose
a news tax without our approval, which is why we
got these fees, which I think are blatantly unconstitutional in
(32:31):
a violation of Tabor. But that's for another day. So
they what do they do? They rely on your ignorance. Oh,
the Constitution guarantees us a republican form of government, and
the people of Colorado stripped us of our power to
increase taxes, and we can't spend anymore because of what
(32:52):
you did. Well, that's the very definition of a republican
form of government. We the people exercising our ultimate We
are the ultimate power, and we exercised that thirty three
years ago and said no, you can spend money and
we'll give you increases based on a formula, but you
(33:13):
can't go beyond that. Well, they went beyond it. From
covid On like they spent like crazy. He took all
the federal money that's dried up. And now they're panic
stricken and now they want to attack Tabor on a
purely stupid basis
Michael and guys like Booker brandstand think that Trump and
Dozer the problem. And here we are spending fifteen million
dollars just to do a study. Give me a break, people,
wake up. Both these democrats out.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So continuing on our path of stupidity today on the
thirty first Monday, the Democrats in the Colorado Pullet Bureau,
I'm sorry, let me start that over. Continuing down our
path of stupidity today on Monday, the Marxists and the
Communists and the Colorado Pullet Bureau introduced as Joint Resolution
(00:38):
twenty five Nash ten twenty three. Bear with me, because
you need to hear this. Whereas the Enabling Act of Colorado. Now,
the Enabling Act is the legislation that Congress passes to
create a state. Now, remember we've been through this whole
thing with Greenland before. It is new states may be
(01:01):
admitted by the Congress into this Union. This is Article four,
Section three, Clause one. New states like Colorado may be
admitted by the Congress into this Union. But no new
state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of
any other state, nor any state be formed by the
junction of two or more states or parts of states
(01:24):
without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned,
as well as obviously to consent of the Congress. So
Congress passes the Enabling Act of Colorado. And that's what
the Democrats, I'm sorry, the communism of Marx is referring
to in this resolution. Whereas the Enabling Act of Colorado
required the Territory of Colorado to adopt and maintain a
(01:47):
constitution that adopted the Constitution of the United States and
was quote republican in form And whereas under the guarantee
clause of Section four of Article four of the United
States Constitution, quote the United States, meaning the Feds shall
(02:08):
guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form
of government. And whereas the drafters of the United States
Constitution envisioned the guarantee of a republican form of government
entailing a representative democracy in which legislative bodies determine policy
(02:32):
by enacting laws through deliberation and compromise. And whereas Section
twenty of Article ten of the Colorado of the State
Constitution removed fundamental legislative authority and powers in matters of
revenue and expenditure from the institutions of representative democracy, namely
(02:58):
the General Assembly and the policy making bodies at all
levels of local government, and instead listen closely subjected that
authority and power to direct democracy, namely plebasit. And whereas
(03:21):
Section twenty of Article ten of the Colorado Constitution has
removed necessary and essential powers of its representative institutions and
so deprived the state of a republican form of government,
And whereas it is necessary for the General Assembly to
determine the scope of and protect both its role as
(03:44):
a representative institution and the proper extent of its legislative
authority and power in matters of revenue and expenditure. Now
therefore be it resolved by the House of Representatives of
the seventy fifth General Assembly of the State of Colorado,
the Senate concurring herein one that in the judgment of
(04:05):
the General Assembly, it is a matter of extreme importance
and critical to protecting the core functions and interests of
the General Assembly to determine whether Section twenty of Article
ten of the State Constitution violates the enabling Acts of
Colorado and the guarantee of a republican form of government,
set forth in the guarantee clause of Section four of
(04:25):
Article four of the US Constitution, by nullifying the authority
of the Colorado General Assembly to assess taxes and infringing
upon the plenary authority of the General Assembly to appropriate
money for public purposes. And two that the General Assembly
authorizes and directs the Committee on Legal Services to engage
appropriate legal counsel to file a lawsuit in the name
(04:49):
of the General Assembly and State District Court to determine
the constitutionality of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights Section twenty
of Article ten the State Constitution OOH nineteen ninety two.
The people of the State of Colorado adopted thirty three
(05:12):
years ago the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, commonly referred to
as TABOR. It's been in existence for thirty three years.
What's changed in thirty three years. I'll tell you what's changed.
Colorado has been like drunken sailors, with all due respect
(05:33):
to drunken sailors, spending their money on whores and prostitutes
and everything else that is totally unnecessary.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You gotta pay for it. Something wrong with you, really,
So you.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Find yourselves in a one point five billion dollar budget
deficit and you're scrambling around, you're running out of time,
you can't figure ot where to cut, you don't want
to cut, you can't cut, you won't cut, and Tabor
prevents you from increasing taxes without going to the people.
(06:10):
Now I find this whole Now, Corey Gains has written
an incredible article about this, which I'm going to just
told him last night in an email. I'm going to
totally plagiarize it today, which I'm going to in a minute.
But I want to establish a couple of baselines before
we get to it. So what's the gist of this
resolution that Tabor has somehow violated the concept of a
(06:38):
republican small R form of government. That's Section four of
Article four of the US Constitution, which reads as follows.
The United States shall guarantee to every state in this
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each
(07:01):
of them, including Colorado, against invasion and on application of
the legislature or of the executive when the legislature cannot
be convened, against domestic violence. So we guarantee, viz. Of
the the federal government, that every state shall have a
(07:25):
republican form of government.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Have you ever thought of that? Is.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Now, I want you to first think about Article ten
whatever it is of the Colorado Constitution that contains the
taxpayer Bill of Rights, which has a formula by which
the legislature is limited in the amount of money it
can spend without raising taxes. And if it wants to
(07:55):
raise taxes, then it must go to oh the people
in order to get approval to either impose a.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
News tax.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Or to increase the rate of taxation on an existing tax.
So the people, you and me get to decide whether
or not the legislature can increase taxes. Now, let's go
back and think about what a republican form of government is,
(08:29):
because the crux of this resolution is is that somehow
Tabor takes away the republican form of government by limiting
the ability of the legislature to tax and spend. That's
kind of a circular argument in my opinion, because a
republican form of government is a government where the power
(08:53):
ultimately resides in the people, you and me, and we
exercise our power or through the people that we elect
our elected representatives, as opposed to you know, exercising our
power if we had any through say a monarchy or
a small league group of people. The power is in
(09:14):
the people, you see. The core principle is the core
principle of a republic is that the government's authority stems
from the consent of the governed. You and I give
our consent to be governed, and we can withhold it.
(09:37):
If we give our consent, we can also withhold our consent,
we can vote and say you can't do this.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Will allow you to.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Do this and this and this and this and this
and this, but you can't do this without coming to us.
Because where does the power ultimately reside. It resides in
the people. So they may sit over there at Colfax
Broadway and they may think to themselves that all power
(10:09):
rests in them. They fully holy and purposely, and I
think truly more on purpose than anything else. Don't believe
in nor understand the republican small or form of government.
Citizens like you and me. We elect our representatives to
(10:34):
make laws. We elect them to govern on our behalf.
Rather than having a democracy, you know, where we directly
participate in every stupid decision that goes on. And Republican
governments have checks and balances that prevents any one branch
of government from becoming too powerful. But never forget that
(10:57):
in a republican form of government, all power ultimately resides
in the people, and we exercise that power through the
people that we vote for. Typically, a republican form of
government is characterized by a system of laws that apply
equally to everyone and listen closely, including those in power.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
This is.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
This is fundamental to understanding how our system of government works.
You and I, and particularly in Colorado, where we have
initiatives and referendums, we can say, you know, wait a minute,
you're failing to do something. So whatever that something is,
(11:48):
and we want it done. Let me give you an
example of an example of where we wanted something where
some people wanted something done done that I didn't, but
a majority voted for it, and so we're getting what
the majority wanted. The reintroduction of wolves. I didn't want that,
(12:08):
but I voted on it. I voted against it, and
I lost, as did many of you. Did that somehow
by telling the Colorado legislature that they had to introduce wolves,
did that take away their authority?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Because remember, in a republican form of government, who ultimately
holds power? You and me, we ultimately hold all the power.
So when we passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. For example,
we say that you have this, We've given you the
(12:49):
power of taxation. Our constitution and the Federal Constitution gives
For example, before the Sixteenth Amendment, Congress could levy tax
citizen excise taxes and tariffs and all of that, which
we're going to hear about today, but they couldn't tax
our income. So we passed the sixteenth Amendment to tell Congress,
(13:11):
the federal government that stupid us, that we want you
to tax our income. So we amend the Constitution so
that they can do that. Does that take away a
Republican form of government? No, So if we allow them
to tax us, we can also take away that power
(13:32):
to tax us. It's really quite simple. It all starts
from the idea, which I know that Democrats have a
really difficult time with this, particularly Democrats that are fascist,
communist Marxist socialists, like everybody at the Colorado polit Bureau
and some Republicans. If you're offended by that, I'm talking
to you too. If you're offended by it, I'm talking
(13:52):
to you. Power ultimately resides in the people, and we
exercise our power through our elected representatives and sometimes we
exercise our power through initiatives and referendums. We decide, and
in the case of the Taxpayer Bill Rights in nineteen
ninety two, we decided that listen, we want you, our
(14:16):
elected representatives that we elect and send over to Colfax
in Broadway. We elect you, but we're going to limit
your ability to take more money out of our pockets.
And so we passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. And
by the way, that i'd have to where's my note?
Where are my notes? I don't think I wrote down
(14:37):
the case. But the ten Circuit Court of Appeals is
already upheld the Taxpayer Bill of Rights once, but that
was a federal court. So now the Colorado legislature, because
they find themselves in a one point five billion dollar deficit. Now,
when you know, guys, this is has been tested in
the federal courts. Let's go try to state courts. Now,
why would they want to do that? Oh, because they
might find somewhere. They might find a sympathetic judge that
(15:03):
you know, that the governor appointed, they voted on and
they got it, they got into that seat. We might
find a sympathetic judge that will see our way and
say the taxpayer bill rights is unconstitutional. Now that will
still get a appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, and
then eventually you look at appeal from the Colorado Supreme
Court to the US Supreme Court, and it's going to
(15:23):
be upheld. Why because a republican form of government is
one where we decide, and we decided thirty three years ago.
And now that you find yourselves on a spending binge,
as you have been for the past thirty three years,
and now it's finally reached its ultimate conclusion. You got
a one point five billion dollar deficit. You can't figure
(15:43):
out where to cut. You know where you could cut,
but you don't want to do it because well, it's
it's gonna hurt yourself, it's going to hurt those mngos,
it's going to hurt you know, the ability to pass
out money to keep buying votes. And so now you're upset.
So now let's go to court. Let's go to court,
and let's see if we can't get the taxpayer bill
rights overturned. Every taxpayer in this state should be livid
(16:12):
because let's think about what they're really doing in the
name of protecting a republican form of government. They're actually
trying to diminish a republican form of government. Now, why
would I say that, Because if a republican form of
(16:32):
government is where the power ultimately resides in the people,
and we have exercised that power by saying, yeah, we're
going to elect you and you can go to you
can go down to the to the polic bureau, and
you can pass laws, but we're going to restrict what
you can do in terms of our taxes.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
And we decided.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That that's the very inherent nature of a republican form of government. Well, hey,
what that rule that constitution? They want that ruled in
violation of the US Constitution. Chrish, by the way, says
that they will guarantee a republic and form of government.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Do you see how twisted and demented these people are?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Zero two seven seven here that mega amount of money
going to improve DEIA entrants. How much of that will
turn back into donations to the Democrats and the city council.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Is there a way to track that? Can they find
out who they give it to?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
They'll just give it to their employees and then they
can just make donations to keep the city council right
with cash.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Well, that's how you are. That's exactly how you would
have to track it. So, a fifteen million dollar contract
to what was it, Peak Consulting, So then you have
to find all of the officers and employees of Peak Consulting,
and then you would have to track their contributions to federal, state,
(18:00):
local officials. And while it's not going to show causation,
it certainly is a correlation. You get a fifteen million
dollar contract, and then you can compare and contrast how
much did they give prior to the awarding of the contract,
how much money do they give post award of the contract,
(18:22):
And you can make an inference that, oh, you got
a fifteen million dollar contract, and of that fifteen million
dollars a million.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Dollars of it or whatever the number might be.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Suddenly now they're making contributions to Jared Polis or to
certain Democrat senators or certain Democrat representatives. And then wallet
you've got you've got some evidence circumstantial at best, but
you've got some evidence that, well, yeah, there's some.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Kickbacks going on.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
But and while that's kind of a given that that's
kind of what's going on, you have to be more
outranged that if you live in Denver, You're spending fifteen
million dollars to study what you ought to do to
improve ingress and negress from Denver International Airport. I understand, Look,
(19:13):
I understand this consulting firm will have engineers, they'll have
environmental scientists, they'll have they'll have all this, all these
different professions to put together this report, and fifteen million
dollars might be a reasonable amount. I seriously doubt that
it is. Did they bid it, did they put an
(19:35):
RFP out? Did or did they just oh, listen, Uh,
we've we've been talking to Peak, and Peak says they'll
do it for fifteen million dollars. And we like Peak
because we've got relationships with Peak, and you know they're
they'll they'll use the so called right people, and well,
we'll just we'll just give it to them. Now, do
(19:57):
you think that, for example, that the story that I
used for that came from nine News. Did nowhere in
that story did nine News ask or comment or have
any sort of journalism about any of those questions. It
was just a simple I think it was printed on
(20:20):
the front and back. Denver's going to spend fifteen million
dollars to be consulting to figure out how to handle
traffic going in and out of Denver International.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
I'd be curious as to back in the day, right
before t REX started, and for those who don't know,
is the expansion project for the twenty five I would
be curious as to how much was spent on that
kind of a study or even if there was one.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Well, I'm sure there had to be a study because
because of the expansion of it, they had to do
some sort of environmental impact statement. So they had to
hire somebody to do that because the state of Colorado
coloridle doesn't have the expertise and I'm I'm not sure
they could do the eis is in the house, So
I'm sure they hired some But yeah, what was the
process in doing that?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah, what's what was the dollar amount?
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Beyines And that was the dollar amount middle of city
versus out of the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
So back to TABOR.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So if you go to the Colorado Accountability Project on
substackt h Colorado Accountability Project. That's Corey Gaines's substack columns,
and today's entry has this headline, Colorado democrats want you
to fix their mistakes such as mismanagement and overspending, and
(21:36):
they will take tabor in the bargain. Inform yourself to
counter the assault that they're launching. A very well written headline,
and he starts out with, just let's think about how
did we get to this one point five billion dollar deficit. Well,
(21:58):
Corey goes into great detail in three parts, and the
first part is titled the mismanagement of the Unemployment Insurance
Fund in the Family Medical Leave Act Fund. Have you
looked at your paste ub Have you seen that deduction
for FAMLI the Family Medical Leave Insurance Program? Yeah, I
(22:23):
pay for it. I'm not even sure that I pay
for it. I haven't thought about this dragon because of
my contract. I'm not sure I'm entitled to use it.
Huh h that just crossed my mind. So I'm having
(22:47):
money taken out. It's not pre tax, post tax, so
I get no benefit from it, and I'm not sure
I can take advantage of the program.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Well, I'm not under contract here, so I'll be happy
to use yours.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
And I'd be happy to donate mine, thank you elf,
as a charitable contribution of some sort.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
So let's just start with.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Well, Cory points out that here's an example of mismanagement.
They can't figure out how to fill a one point
five billion dollar deficit. Well, maybe the first thing you
ought to do is look at the uninsurance, unemployment insurance program,
the Family Medical Leave Act insurance program and figure out
just exactly how you are mismanaging that. Let me just
(23:38):
read you one. This is quoting from an article that
he has linked about a state auditor's report.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
The problems uncovered with the labor Department's two largest.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Programs were numerous.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
For instance, the department the caud Ol Department of Labor,
did not ensure that all employers required to register family
did so. On top of that, the Labor Department did
not properly track and document the one hundred and twenty
seven million dollars that had owed employers that were exempted
(24:16):
from the program.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
And Colorado quote.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Colorado's Labor department also miscalculated what employers owed toward funding
unemployment insurance, setting incorrect rates for roughly thirty thousand businesses.
The errors resulted in some employers overpaying by about five
(24:42):
million dollars, while others underpaid. The state auditor said these
problems violated federal requirements. The problems with the unemployment insurance
stem from a box rollout of a new computer system.
According to Colorado Public Records CPR's earlier reporting, business owners
in June told CPR they were being charged penalties and
(25:05):
interests they didn't know for unemployment insurance taxes.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
At the time, companies.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Could not get an answer from the state's Labor Department
about what was going on. The same is true with
the Family Medical Leaf program.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
He says.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
The reason I put this post with the one about
the budget is that they are thematically, if not topically related.
The problem with UEI and Family is not because of
tabor limits. The problem is not inflation. This government department
cannot function correctly, a problem stretching back even through years
(25:46):
when Colorado was flushed with federal dollars, because it is
not competently run. Remember I told you today was about stupid.
Today was all about rapidity. So you've got a department,
the department in labor that is not competently run, which
(26:07):
was you know, now has this new you know, family
Medical Leaf insurance program. It's not being properly calculated, properly operated.
We're not quite sure how it operates. If you want
to know the truth, you got the unemployment insurance program
which is rife with waste, fraud and abuse, and we
don't have a DOGE program. And the yahoo's at the
(26:29):
Colorado Polloit Bureau can't figure out maybe rather than spending.
Because listen that resolution that wants to challenge Tabor. Remember
when they hired It wasn't Perkins Cooley. Who did they hire?
Howard Sherman. I forget who they hired, But remember when
when the mayor was going to testify before Congress and
(26:52):
they paid a I think it was a minimum of
one million dollar retainer, maybe a more than that, but
for some reason a million dollar sticks.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
It may have.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So they paid a minimum of a million dollar retainer
just for the mayor to go testify. Now, once you
think about hiring a law firm and you're going to
go test the constitutionality of a thirty three year old
program voted on and approved by the taxpayers, which has
already been through the federal court system, but you now
(27:24):
want to take it through the state court system. What
do you think that's going to cost in legal fees?
And where are those legal fees are going to come from? Oh,
a budget that's already in the whole one point five
billion dollars. So interestingly, they can find somehow the money
to spend to hire a law firm to go challenge
the constitutionality of something that I think is absolutely an integral,
(27:47):
if not inherent, part of a republican farm of government.
We the people deciding that, we're going to tell you,
the people that we elect, that when it comes to
taxing and spending, we're gonna put some limits on that.
What could be more constitutional than that? Nothing, but they're
gonna spend money on it. And then, as Corey points out,
(28:10):
they can't even manage the unemployment insurance program. They can't
even manage the family Medical leave insurance program. How about
fixing that before you sue? Because you can't fill a
budget deficit. Corey has another part. It's called Colorado's Unsustainable budget,
(28:31):
And I'll do that after the break.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Yeah, I can't go number two anymore?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
What?
Speaker 6 (28:41):
Yeah, I can't go number two anymore.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I can't go number two anymore? Is there reallybody said yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
I can't go number two anymore.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
I know you just play them, but sometimes I need
a translator, and you're not going to help me out.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
In this one.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
I got nothing Okay, all right, Uh, Dragon is going
to put the link to the Colorado Accountability Project, which
is Corey gained substack up on.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Michael says, go here dot com. So I I really
do encourage you to go read this. This is you know,
the the ironic thing is, well, let me finish Corey's points,
let me plagiarize him.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Just read him for a minute. He writes.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
In the past years, when our state was flushed with
cash from the Feds, among others, the politicians and summary
Republicans engaged in this too, way over commit, over committed
the state. They used federal dollars to pay for things
they wanted to do, handouts, giveaways, programs that straight our
government away from its core functions like education and infrastructure
(29:54):
by giving state employees a union, increasing the size of government,
et cetera. But now that the federal money is dried up,
rather than tightening their belts and reprioritizing, rather than trimming
the fat and the budget and revisiting earlier giveaways, the
politicians running this state bemoan the lack of money and
want to penant to measures that enforce fiscal responsibility. No,
(30:17):
he writes, it's a spending problem. It's not a revenue problem.
And then he goes on to link to a video
which is the between the Free State of Colorado and
Natalie Menton, which is it's about fifty two minutes long.
You can fast forward through parts of it, but it's
worth your time to watch. But I want to leave
(30:40):
you with this what's happened now. So here we are April.
They've got what maybe a month or so left in
the legislative session, and they are panic stricken because they
can't figure out how to fill this one point five
billion dollar budget deficit.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I think it's freaking hilarious. I want to see.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
I want to you know, Republicans, you should just stay home.
You can't, you can't not doing anything anyway. Sometimes we
just stay home and let them, let them just scream
and holler and you know, bitch and moan and do
everything else because they made this pilot poop. Let them
crawl out of the pileot poop. Now, what they're trying
(31:26):
to do is the point that I want to drive home.
They don't want to trim spending. They know they can't
get a tax increase, so what do they do. They
want to eliminate Tabor. Now, Tabor has survived attack after
attack after attack, and I don't think this one is
any better than any of the other attacks. But it's
(31:48):
deliciously ironic that what they're doing is they're taking something
that is the very nature of a republican form of government. Peoples,
a constitutional people who are the sole source of power
in government.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
You and me. You may think you don't have power.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Tabor is a great example of the people exercising the
power and saying to those elected officials, here's what you
can do, but here's what you can't do. You can't
raise our taxes without our approval, and you can't impose
a news tax without our approval, which is why we
got these fees, which I think are blatantly unconstitutional in
(32:31):
a violation of Tabor. But that's for another day. So
they what do they do? They rely on your ignorance. Oh,
the Constitution guarantees us a republican form of government, and
the people of Colorado stripped us of our power to
increase taxes, and we can't spend anymore because of what
(32:52):
you did. Well, that's the very definition of a republican
form of government. We the people exercising our ultimate We
are the ultimate power, and we exercised that thirty three
years ago and said no, you can spend money and
we'll give you increases based on a formula, but you
(33:13):
can't go beyond that. Well, they went beyond it. From
covid On like they spent like crazy. He took all
the federal money that's dried up. And now they're panic
stricken and now they want to attack Tabor on a
purely stupid basis
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.