HOW HOSPITALS ARE DRIVING UP HEALTHCARE COSTS The thing that makes health insurance so expensive is the COST of the healthcare being delivered, and as we try to fix health insurance we can't do so without acknowledging what is driving those costs. One bit thing is hospital consolidation. Hospitals are buying up private practices, surgical centers and more and then leveraging their monopoly powers to charge more to insurance companies, who then charge more to insurers. I've got Peter Pitts, former Associate FDA Commissioner and President of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest on at 1pm to talk about it. He recently testified before Congress and in part had this to say:
“Healthcare in the United States is in a crisis of affordability and accountability. In 2023, Americans spent more than $1.5 trillion at hospitals—nearly one-third of total health expenditures. Hospital systems, especially nonprofit institutions, are the primary driver of healthcare cost inflation and systemic inefficiency.”
If we want to lower healthcare costs, we have to fix this broken system. Peter also has a book out about the process of creative destruction and how to leverage it and you can buy it here.
THE HOUSE GOP CALLS FOUL ON ELECTRIFICATION EDICTS I shared the new rules just passed by the laughingly called Public Utilities Commission that will shove the cost and burden of forced electrification on to ratepayers as the state has decided we don't get to keep our gas appliance. Now the House GOP caucus is raising holy hell, as they should.
JERRY SCHEMMEL HAS A CAUSE And I love this one. Our friend Jerry is working with Best Day Ministries, an organization that works to provide support and life skills to help them achieve at their highest level. Find out more about it here, and Jerry joins me at 2:30 to discuss it!
THE PROGRESSIVE INCOME TAX IS COMING And I have no reason to think that the voters, who keep voting THEMSELVES tax cuts while voting to raise the taxes on "the rich" are going to pass this, even with the obscene cost now attached. There is ballot initiative which has been cleared to collect signatures that would create a progressive income tax in Colorado. From the Denver Gazette:
Initiative No. 181 would change the state’s flat income tax, in which everyone currently pays the same rate of 4.41%, to a graduated income tax, where people with incomes of up to $500,000 would get a small tax cut, while those who earn more would see an increase.
The proposal contains a dozen tax brackets, with the highest levels set to accrue up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional liabilities, while cutting them for individuals at the lower end of the proposed spectrum.
How it would affect individuals depends on their annual household or business income.
A dozen tax brackets? Is this what we want to do now? The only hope here is that the tax cuts will be small enough that perhaps people won't sign onto this.
I LIKE THE NEW ROCKIES GM HIRE Y'all, those kernels of hope are growing that maybe the Rockies ownership is serious this time. They just hired Josh Byrne away from the Dodgers to be the new General Manager and I am all kinds of hopeful right now. Read more about him here.
HOW DEMOCRATS RUINED COLORADO'S ECONOMY This series in the Denver Gazette isn't called that, but since Democrats took complete and total control of our state the business climate has tanked. So who to blame? I'm going with anti-business, anti-fossil fuels, anti-landlord Democrats. Read this part:
One of the best years during Polis’ tenure occurred in 2021, when Colorado’s GDP grew by nearly 5.7% – from a 1.5% decline in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Plenty of factors contributed to that high, including Colorado’s growing population and developments in the technology industries, notably quantum, and aerospace. The state also capitalized on the state’s vast outdoor amenities and overcame pandemic-related challenges.
That success has since sputtered, with 2024 showing signs of stress: GDP only increased by 1.9%, ranking 39th among the states. This slowdown is a remarkable downward trajectory for a state that had been one of the top in the country for GDP growth between 2008 and 2023.
This entire series should be the foundation for Republican candidates to come up with coherent messaging about how and why Democratic leadership needs to be severely checked in this state. No more nonsense about Trump, just laser like focus on how badly the Dems are running this state. Period.
WOLF REINTRODUCTION KILLS SOMETHING ELSE And that is the leadership career of former Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis, who apparently left before he could be fired. All we know is that there were promises made about him not suing the state, but why that was needed is unclear.
DRUG USE ON TRANSIT ISN'T JUST AN RTD PROBLEM And this part of the story on a new study about open drug use on mass transit caught my eye:
“At the end of the day, we’re a transportation service … we need support when it comes to mental health, when it comes to substance use, when it comes to individuals who are shelter-in-place — those are things that are beyond the transit agency,” said David Cooper, the study lead.
No, you don't need to deal with any of this. Laws need to be enforced and let drug court take care of the rest. The notion that every system needs to be specialized to deal with the needs of the persistent and addicted urban outdoorsman is flatly wrong.
DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS SEES ENROLLMENT DROP And it's mostly because they didn't get a new influx of illegal immigrants. They lost about 1,200 students total, and now have to adjust their budget down by $18 million bucks. Low birth rates, a stem in the flow of illegal immigrants, and housing costs are being blamed, and none of those things are going to change anytime soon.
THIS AS DPS OWES WAY MORE THAN ITS WORTH A new audit says that Denver Public Schools has debt to the tune of $4.07 BILLION dollars, with is about TWO AND A HALF TIMES it's annual budget. From the Denver Gazette Editorial board:
As The Denver Gazette reported last month, the 2024-25 fiscal year audit revealed DPS carries $4.07 billion in long-term liabilities — far greater than the district’s assets and many times its most recent annual budget of $1.5 billion.
Those long-term liabilities include roughly $2.5 billion in general obligation bonds as well as $785 million in Certificates of Participation and lease-purchase obligations — a financing mechanism being challenged in court for allegedly violating state law.
Well at least that is money well spent on student achievement! JK, it's not.
MIKE ROSEN TALKS OPEN BORDERS and as you can guess, he's not a fan. Read it here.
COLORADO HAS GOOD DRIVERS? Does anyone else feel suspicious about this story?
WHY DO THEY SNUB MIKE SHANAHAN??? He got snubbed again for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and that's just dumb. Read more here.
HOW TRUMP STOLE BIDEN'S DRUG PLAN At least Biden's drug plan back in 1989.
LAYOFFS ARE PILING UP With some industries, like tech, leading the way when it comes to laying of folks. We're sitting at about 1.1 million people who have lost their jobs due to downsizing, restructuring, or business closures. The economy is flashing MASSIVE warning signs we need to pay attention to. Read more here.
IF I KNOW THIS YOU'RE GONNA KNOW IT TOO And now that you've read this, we both know something so there's that. I am genuinely shocked and appalled that we had to learn this though.
THESE ALIENS PROBABLY WON'T KILL US The strange space anomaly called 3I/Atlas which is barreling towards us (okay, not right at us, but a mere 170 million miles away) has developed a strange "heartbeat" that emanates from it every 16.6 hours. What is it? Scientists have all sorts of cool theories.
PETA DEMANDS THREE WALKS PER DAY Now that PETA has realized their quest to keep us from having pets won't work, they are trying to make owning a pet miserable. Case in point, they are trying to pass a bill in Delaware that would require dog owners to walk said dogs three times a day. I'm not kidding. Read it here. My question is, how do they know? Do they set up a snitch hotline dogs can call to rat out their owners? This is insane.
THE FBI ARRESTED A SUSPECT IN THE J6 PIPE BOMBS and NBC is the only outfit identifying him as a guy named Brian Cole, and the FBI says he was an anarchist but not much more.
JARED POLIS WANTS TO BLAME OUR WOES ON TARIFFS And don't fall for crap like this.
Over regulation, taxes, fees, and state inflation have a far greater impact on our economy than tariffs. This isn't to say tariffs have no effect but it pales in comparison to what Democrats have done.
EVERY KID'S CHRISTMAS CONCERT IN ONE VIDEO Not gonna lie, I miss these. Watch below or click here.
AND THEIR PARENTS Watch below or click here.
ILHAN OMAR DEFENDS HER HOMELAND but she still lives here, doesn't she? Watch below or click here
LIGHT PAINTINGS ARE REALLY AMAZING Watch below or click here.
WHAT A REMARKABLE MAN THIS FOOTBALL COACH IS He's exactly what young men need and I hope he will be successful.
TRUMP IS MAD AT POLIS And I don't care.