April 03, 2019 10:10 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (April 3)

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• by: Colorado Pols

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TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Attorney General William Barr says that he will make a “redacted” version of the Mueller report available to lawmakers by mid-April. The House Judiciary Committee isn’t satisfied with that approach, as CNN reports:

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a subpoena to obtain the full confidential report from special counsel Robert Mueller, sending a warning to Attorney General William Barr not to redact Mueller’s report and setting the stage for a clash between Congress and the Trump administration.

Wednesday’s vote, which was divided along party lines, comes the day after an April 2 deadline House Democrats set for Barr to provide the full Mueller report to Congress. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler now has the ability to issue a subpoena for Mueller’s unredacted report as well as the underlying evidence collected during the 22-month investigation into Trump’s team…

…”The big question is, do we get the entire report and the documentation? Or does he redact it so it’s meaningless?” Nadler told on CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday.

Colorado is represented on the House Judiciary Committee by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Lafayette) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-Greeley).

► So-called “red flag” gun safety legislation is through the state legislature and awaiting the signature of Gov. Jared Polis. The editorial board of the Pueblo Chieftain has a strong message for those who think they are doing their community a service if they refuse to enforce the new law:

Sheriffs and the deputies who work for them are supposed to be in the business of enforcing laws. That’s why it’s a little surreal to hear so many of them across Colorado vowing not to enforce the so-called “red flag” bill…

…The larger point here is that sheriffs shouldn’t be in the position of picking which laws they choose to enforce. That’s a slippery slope that, taken to its extreme, would lead to anarchy.

► The newly-elected Chairman of the Colorado Republican Party wasted no time in embarrassing the State GOP on Tuesday. Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley) made the wrong kind of headlines for his questioning during a hearing to amend the Equality Act when he asked a witness (who was testifying about her experience with discrimination after a same-sex marriage) if she thought requiring Christian doctors to treat gay patients was comparable to forcing Jewish doctors to treat Nazis. From Yahoo! News:

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo, posed an even more outlandish scenario to one of the witnesses, Jami Contreras, who faced discrimination in seeking medical care for her child because she is in a same-sex marriage.

“Is it your position,” Buck asked Contreras, “that an Orthodox Jewish doctor whose grandparent was killed in the Holocaust be required to work with a Nazi patient?”

Nazis are not a protected class, meaning that adherents of a political ideology — in this case, fascism — are not covered by the anti-discrimination statute of the Civil Rights Act. A seemingly confused Contreras answered by pointing out that she and her wife were raising their child according to “Christian values” and wanted only protection from prejudice.

Click here for the full exchange during Tuesday’s hearing.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Kyle Clark of 9News marvels at the idiocy of State Sen. Vicki Marble (R-Fort Collins), who opposed a resolution supporting equal pay for equal work on the grounds that it was disrespectful to white men:

On this Equal Pay Day, Kyle shares his thoughts about Colorado State Senator Vicki Marble giving a shout-out to the real victims in all this: white guys. pic.twitter.com/BHQAQhDze7

— Next with Kyle Clark (@nexton9news) April 3, 2019

► Congressional Republicans and White House advisers are struggling to understand President Trump’s ever-shifting public policy ideas, as the Washington Post explains:

Trump surprised Republicans last week with a new pledge to replace the Affordable Care Act, only to backtrack Tuesday after being confronted with the realities of another all-consuming fight over President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law on Capitol Hill.

Trump has also sent aides and a large part of the federal bureaucracy scrambling to respond to his expansive vow to close the entire U.S.-Mexico border this week unless “ALL illegal immigration” is halted by Mexico. Alarmed lawmakers and business leaders warned that any such move would be catastrophic for the U.S. economy, and administration officials signaled Tuesday that they were seeking more-limited options to address a surge in migration at the border.

Even efforts on which the White House has worked closely with congressional GOP leaders have seen setbacks, such as a massive disaster funding bill that stalled Monday amid partisan sniping over aid to Puerto Rico. Trump has inflamed the fight by repeatedly denigrating the island’s leadership and implying that Puerto Rico — a U.S. territory — is separate from the United States…

…But many Republicans say they have adapted to the pandemonium — learning to privately sway Trump by warning him of the consequences of his policy declarations, many of which are launched in late-night or early-morning tweets. [Pols emphasis]

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of Twitter the United States of America.

► Voters in Chicago have elected Lori Lightfoot to serve as Mayor of the nation’s third-largest city. Lightfoot is the first black female to be elected Mayor of Chicago…as well as the first openly-gay woman.

► Gazillionaire Republican donor Charles Koch is not happy about President Trump’s repeated threats to close the U.S.-Mexico border. As the Washington Post explains:

Charles Koch doesn’t just think President Trump’s threat to close the southern border is terrible. He’d do the opposite.

“I would let everybody in who comes here to contribute, and no one who wants to come here to do harm, and see how easy this is,” the billionaire industrialist said on Monday in Redwood City, Calif. “This goes to our whole philosophy of openness. … We have to have an open society – open to ideas, people, goods and services – to learn from each other and have us all benefit.”

During rare public comments, the Koch brother complained that leaders in both parties agree that the immigration laws need to change…

…In response to a direct question about Trump, Koch said: “My deal is to hate the sin, not the sinner. We want to help save the sinner, right?”

► CNN’s Chris Cillizza wonders why President Trump can’t stop lying about, well, everything. Trump keeps saying that his father, Fred Trump, was born in Germany. Fred Trump was born in New York City, something which is easily verifiable.

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) has joined the screeching right-wing bandwagon that uses “overreach” as a political mating call.

► You can add former Congressman Tom Tancredo to the list of people who see a grim future for Colorado Republicans with the election of Rep. Ken Buck as State Party Chairman.

► If you love you some water policy, then this story from Colorado Public Radio should make you very happy.

► Legislation sponsored by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Lafayette) is advancing through the House of Representatives. The publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman has the latest on H.R. 823, the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act.

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) re-introduced his “Medicare X” plan in the U.S. Senate. From Justin Wingerter of the Denver Post:

The legislation would create a government-run insurance plan on the health care exchange, giving Americans another option for purchasing insurance when they’re unable to acquire it through their employer…

…The government health care plan would include benefits not covered by Medicare, such as pediatrics and maternity care. Money for it would not come from the Medicare trust fund; it would instead be funded through premiums. The government plan, known as a public option, was considered in early drafts of the ACA but removed before the 2010 overhaul became law.

The Bennet legislation would also expand subsidies and tax credits for people purchasing health insurance on the exchange and spend $30 billion over three years on reinsurance, which are payments to insurers to keep costs low.

 

► The Colorado Sun reports on efforts underway at the State Capitol to combat Climate Change.

► The Colorado Independent eulogizes legislative efforts to end the death penalty in Colorado.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► President Trump says that the sound of wind turbines is a known cause of cancer. Really, he actually said this.

► Yeah, sure, run for U.S. Senate.

ICYMI

► Politico reports on the looming death of the Senate filibuster:

With Republicans expected to change the Senate rules to slash debate time on President Donald Trump’s nominees this week, it will mark the third time the “nuclear option” — changing Senate rules by a simple majority — has been triggered in just six years.

Each of those unilateral moves by a Senate majority to weaken the Senate’s age-old precedents centered on nominations, leaving the legislative filibuster and its 60-vote threshold unscathed. But some senators say it’s just a matter of time before even that Senate institution is more or less wiped away by a majority tired of seeing its big ideas blocked.

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