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February 01, 2016 11:51 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (Feb. 1)

  • 9 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

MoreSmarterLogo-SnowmanNo snow day for you…but maybe tomorrow. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► The Iowa caucuses have arrived at last. To celebrate, we’re holding our own caucus prediction contest with an amazing prize for the winner. Make your picks now.

Elsewhere in Iowa news, The Washington Post tries to answer the annual head-scratcher: Why does Iowa get to vote first? Our friends at “The Fix” provide more clues about the caucuses, including this one: Martin O’Malley may be the most important candidate in the field tonight. And the final Des Moines Register poll — which his been pretty accurate in recent history, is out today.

If polling numbers are accurate, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton should take first place tonight in their respective Parties. An analysis of political insiders from Politico comes to the same conclusion.

 

► The ginormous Republican field of Presidential candidates may start to dwindle after tonight. As Politico reports, many of the second-tier GOP candidates are running out of money to keep their campaigns afloat:

Jeb Bush’s fundraising juggernaut has run out of steam, Ben Carson’s money machine has cranked down, and Chris Christie and Rand Paul have just a little more than $1 million in each of their campaign bank accounts.

On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, the candidates lifted the veil on their operations’ financial health as of the end of last year, revealing how some of the White House contenders are now limping along, with time running out for a breakout moment.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Texas Sen. Ted Cruz may not come out ahead in Iowa tonight, but at least his Presidential campaign is despicable. As The New Yorker reports, Iowa’s Secretary of State was not amused with a new Cruz mailer that attempts to convince Iowans that they need to cast a vote tonight to improve their “voter score”:

After seeing the mailers, Iowa’s secretary of state, Paul Pate, issued a statement condemning Cruz’s tactic:

“Today I was shown a piece of literature from the Cruz for President campaign that misrepresents the role of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law. Accusing citizens of Iowa of a “voting violation” based on Iowa Caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act. There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting. Any insinuation or statement to the contrary is wrong and I believe it is not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa Caucuses.

Additionally, the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office never “grades” voters. Nor does the Secretary of State maintain records related to Iowa Caucus participation. Caucuses are organized and directed by the state political parties, not the Secretary of State, nor local elections officials. Also, the Iowa Secretary of State does not “distribute” voter records. They are available for purchase for political purposes only, under Iowa Code.”…

…On Saturday night, Cruz responded. “I will apologize to no one for using every tool we can to encourage Iowa voters to come out and vote,” he told reporters during a campaign stop in Sioux City.

Cruz is also being panned by Politico for screwing up the “expectations game” leading into Iowa.

 

► Former Colorado State University Athletic Director Jack Graham, who announced that he would enter the Republican field for the U.S. Senate nomination last week, made big news by seeding his campaign with $1 million and hiring Dick Wadhams as his campaign manager.

Today, Graham is making news for his voter registration history. Apparently Graham was a registered Democrat just 13 months ago.

 

► Congressman Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) may be facing a Republican Primary in June. Alex Beinstein, a 27-year-old Carbondale man described as a “conservative journalist,” is going after Tipton because he says the incumbent Republican isn’t respecting the Constitution, or something.

 

► Colorado Republican Party Chair Steve House is urging GOP candidates in Colorado to clip a bit of their right wings.

 

► Colorado Democrats are getting a ton of press for legislative efforts to address “equal pay” laws for women. We’ll tell you why Republicans continue to oppose “equal pay” reforms as soon as we figure it out ourselves.

 

► You knew this was coming eventually after state Sen. Vicki Marble (R-Fried Chicken) referred to herself and seven other Senate colleagues as “The Hateful Eight.”

 

► Republicans in the state Senate are pushing legislation to gut funding for mass transit in Colorado. Freedumb!

 

► House Democrats are looking at introducing at least two pieces of legislation dealing with fracking in Colorado.

 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The city of Durango may move ahead with plans to ask for a federal “Superfund” designation to clean up abandoned mines in Colorado. Officials had been waiting for the town of Silverton to make the ask, but Silverton officials are focused on punting (again).

 

► Republican Rep. Kevin Priola continues to take well-deserved heat for opposing a “parental leave” bill in the legislature despite asking earlier last week to change the scheduled vote so that he could take his child to the doctor.

ICYMI

► The Colorado Department of Transportation has unveiled a new live tracking system of its snow plows. If you really, truly, have nothing else to do, you can visit this website to see where Colorado snowplows are located in real-time.

 

Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!

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9 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Monday (Feb. 1)”

  3. Austerity as economic policy, "deficits are going to kill us", and "we must kill Social Security before it ruins the republic" are some Zombie Lies that almost surely will never die. 

    We can thank Robert Samuelson for holding up his part of the Fear the Debt deal:

    Once Again, It’s Monday Morning and Robert Samuelson Wants to Cut Social Security and Medicare

    Published: 31 January 2016

    What else is new? Yep, the deficit is exploding and it will devastate our children and no one will listen:

    “Based on the campaign so far, this important conversation seems unlikely. The leading candidates are playing Russian roulette with the nation’s future, assuming that deficits can be ignored because most Americans (or so it seems) would prefer it that way.”

    Folks who pay attention to the economy might notice that the interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds is now under 2.0 percent. Apparently it’s not just the politicians, the financial markets are not too concerned about the deficit either. 

    As far as the burden on our kids, interest on the debt (net of transfers from the Federal Reserve Board) comes to less than 0.8 percent of GDP. By comparison, interest payments were over 3.0 percent of GDP in the early 1990s condemning us to a decade of stagnation. (Oh wait, doesn’t seem to have worked out that way.)

    If we are concerned about helping our kids, how about running larger deficits to employ their parents? More spending on infrastructure, education, health care and other needs would help to make the labor market tight enough so that workers have the bargaining power they need to get higher wages. It would also make the economy more productive in the future. 

    The risk to our children from having parents without the ability to care for them dwarfs any risk they face from higher interest payments on the debt. But hey, without Robert Samuelson they might not even have someone to tell them about the debt. 

    We know R's and Cons will harp on this forever.

    We also know Op-Ed boards love this silly issue as both a cudgel against uppity Middle Class-ers and a carrot for Pols looking for Bipartisanship badges for their Cub Scout and Brownie uniforms.

    We should also know that Democrats who play into the phony lies and who want to kill Social Security in order to "save it" are betraying the voters that put them in office – whether they admit it or not.

    1. “It makes you feel terrible, Charlie; it doesn’t help. 

      Funny…brain damage in your child probably has the same effect…it makes you feel terrible, 

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