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Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Government spending

Chai: Big lies about the Big Beautiful Bill? Miller says facts say otherwise
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Approved, National, The Western Journal

Chai: Big lies about the Big Beautiful Bill? Miller says facts say otherwise

By Bryan Chai | Commentary, The Western Journal They often say light is the best disinfectant, and whomever “they” are, they’re right. In a related note, it’s pretty clear that most Americans — this writer included — are in the complete dark about the “Big Beautiful Bill” that keeps making the headlines. If you were to consume your news exclusively from the establishment (my sincerest condolences if that’s the case), you would think the bill was some sort of hypothetical bogeyman, a looming Sword of Damocles over the U.S. economy. It’s all a “big risk,” if you want to take the liberal Washington Post at its word. Thankfully, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — a longtime advisor to President Donald Trump — is shedding some light on it all, and i...
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Gaines: Phil Weiser spends your tax dollars suing Trump and backing gun control
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Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Gaines: Phil Weiser spends your tax dollars suing Trump and backing gun control

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project There but for the grace of God goes Colorado I was corresponding with someone recently and they mentioned something interesting. This person is a lawyer and said they were in a 10th circuit (Federal) courtroom recently and overheard an appellate case out of New Mexico about gun control. I am not sure if you remember, but New Mexico's governor made quite a splash a while back by declaring a public health emergency related to guns, trying essentially to use that to take away the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of that state. Those orders, and later iterations of same, have been working their way through the courts ever since. The first link below is to that case if you're curious. This person asked a neighbor...
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Hillman: Fiscal tailgating put Colorado in the ditch
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Approved, Commentary, denvergazette.com, State

Hillman: Fiscal tailgating put Colorado in the ditch

By Mark Hillman | Denver Gazette Headlines from the state Capitol might cause a reader to believe Colorado is in a deep recession. Legislators say they must cut more than $1 billion in spending to balance the 2025-26 budget. Still, state government has $687 million more to spend than last year in a $19 billion budget. So why all the histrionics about a budget “crisis”? Because Colorado lawmakers practice fiscal tailgating. Tailgating on the highway is dangerous because when drivers travel too fast and follow too close to the car ahead, the tailgating driver doesn’t have time to react if the lead driver unexpectedly brakes or swerves. Fiscal tailgating is much the same. Lawmakers spend money as fast as it comes in, then when the economy slows, they face much harder choices th...
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City of Rifle blasts state for misusing severance tax dollars
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Approved, Local, Post Independent

City of Rifle blasts state for misusing severance tax dollars

By Katherine Tomanek | Post Independent A letter to state Sen. Marc Catlin and state Rep. Elizabeth Velasco has been prepared by the city staff of Rifle regarding the diversion of Local Government Severance Tax Funds to address budget shortfalls at the state government level.  The Local Government Severance Tax Fund was originally created to help support communities  impacted by resource extraction activities, like oil and gas, which sometimes leads to a “boom and bust” economy of those communities. The “bust” of that equation was to be offset by the Local Government Severance Tax Fund.  The city of Rifle relies on the Energy Impact Assistance Fund (EIAF) from the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) for their projects. Some of these funds include $1 million for the R...
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Rep. Gonzalez: Colorado doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Rep. Gonzalez: Colorado doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem

By Rep. Ryan Gonzalez | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In the state of Colorado, we are facing over a $1.2 BILLION dollar shortfall. As we are now halfway through the 2025 legislative session, we have seen little progress from the lawmaking majority on making hard and significant cuts to our budget.  Rather than admit the improper allocation of taxpayer dollars, the majority uses this predicament to go after and attack our Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR).  Our state budget this year is over 43 BILLION. In the last 6 years they have gone from a budget surplus to a very progressive spending spree at the expense of taxpayers.  More offices, tax credits, and programs that require funding and eat away at TABOR refunds have been – and continue to be –  the...
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U.S. government dropped millions on media outlet Politico. Here’s what they spent it on
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Approved, National, The Daily Caller

U.S. government dropped millions on media outlet Politico. Here’s what they spent it on

By Robert McGreevy | Daily Caller U.S. government agencies have dropped a staggering $34 million in contracts with Virginia-based news outlet Politico, mostly on subscriptions, according to data from USASpending.gov. The payments vary in size and scope and come from virtually every government agency. The Department of the Interior‘s (DOI) National Park Service awarded a contract worth $862,025 over a period between 2021 and 2025 for subscriptions to Politico’s Energy and Environment (E&E) News service. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, another DOI subsidiary, also made a purchase order of $455,140 to Politico for an “online news subscription” over a similar timeframe. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE DAILY CALLER
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Trump administration orders pause on all federal grants and loans
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Approved, DENVER7, National

Trump administration orders pause on all federal grants and loans

By Scripps News Staff | Denver 7 The White House is taking drastic measures to control trillions of federal dollars by ordering a freeze on all federal grants and loans so President Donald Trump's administration can review government spending. The temporary pause is slated to go into effect Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET and blocks the disbursement of nearly all federal funding. The order also directs all federal agencies to submit detailed reports on "any programs, projects or activities subject to this pause" by no later than Feb. 10, 2025. "The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve," Office of Management and Budget Actin...
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Congress is ramming through a $895 billion pork-filled defense bill before Trump takes office
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Approved, National, The Federalist

Congress is ramming through a $895 billion pork-filled defense bill before Trump takes office

By Shawn Fleetwood | The Federalist Clocking in at 1,813 pages, the 2025 NDAA is stuffed with items unrelated to defense policy and void of conservative priorities. Congressional leaders are gearing up to ram through a $895 billion pork-filled defense bill before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office next month. According to The Hill, the House is expected to vote on the 1,813-page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 on Wednesday. Released on Saturday night, the legislation — which was negotiated behind closed doors by congressional leadership — is stuffed with items unrelated to defense policy and void of conservative priorities included in the version passed by the GOP-controlled House earlier this year. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE FEDER...
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‘Accountability is coming’: Joni Ernst sends Musk’s DOGE ‘a trillion dollars’ worth of ideas to gut gov’t spending 
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Approved, National, The Daily Caller

‘Accountability is coming’: Joni Ernst sends Musk’s DOGE ‘a trillion dollars’ worth of ideas to gut gov’t spending 

By Harold Hutchison | Daily Caller Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa sent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-chairs Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy a letter Monday with ideas for cuts that could save the federal government over $2 trillion. Trump named Musk and Ramaswamy as co-chairs of DOGE on Nov. 12. In the seven-page letter, Ernst’s suggestions ranged from addressing unused space in buildings to uncommitted spending for COVID relief, with the proposed cuts totaling over $2 trillion. Ernst has focused on government waste since her election to the United States Senate in 2014, with a recent focus on the effects of telework and remote work on federal agencies. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE DAILY CALLER
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Colorado Medicaid Department Overspent by $123.8M Last Year
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Approved, Governing, State

Colorado Medicaid Department Overspent by $123.8M Last Year

By Meg Wingerter | Governing The state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing underestimated how sick its members would be. Medicaid covers about 1.26 million people in Colorado. The department that runs Colorado’s Medicaid program overshot its budget for the most recent fiscal year by more than $120 million after underestimating how sick its members would be. Medicaid rolls were in flux over the last year as states started removing people for the first time since early 2020. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, states couldn’t kick people off Medicaid, meaning they spent much of the last year determining who still qualifies. For the fiscal year that ended in June, the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing had to attempt to project not only how...
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