Free Republic

Jared Bernstein is perhaps the most influential "economist" in the United States. I put economist in quotes, despite his being an academic who has taught the subject and has advised Congress and the highest elected officials in America. I do so because he is a moron. He is such a moron that Paul Krugman himself admires him for his economic insights. He is that bad. ... This is absolutely priceless. And probably the most frightening clip you'll ever watch on the people in charge of the US economy. Jared Bernstein is literally the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers,...

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is drawing harsh criticism for his “Feliz Navidad” holiday message as the state struggles for resources while battling a significant immigration crisis, just days after Denver received 16 busloads of migrants. Polis .. dancing joyfully as he delivered an a cappella rendition of Puerto Rican singer-songwriter José Feliciano’s hit 1970 song ... the cringeworthy clip... “As cringe as this is, it doesn’t begin to compare to the damage you’ve done to this state,” ... “This is one of the worst things I have seen all year. Who walked into your office and said that this was...

Property-tax relief? Hardly. Proposition HH on this fall’s statewide ballot is really about growing government. And it attempts to do that by piggybacking on public outrage over skyrocketing property tax bills. The proposal’s purported property-tax “relief” — served up by Gov. Jared Polis and his legislative allies as one part of their dizzyingly complicated scheme — is a ruse. As with every attempt to play politics with a crisis, there’s a hidden agenda. And that agenda is to snooker Colorado voters into letting the state keep and spend billions of dollars in surplus tax revenue that otherwise would have to...

We’ll say it again now that Gov. Jared Polis has inked his purported “relief” for soaring property taxes: His plan is largely an illusion. Ignore the stagecraft of Wednesday’s signing ceremony for Senate Bill 23-303. It was a nice publicity stunt — the governor and assorted lawmakers turning up at the home of a Commerce City resident who supposedly would benefit. It was all sleight of hand. As we noted here only weeks ago, the Polis plan is as if someone offered to help you pay your bills — then reached into your pocket, grabbed your wallet, pulled out some...

Suppose someone offers to help you pay your bills — then reaches into your pocket, grabs your wallet, pulls out some money and hands it to you. That’s more or less what Gov. Jared Polis and his Democratic allies who run the Legislature have in mind in promising “relief” for Coloradans facing skyrocketing property taxes. Unveiled by the governor at a Monday news conference and introduced the same day in the Legislature as Senate Bill 23-303, the complicated proposal would ask voters on next November’s statewide ballot to pay for a large part of their own property-tax relief. That’s right;...

An “ambitious” climate bill that would speed up Colorado’s decarbonization efforts, incentivize the purchase of electric lawn equipment and streamline the regulation of carbon-sequestration wells passed the state Senate on a Democratic-led party-line vote Friday. Senate Bill 16, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver, is one of several bills trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that is moving through the Legislature this year, but it stands out for the breadth of sectors and activities that it could affect. An amendment made Thursday to the bill, for example, would fine utilities as much as $20,000 per day for failing...

Former US President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, broke their silence on Friday following Trump’s indictment in relation to hush money he allegedly paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. In a statement posted to social media, Ivanka Trump said, “I love my father, and I love my country.” “Today, I am pained for both. I appreciate the voices across the political spectrum expressing support and concern,” she added. Kushner, who served as a senior advisor to Trump during his time in President, commented on the indictment at an investment summit in Miami. “As an American,...

Jared Kushner, former White House senior advisor and former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said Friday the “unprecedented” indictment by the grand jury in New York shows the “fear that the Democrats” have of him in the next election. “I think that that shows obviously the fear that the Democrats have of Trump and the political strength that he has,” Kushner said at the FII Institute’s Priority Summit in Miami Beach, Florida. “As an American, it’s very troubling to me to see the Leader of the Opposition party be indicted.” Kushner made these comments at the beginning of his speech about...

Irate customers complained about soaring energy costs at a recent meeting of the Colorado Public Utility Commission. Gov. Jared Polis responded, directing state agencies to do something — to fix a problem he caused. “The Governor has directed the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which regulates state utilities, and the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) to implement several immediate actions to alleviate the natural gas energy burden on Coloradans,” states a Feb. 6 press release from the governor’s office. “I am laying out ways state entities and utilities can take action to help save people money on their energy costs, to identify...

Last week, Gov. Jared Polis gave his State of the State address before a joint session of the General Assembly and to all Coloradans around the state. As I and other rural legislators listened to his speech, we couldn’t help but notice something so significant to our state barely received more than a brief mention. As the speech lagged on, it was evident the governor was clearly avoiding talking about it. It became the industrial elephant in the room, if you will. In his 70-minute, 8,000-word monologue, the governor mentioned the word “agriculture” one single time. The words “farms” and...

Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former top adviser Jared Kushner has shown no interest in helping the former president navigate a series of storms that threaten to sink his 2024 campaign, according to a new report Friday. Per New York magazine, since the 76-year-old Trump’s Nov. 22 dinner with anti-semitic rapper Kanye West and white nationalist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago became public, Kushner has ignored requests for “help … for public support, even looking for a response” from his father-in-law’s nascent election operation. Meanwhile, the report added, the 41-year-old Kushner has taken to handing out Trump’s phone number for supplicants to...

Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that if the House Republicans subpoena President Joe Biden’s son Hunter the Senate Democrats should investigate former President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Discussing Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Heitkamp said, “I think – Joe’s got to decide whether he’s going to run again, right? So that’s the interesting thing there. He’s not going to become a Republican. He’s going to continue to do what he’s always done, which is speak his mind and, you know, drive deals, like the Inflation Reduction Act, which was really what...

State this month began an investigation into Michael Willis.. Colorado this month started investigating allegations made in 2019 against a powerful Democrat-appointed official after the Denver Post started digging into the allegations, the Post reported Monday. Colorado director of emergency management Michael Willis, who has played a significant role in the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was "visibly intoxicated" and "struggled to focus on things" as his department responded to a May 7, 2019, school shooting, a state employee told investigators. A different employee also reported that Willis was "wobbly" that day. While both employees originally made their allegations...

Jared Kushner alleges in his new memoir former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly “shoved” his wife and the former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump following a contentious meeting. “One day he had just marched out of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office,” Kushner claims in the book. “Ivanka was walking down the main hallway in the West Wing when she passed him. Unaware of his heated state of mind, she said, ‘Hello, chief.’ Kelly shoved her out of the way and stormed by. She wasn’t hurt, and didn’t make a big deal about the altercation, but in...

Many Coloradans may not realize this, but this Tuesday will be a seismic turning point for our beautiful state. Primary voters will either head us down a path towards prosperity, or down a road to relentless government overreach in the state known for being the new frontier. In just three and a half years, Jared Polis and his party have taken us from number 11 to 29 in business-friendly states, driven us to No. 1 in bank robberies, auto theft, and property crime, and created a crisis for our kids with one of the top suicide rates and drug addiction...

Jared Polis is running for president. He'll deny it. He has denied it. ... Polis has done little to nothing to ruffle the feathers of the teachers' unions... ... standing aside and letting municipalities do your dirty work for you. Polis let Denver Mayor Michael Hancock lead on coronavirus lockdowns and masks before imposing a statewide lockdown himself. Polis also signed a bill allowing cities and counties to enact stricter (but not looser) gun regulations than the state imposes. And there's nothing particularly libertarian about opening the door to public employees' unions in a traditionally non-union state like Colorado. ......

Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law on Friday that allows county workers across the state to collectively bargain. Senate Bill 22-230 was introduced by Democrats in April and given final passage on May 11, the last day of the 2022 legislative session. Polis’ office said in a news release that the new law ensures county workers “have a voice in their working conditions.” House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, said in a statement that the law “allows county workers to unionize if they choose to so that they can have a seat at the table to discuss decisions...

Former President Donald Trump’s niece Mary Trump said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that her cousin Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner will turn on Donald Trump if it is what is best for them. Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “There is a question that I have had on my mind, and you’re the only person that can answer it. How does the bizarre sycophantic bubble split along Jared and Ivanka sitting for hours-long interviews with the 1/6 committee while Peter Navarro races down to Mar-a-Lago to shove the hot dogs wrapped in a bun into his mouth and high five...

A question must seriously be asked whether Jared Polis is interested in governing all of Colorado, or just the narrow strip that contains the vast majority of the state’s population. Polis has repeatedly angered the small band of hardy farmers and ranchers that make up Colorado’s second-largest industry by his insensitive slights and tone-deaf insults. It’s as if the governor pays lip service to agriculture one day and then slaps it in the face the next. Case in point: In February Polis ignored the recommendations of his own Department of Agriculture and appointed yet another animal welfare extremist to a...

Colorado district attorneys warned the governor that he set a "troubling precedent" when he intervened in the Rogel Aguilera-Mederos case. District attorneys warned Gov. Jared Polis that he created “a troubling precedent” in commuting Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’ prison sentence while the case was still pending, saying the act weakened public trust in the law. In a letter to Polis, District Attorneys Michael Dougherty and Daniel Rubenstein — a Democrat and a Republican, respectively — agreed that the 110-year sentence in the deadly interstate crash “was too severe.” But they stressed that by commuting the sentence to 10 years before a judge...