Hands Off My Money

ObamaCare and Amendment 66

No matter what the White House is trying to say about the benefits of ObamaCare, premiums are going up. And they are going up significantly.  Even if you have private health care through your employer, your rates will go up because your insurance company now has to comply with ridiculous regulations like mandatory maternity coverage for men and for women who are no longer in their child-bearing years.

ObamaCare is just the latest message from the Federal Government that you are not capable of making your own health care decisions or making your own purchasing decisions.

I disagree.  I say that politicians are not kings.  They don’t get to tell us what to do.  And ObamaCare is the best example of what happens when they do tell us what to do.

Then in Colorado, along comes Amendment 66.  Amendment 66 is a nearly $1 billion annual income tax increase on Colorado taxpayers.  The proponents claim that the money will go to the classrooms, for things like music, gym, and more one-on-one time.  Even though the money is not supposed to go to the underfunded Public Employee Retirement Account (PERA), money is fungible.  If Amendment 66 passes and 100% of that money goes to the classrooms, there is no legal prohibition against current classroom money going to prop up PERA.

During the time period 2001-2011, student enrollment in the K-12 system in Colorado was up 15%.  But in that same time period, expenditures were up 27%.  What did we get for that extra money per pupil?  Shouldn’t we know that answer before we fork over more money?

In the middle of a recession, with a 7% unemployment rate in Colorado and rising health care premium costs, it is unbelievable that the Democrats in the Colorado Legislature want to take nearly another billion dollars per year from productive Coloradans.  Hands off our money.  Vote no on Amendment 66.