Originally published - Summer 2019 Voice of Colorado
Elections Have Consequences
By Scott Morrow, DMAL Retiree Chapter President
The 2018 election cycle saw the Democratic Patty take the majority of seats in the US House of Representatives. The Senate remained in control of the Republican Party. In our great state of Colorado, the majority of both the House and the Senate in the General Assembly has Democratic majorities while EVERY executive elected office (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State and Treasurer) went to the Democratic Candidates.
In the US House they introduced and passed over 130 bills (23 public laws) and resolutions as of this writing, had over 400 roll call votes (source: Congress.gov), nearly all supported by huge majorities of Americans, including actual majorities of Republicans (source: www.538.com). Of those
bills, only four had had a vote in the Senate (source: US Senate website). Those were House bills making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019.
One funding bill had to be voted on twice due to the President vowing to veto it and causing the longest Shut down of the federal government in history (35 days). The other two regarded weapons sales to the Saudis others. And pulling US troops from the slaughter in Yemen. POTUS (President) vetoed both bills.
In the Colorado General Assembly an entire gambit of popular bills were passed. One of the bills Governor Polis signed will allow people on parole to vote. Another prohibits employers from asking about an applicant's criminal history on the initial job application. The same for college admissions and many other positive steps in criminal justice.
Funding for combating the opioid crisis, protections for people who go out of their health care insurance company's network, media literacy to help K12 analyze news for accuracy, one of my favorites, an end to gay conversion therapies and the "Health Care Cost Savings Act of 2019".
The plethora of energy bills designed to reduce disease-causing pollution and to move Colorado towards 100% renewable energy are beneficial to all of us as millions of people die every year on planet earth due to these toxic gases being emitted at zero cost to the emitters.
This is a small sample of everything that passed the general assembly. Polis only vetoed five of the 459 bills passed this past session meaning he signed 454 of them!
When people get out and vote, their preferences are much more likely to become law. When people stay at home they cede their power to the corporate interests and the economic royalists who already control the economy and suppress unions us well as the well being of retirees. Elections have direct consequences on your life.
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