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NSRF February 2011 Newsletter

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    North Suburban Republican Forum February, 2011

    www.NorthSuburbanRepublicanForum.com www.NorthSuburbanRepublicanForum.org

    Our next meeting is from 9:15-10:15 am, Saturday morning, February 12th featuringNSRFBoard member Jan Hurtt conducting an open forum on current political events in Adams

    County. Remember to invite somebody new to the NSRF as we discuss politics for the Denver

    North Metro area. Please forward this newsletter to other like-minded individuals. We need

    to be activists to regain our county and country from progressive-minded Liberals.

    NSRF upcoming calendar in 2010/2011:

    March 12 Stacy Lynn on how ICLEI will affect your city

    April9 Kevin Miller discusses his book Freedom Nationally, Virtue Locally, or Socialism

    May 14 Colorado legislative session feedback

    June 11 -- How to be informed and involved in Colorado and local politics

    July 9 City Council and Board of Education candidates

    August 13 -- More candidates

    September 10 More candidates

    October 8 -- Final push for candidates before the November 8th

    election

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    If you are interested in getting more involved in Colorado politics in 2011-2012, and

    into the 2012 elections, there is a unique opportunity right around the corner.

    The County Party is the foundational unit of organization in the Republican Party.

    Every county Republican Party in the State of Colorado will be having their

    Organizational meetings in the next few weeks. The principal purposes of the

    organizational meetings will be:

    To elect a Chairman, Vice Chairman or Chairmen, Secretary, District Captains and

    other officers of the County Republican Party;

    To conduct all other business that may properly come before the County Parties

    This is a great opportunity to meet and mingle with County Party Leaders, Elected

    Officials, and your Politically Active Republican Neighbors.

    In most cases, you may run for office if you are a registered Republican in your

    home County

    In most cases only members of the County Central Committee (PCPs)& Executive

    Committee may vote

    ALL REPUBLICANS MAY ATTEND

    This is your opportunity to be an active participant in your local Republican party. Ifyou have questions, please call 303-426-8776.

    In accordance with the election laws of the State of Colorado and the governing

    bylaws and rules of the Republican Party, the organizational meetings for the 7

    Denver Metro County Republican Parties shall be held on the following dates, times,

    and locations:

    Adams County RepublicansSaturday February 12th, 2011

    9am 12pm

    At the Dome, Adams County Fairgrounds

    9755 Henderson Road

    Brighton, CO 80601

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    You will get a discount and save money if you buy your ticket at the Adams County

    Republicans organization meeting on Saturday, February 12th

    so bring cash,your

    checkbook and/or a credit/debit card.

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    Adams commissioner calls for reformsAdams County Commissioner Erik Hansen this morning released a letter seeking reforms following a DenverPost report Sunday on possible nepotism and favoritism in the county north of Denver.

    Newly-elected Commissioner Erik Hansen wrote to the two other members of the board, asking them tocreate an independent panel to "evaluate Adams County governance."

    "I know both of you wish for clean government," Hansen wrote.

    In a story Sunday, The Post reported that Commissioner Alice Nichol had her driveway paved by a company

    under investigation for fraud in its business dealings with Adams County. At about the same time, the formerpresident of that paving company provided a crucial vote to get Nichol's son-in-law hired as superintendent ofAdams County's fleet of vehicles, though he did not meet the minimum criteria posted for the position by thecounty.

    Nichol has said her husband arranged for the paving and that they paid for the work. Adams County DistrictAttorney Don Quick said Sunday that he would investigate Nichols' paving deal, as well as look into whetherany other county elected officials or employees had work performed for them by Quality Paving, which isnow under new management.

    In his letter to Nichol and Commissioner Skip Fischer, Hansen asks that the county adopt an anti-nepotism

    policy, sign on to the state's procurement code and that commissioners no longer be involved in anyprocurement decisions until the county can adopt new regulations.

    Hansen, former Thornton mayor, also proposes that the independent commission examine the possibility ofexpanding the board of commissioners to five from the current three.

    Commissioners are meeting this morning and could not be immediately reached for comment on Hansen'sideas.

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    Posted: 01/31/2011 09:45:19 AM MSThttp://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_17250419

    An Adams County district attorney expands

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    investigation into Quality Paving

    Broader investigation follows report on Commissioner Alice Nichol

    By Kevin Vaughanand David OlingerThe Denver Post

    An ongoing criminal investigation of a paving scandal that so far has led to six arrests will be expanded to

    look into work done at the home of Adams County Commissioner Alice Nichol.

    District Attorney Don Quick made the decision after Sunday's disclosure by The Denver Post that thecompany had done work at Nichol's home a few months after its then-president helped her son- in-law securea county job that now pays him $92,988 a year.

    Nichol did not respond to a message left at her home Sunday afternoon.

    Nichol and her husband, Ron, acknowledged to The Post that Quality Paving resurfaced the asphalt drivewayoutside their home in late summer2005.

    Quick said the Quality Paving investigation has been a frequent topic of discussion among Adams Countyofficials for more than a year. Two county officials public-works director Lee Asay and constructionmanager Sam Gomez lost their jobs over disclosures that they had Quality Paving do work at their homes.

    In addition, Gomez is one of six people who have been charged with multiple felonies in the scandal, inwhich the county paid for $1.8 million in work that allegedly was never done.

    Quick said Alice Nichol asked him on more than one occasion why the investigation was taking so long butnever told him or Sheriff Doug Darr that the company had done work at her home.

    "I don't know why the commissioner did not disclose that Quality Paving had done work at her home as

    well," Quick said. "It was well known that work had been done for Asay and Gomez."

    Questions about Quality

    Nichol, a Democrat, told The Post her husband arranged for the work and paid for it. Ron Nichol showed ThePost a photocopy of a check made out to Quality Paving for $10,000 money he said he paid the companyafter an employee told him that he didn't have to pay for the job.

    Quality Paving was a longtime county contractor.

    Records show the company received multimillion-dollar contracts that were not put out to bid. And on dozens

    of occasions, the county commissioners approved "change orders" that increased the price of particular jobs.

    But investigators found numerous problems with work the county paid for between 2004 and 2007, from onebill for more than 15 miles of pavement on a section of road that was 10 miles long to another for a project ata nonexistent location.

    Quality Paving, which was sold last May, is under new management. But the investigation, which began in2008, is ongoing.

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    In May 2005, Asay, the former public-works director, put Quality Paving's then-president, Jerry Rhea, on athree-member panel that ultimately voted to make Alice Nichol's son- in-law the superintendent of thecounty's fleet of vehicles and heavy equipment even though he did not meet the minimum advertisedrequirements for the job. Asay and Rhea voted to make the hire; another county employee on the panel votedagainst it.

    About three months later, Quality Paving did the work at Nichol's home.

    Expanding investigation

    Quick, also a Democrat, said Sunday the investigation would be branching out in other directions as a resultof The Post's report.First, he said, investigators will expand their examination beyond top officials to includeany county employee who had dealings with Quality Paving outside of work.

    "I want to know whether any county employees had work done on their personal residences," Quick said.Inaddition, Quick said, he plans to reopen a related investigation that was closed without charges being filed.

    In that instance, investigators looked into allegations that Quality Paving arranged for landscaping at Asay'shome, including purchases from a local nursery, and billed the county. However, Quick said no charges were

    filed because investigators could not establish that the work had actually been done.Now, he said, he wants totake a second look at those allegations.

    Kevin Vaughan: 303-954-5019 [email protected] David Olinger: 303-954-1498 [email protected]://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17246367?source=pkg

    Denver Post Editorial: Fix damage in Adams County

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    We applaud a commissioner's ideas to respond to the Quality Paving probe, but citizen trust may be difficultto regain.By The Denver Post

    An Adams County commissioner's suggestions on reforming government in the northern metro county are awelcome response to allegations of official misconduct.

    The plan, which comes from new Commissioner Erik Hansen, follows a Denver Post investigation that

    painted a picture of free-spending public officials, some of whom had a cozy relationship with a pavingcompany that has been criminally implicated. We hope the commission will look closely at Hansen's ideas particularly the anti-nepotism policy.

    The wide-ranging stories by reporters David Olinger and Kevin Vaughan outlined the county jobs andcampaign money received by relatives of Commissioner Alice Nichol. The most astonishing among them wasthe $92,988-a-year fleet management position that went to Nichol's son-in-law, who did not meet theminimum requirements for the job. It strains the bounds of plausibility to think Richard Stark got the job onhis own.

    In addition, six people have been arrested in an investigation of Quality Paving, which has been accused of

    getting $1.8 million of county money for work it didn't do. Interestingly, Quality Paving made multipledonations to Nichol's campaign. And the company's former president, who is facing 23 felony charges, wasthe deciding vote on a panel that hired Nichol's son-in-law for the fleet management job.

    Was it also coincidence that Quality Paving got a $10,000 check from Nichol's husband a few months afterthe son-in-law was hired? The check ostensibly was for a driveway paving job that, according to The Post,was worth less than half that amount. Her husband said the company offered to do the job for free, but herefused.

    We found it particularly puzzling that commissioner Nichol never mentioned the free work offer to lawenforcement even though she asked more than once why the sheriff's office was taking so long to finish its

    Quality Paving investigation.It's a complicated web of connections and influence, and we're glad that AdamsCounty District Attorney Don Quick is looking into it. We look forward to the results of his investigation.

    In the meantime, it makes sense for the county to confront the flagging confidence and growing frustrationthat the revelations no doubt have generated. Limiting the county commission to hiring and firing only thosewho directly report to them is one good step, as is modifying procurement rules.

    Citizen trust in government is a fragile thing, easily lost and difficult to regain. We hope Adams Countyofficials make a good faith effort to help investigators in every way.

    First, the truth must be known. Then, bad policies must be excised, and then, if necessary, compromised

    public officials booted from positions of authority.

    Rebuilding the public trust will be a long and difficult journey in Adams County, and it's best to begin layingthe groundwork for it now.

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    New Adams County coroner fires staff

    The Denver Post

    BRIGHTON Eleven people from the Adams County coroner's office are out of a job after their newlyelected boss, Coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan, fired them this week, 9News reported.

    "It was my decision to open those positions for application to the general public to make sure the citizens areserved by the most qualified professionals I can find," Broncucia- Jordan said. She said six full-time deputycoroners, three temporary deputy coroners, an administrative clerk and a temporary clerk lost their jobs.

    The 29-year-old coroner previously worked in the office and was fired in 2009. She's suing Adams Countyfor wrongful termination.

    Broncucia-Jordan said there was no bad blood between her and the employees of her old boss. She says shedidn't know them.

    Denver Post staff and wire reports

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    http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2009a/cslFrontPages.nsf/Audio?OpenForm

    ObamaCare's Repeal Has BegunThis week's Senate vote to scrap an IRS reporting requirement is the start of a piece by pieceapproach.

    Mark this date: On Feb. 2, 2011, a Democratic Senate killed the first piece of the health-care law it passed less than

    a year ago. Bowing (finally) to reality, 34 Democrats rushed to be among the 81 senators who axed the bill's odious

    1099 tax reporting requirement.

    Let the ObamaCare dismantling begin.

    The White House and Democrats have worked hard in recent weeks to suggest that this first casualty of their

    signature legislative achievement was no big deal. President Obama went so far as to make the idea his own in his

    State of the Union address, offering up the end of 1099 as an example of his willingness to "improve" his health

    legislation. And the death of 1099 was indeed overshadowed by this week's headlines that the Senate GOP had

    failed to repeal the larger bill.

    It is nonetheless worth recalling the 1099 saga. The entire arc of this talefrom Democrats' initial defense of the

    provision, to this week's full-scale routis an example of how dramatically politics has shifted. It has also starkly laid

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    out the real threat that the White House faces over ObamaCare in the coming year. It's not full repeal. With 1099,

    Republicans have shown they intend to rip it up piece by piece.

    The 1099 provision was a new requirement that businesses report to the IRS annual purchases from any contractor

    above $600. The provision targeted 40 million businesses and other organizations, crushing them under a costly

    bookkeeping mandate. But hey, desperate Democrats needed funds to pay for their $1 trillion healthathon. By

    closing this "loophole," they claimed, the IRS could commandeer a whole $17 billion in previously uncollected taxes.

    This was symbolic of the entire slapdash process and rotten substance of ObamaCare. Like so many provisions, it

    mysteriously appeared in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's 2,000-plus page bill; to this day, no Democrat has

    claimed authorship.

    Like so many provisions, it received no due diligence, and no attention until after it became law. Only then did

    National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, a federal employee, explain that its giant costs would likely outweigh any

    new tax compliance. The requirement, it turns out, doesn't just crush businessesit also crushes churches, charities

    and municipalities.View Full Image

    Associated Press

    Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns and California Rep. Dan Lungren turned

    the issue into a cause. By last July, the business community was in an

    uproar, and both Republicans had introduced 1099 repeal. Yet

    Democrats refused to back down.

    Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a vote on a House bill that would have repealed 1099 but also imposed costly new taxes

    on multinationals. She knew Republicans wouldn't vote for it (they didn't), which allowed her to keep 1099 while

    blaming the GOP.

    Senate Democrats flat-out defended the provision. When Mr. Johanns got a September vote on repeal, he lured just

    seven Democratsnot enough for passage. In truth, many Democrats simply liked the provision, as evidenced by

    their votes for Florida Democrat Bill Nelson's amendment to keep 1099 but to raise the threshold to $5,000. (That,

    too, failed.) The White House remained opposed to repeal.

    Only after their November rout did vulnerable senators begin to jump to Mr. Johanns. Yet Mr. Reid obstructed. In late

    November, Mr. Johanns marshaled 61 votes for repealincluding 21 Democratsbut Mr. Reid set the rules so that

    he needed 67. As for the nay votes, they were now balking at cutting even $17 billion from unused government

    money.

    By January, the pendulum had swung. The White House, eager to put on a centrist smile, adopted 1099 repeal as its

    own. Senate Democrats followed this week. Mr. Reid, knowing he'd be hard-pressed to stop another vote, deputized

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    Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow (who needs some re-election help) to steal Mr. Johanns's bill.

    She changed five words and offered it as her own amendment to the Federal Aviation Authority reauthorization bill.

    Mr. Reid then allowed a vote on her amendment, while blocking Mr. Johanns's.

    With a Democratic sponsor, 1099 repeal got 34 Democrats. Thus does the leadership that wrote the offensive

    provision, voted for it, and defended it, now take credit for exterminating it.

    Republicans aren't exactly bitter. If the GOP is to dismember ObamaCare, it must pressure Democrats into helping.

    That's what Republicans did this week. Next up for debate will be other odious elements: the individual mandate,

    taxes on kids' braces, restrictions on health savings accounts, cuts to Medicare. The GOP will highlight each one

    and then ask 2012 Democrats what they are willing to defend.

    What does the White House do then? Some Democrats are already jumping ship on these other issues. This week

    also showed thatunless Mr. Reid intends to halt all legislationSenate Republicans may be able to force

    ObamaCare votes. The White House gave its sanction to 1099 repeal, but that won't end the debate on "fixing"

    ObamaCare. That debate has just begun.

    Write to [email protected]

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703652104576122520508633078.html

    Ronald Reagan at 100

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    Being a good man helped him become a great one.

    By PEGGY NOONAN

    Simi Valley, Calif.

    At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountain Range where old

    Hollywood directors shot Westerns, they will mark Sunday's centenary of Reagan's birth with events and speeches

    geared toward Monday's opening of a rethought and renovated museum aimed at making his presidency more

    accessible to scholars and vividly available to the public. Fifty percent of the artifacts, officials note, have never been

    shown beforeessays and short stories Reagan wrote in high school and college, the suit he wore the day he was

    shot, the condolence book signed by world leaders at his funeral. (Margaret Thatcher: "Well done, Thou good and

    faithful servant.")

    Much recently has been written about who he wasa good man who became a great presidentbut recent

    conversations about Reagan have me pondering some things he was not.

    He wasn't, for instance, sentimental, though he's often thought of that way. His nature was marked by a

    characterological sweetness, and his impulse was to be kind and generous. (His daughter Patti Davis captured this

    last week in a beautifully remembered essay for Time.) But he wasn't sentimental about people and events, or about

    history.

    Underlying all was a deep and natural skepticism. That, in a way, is why he was conservative. "If men were angels."

    They are not, so we must limit the governmental power they might wield. But his skepticism didn't leave him down. It

    left him laughing at the human condition, and at himself. Jim Baker, his first and great chief of staff, and his friend,

    remembered the other day the atmosphere of merriness around Reagan, the constant flow of humor.

    But there was often a genial blackness to it, a mordant edge. In a classic Reagan joke, a man says sympathetically

    to his friend, "I'm so sorry your wife ran away with the gardener." The guy answers, "It's OK, I was going to fire him

    anyway." Or: As winter began, the young teacher sought to impart to her third-graders the importance of dressing

    warmly. She told the heart-rending story of her little brother, a fun-loving boy who went out with his sled and stayed

    out too long, caught a cold, then pneumonia, and days later died. There was dead silence in the schoolroom as they

    took it in. She knew she'd gotten through. Then a voice came from the back: "Where's the sled?"

    The biggest misunderstanding about Reagan's political life is that he was inevitable. He was not. He had to fight for

    every inch, he had to make it happen. What Billy Herndon said of Abraham Lincoln was true of Reagan too: He had

    within him, always, a ceaseless little engine of ambition. He was good at not showing it, as was Lincoln, but it was

    there. He was knowingly in the greatness game, at least from 1976, when he tried to take down a sitting president of

    his own party.

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    Getty Images

    Future US president Ronald Reagan

    He was serious, and tough enough. Everyone who ever ran against him

    misunderstood this. He was an actor, they thought, a marshmallow.

    They'd flatten him. "I'll wipe the smile off his face." Nothing could wipe

    the smile off his face. He was there to compete, he was aiming for the

    top. His unconscious knew it. He told me as he worked on his farewell

    address of a recurring dream he'd had through adulthood. He was going

    to live in a mansion with big rooms, "high ceilings, white walls." He

    would think to himself in the dream that it was "a house that was

    available at a price I could afford." He had the dream until he moved

    into the White House and never had it again. "Not once."

    He ran for president four times and lost twice. His 1968 run was a f lopit was too early, as he later admitted, and when it's too early, it never

    ends well. In 1976 he took on an incumbent Republican president of his own party, and lost primaries in New

    Hampshire, Florida, Illinois (where he'd been born), Massachusetts and Vermont. It was hand-to-hand combat all the

    way to the convention, where he lost to Gerald Ford. People said he was finished. He roared back in 1980 only to

    lose Iowa and scramble back in New Hampshire while reorganizing his campaign and firing his top staff. He won the

    nomination and faced another incumbent president.

    In Reagan's candidacy the American people were being asked to choose a former movie star (never had one as

    president) who was divorced (ditto) and who looked like he might become the most conservative president sinceCalvin Coolidge. To vote for Reagan was not only to take a chance on an unusual man with an unusual biography,

    but also to break with New Deal-Great Society assumptions about the proper relationship between the individual and

    the state. Americans did, in a landslidebut only after Jimmy Carter's four years of shattering failure.

    None of it was inevitable. The political lesson of Ronald Reagan's life: Nothing is written.

    He didn't see himself as "the great communicator." It was so famous a moniker that he could do nothing but

    graciously accept the compliment, but he well understood it was bestowed in part by foes and in part to undercut the

    seriousness of his philosophy: "It's not what he says, it's how he says it." He answered in his farewell address: "Inever thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: it was the content. I wasn't a great

    communicator, but I communicated great things." It wasn't his eloquence people supported, it was his stands

    opposition to the too-big state, to its intrusions and demands, to Soviet communism. Voters weren't charmed, they

    were convinced.

    His most underestimated political achievement? In the spring of 1981 the Professional Air Traffic Controllers

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    Organization called an illegal strike. It was early in Reagan's presidency. He'd been a union president. He didn't want

    to come across as an anti-union Republican. And Patco had been one of the few unions to support him in 1980. But

    the strike was illegal. He would not accept it. He gave them a grace period, two days, to come back. If they didn't,

    they'd be fired. They didn't believe him. Most didn't come back. So he fired them. It broke the union. Federal workers

    got the system back up.

    The Soviet Union, and others, were watching. They thought: This guy means business. It had deeply positiveimplications for U.S. foreign policy. But here's the thing: Reagan didn't know that would happen, didn't know the

    bounty he'd reap. He was just trying to do what was right.

    The least understood facet of Reagan's nuclear policies? He hated the rise of nuclear weapons, abhorred the long-

    accepted policy of mutually assured destruction. That's where the Strategic Defense Initiative came from, his desire

    to protect millions from potential annihilation. The genius of his program: When developed, America would share it

    with the Soviet Union. We'd share it with everybody. All would be protected from doomsday.

    The Soviets opposed this; the Reykjavik summit broke up over it, and in the end the Soviets' arms spending helpedbankrupt them and hasten their fall. Years later I would see Mikhail Gorbachev, who became Reagan's friend. He

    was still grumpy about Reagan's speeches. "Ronhe loved show business!" Mr. Gorbachev blustered. The losses

    of those years must have still rankled, and understandably. It's one thing to be outmaneuvered by a clever man, but

    to be outfoxed by a good oneoh, that would grate.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703652104576122571039415798.html?mod=WSJ_newsree

    l_opinion

    The Politics of Saving 'Granny'Alice Rivlin and Paul Ryan have a bipartisan plan.

    By KARL ROVE

    ObamaCare has recently been dealt three body blows. Speaker John Boehner pushed a bil l to repeal it through the

    House. GOP leader Mitch McConnell will get to put Senate Democrats on record with a vote on repeal as well. And

    this week, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson declared the law unconstitutional.

    The White House's reaction is dismissive. The nation doesn't want to "re-litigate" ObamaCare, we're told. So long as

    Mr. Obama sits in the Oval Office, repeal is going nowhere. The Supreme Court will uphold the law. And by 2012,

    health care will be a winning issue for Democrats.

    I'm not so sure. Take the question of Granny. In a speech last Friday defending his health-care law's effect on

    seniors against GOP attacks, Mr. Obama said, "I can report that Granny is safe." She may not feel that way if she's

    one of the 700,000 seniors whose private Medicare Advantage insurance policy was not renewed last year because

    her insurance provider quit the business.

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    There will be more nonrenewals in 2011. This year's funding cuts to Medicare Advantage will be $2 billion; next

    year's will be $6 billion. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimate that half of those with

    Medicare Advantage policiesseven million seniorswill lose their coverage eventually. And 60% the doctors

    surveyed by the nonprofit Physicians Foundation said health-care reform would "compel them to close or

    significantly restrict" the number of patients in their practices, especially those on Medicare or Medicaid.

    Granny's daughter, son and grandchildren are not all that safe, either.

    Providers such as Guardian Life and the Principal Financial Group are

    dropping their health-insurance businesses. And companies will be

    tempted to drop coverage for their employees and dump them onto the

    government's tab.

    No taxpayer is safe, either. Last week Richard Foster, CMS's chief

    actuary, confirmed to Congress that ObamaCare's Medicare cuts

    couldn't be used to reduce both Medicare's unfunded liability and to pay

    for ObamaCare's expense. Since the Obama administration is relying

    on this double counting to rig the numbers, Mr. Foster's testimony was

    particularly damaging.

    What the country most needsand what the GOP must now

    advocateis a fundamentally new approach to containing health-care

    costs.

    The most promising model for Medicare comes from Clinton Budget Director Alice Rivlin and House Budget

    Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.). Under their plan, starting in 2021 those turning 65 and going on

    Medicare would get a fixed contribution to use to purchase insurance, allowing them in many instances to keep their

    existing coverage. Consumers will be in charge.

    Annual support would grow at the same yearly rate as the economy plus 1%. Medicare payments would be adjusted

    by income, geography and health risk. Poor seniors would get extra help for out-of-pocket expenses.

    This bipartisan model builds on the success of the Medicare prescription drug benefit passed in 2003. This market-

    and competition-oriented experiment gave seniors a fixed sum they could use to purchase drug insurance coverage.

    In response, drug companies and insurance providers flooded the market with options that drove prices for

    consumers down.

    Though more seniors signed up for the benefit, signed up quicker and used it more than expected, the program

    costs much less than estimated (the original Congressional Budget Office estimate was $552 billion for the first 10

    years, but the estimated cost is now $385 billion). Competition and consumer choice are far more effective in

    containing costs than is bureaucratic price-setting.

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    We're at an unprecedented moment. The huge historic advantage Democrats have enjoyed on the health-care issue

    has evaporated. ObamaCare is increasingly less popular. Its unpopularity is up nine points in the last month, to 50%,

    in a Kaiser/Harvard survey. The public is now taking a close look at what the Republican Party might have to offer.

    The Rivlin-Ryan alternative plan is bold and not without risk. Past efforts at entitlement reform haven't been

    successful. Having worked in the Bush White House during the 2005 Social Security battle, I know of what I speak.

    Still, the Rivlin-Ryan plan is right on substance. And unlike 2005, it may also be the right moment.

    Thanks in good measure to Mr. Obama's profligacy, the entitlement crisis is no longer a vague, abstract concern.

    More and more Americans understand the current course leads to a disaster for the nation's finances. And so the

    public may be willing to go places and do things that in the past it may not have.

    This is an unusual and fluid moment. My hunch is voters are more inclined than ever to reward the political party that

    addresses entitlement reformand more inclined than ever to punish the one that fiddles while America's fiscal

    house burns.

    Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.

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    NSRF Board of Directors Email Address TelephoneJohn Lefebvre President [email protected] 303-451-5558

    Leonard Coppes Vice President [email protected] 303-287-9145

    Jan Hurtt Treasurer [email protected] 303-451-0934

    Phil Mocon Secretary [email protected] 303-427-5453

    Brian Vande Krol Planning [email protected] 303-466-4615

    Gary Mikes Planning [email protected] 303-252-1645

    Mike Arnall Planning [email protected] 303-655-1258Dick Poole Planning 303-373-1521

    Dana West Communications [email protected] 303-280-0243

    Join the North Suburban Republican Forum on the Internet and Facebook:

    http://www.northsuburbanrepublicanforum.org/ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95611986640&_fb_noscript=1

    NSRF MEETING TIME AND PLACE

    We will be at Gander Mountain, 9923 Grant Street, Thornton, CO from 9:15-10:45 a.m. on the

    second Saturday of each month in the employee training room. If you live in Adams County orDenver's northern suburbs, come join us for lively spirited debate and to meet Republican

    movers and shakers. Any candidate in attendance will always be given speaking time.

    Directions to Gander Mountain:

    Gander Mountain is a huge sporting goods store in the old Biggs, now Wal-Mart/Home Depot

    shopping center just east of I-25 and south of 104th Ave. Just go in the front door, turn

    left at the first aisle and follow it to the employee meeting room on the far left.

    Yearly membership dues are $20, while a couple is $30. Make checks payable to NSRF. It only

    costs $3 per person to attend the monthly meeting and a continental breakfast and beverage

    (coffee, tea, orange juice or water) is included. A membership application is located on the

    last page. Fill it out and bring it along with you.

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    The North SuburbanRepublican Forum1149 W 102nd Ave

    Northglenn, CO 80260

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    Annual RegularMembership + all 2011 monthly meetings cost$56.00 fee

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