09/17/2010

Refuse federal dollars that come with unsustainable, long-term state spending commitments or harmful federal mandates.

I have seen, first hand, the onerous nature of federal subsidies for state projects. From federal highway funds that did not allow a Colorado to create toll lanes for rush hour commuters (a problem we corrected during my time in Congress), to unfunded education mandates and federal matching funds for Medicaid that exceed a states budget capacity.

These things can only be characterized as a kind of extortion on the part of the federal government.

From the time where if states did not change their speed limit to 55 miles per hour, to the Environmental Protection Agency threats to sue states that did not meet their standards for piles of sand, our taxpayer dollars have been withheld or threatened on the grounds that someone in Washington DC knows what is better for the people of Colorado than we do.

Colorado and other states do have a right to self governance under the 10th Amendment of the Constitution and I intend to exercise those rights whenever appropriate. There is no reason Colorado taxpayers should have to beg to get our own tax dollars back. Only to be held hostage to ever increasing mandates.