There are a couple of things I’ve written over the past few editions of The Business Times I can’t seem to shake. It’s not that I can’t shake them because some readers may not agree with them, but rather, they are more like eternal truths when it comes to politics.

I used a quote in an op-ed from the late, great P.J. O’Rourke about how democrats promise everything before getting elected, and Republicans say government doesn’t work and prove it after getting elected. And then, in my column I stated the plethora of new legislation our Colorado legislature passed this year, a number which is seemingly growing exponentially when it meets – which sadly is every year.

Did you know our state passed almost 500 new laws this year after proposing upwards of 1,000? And please tell me you do realize the truth in what was stated by O’Rourke about both of our political parties.

After all, why do you think they have us fighting over the smallest of things while they spend the largest amount of money and take away our freedoms left and right. (See what I did there?) The fact is the government is wholly incapable of delivering on its promises because its promises are flawed at their premises.

Mainly because much of what government wants to do the Constitution of the United States of America says the government can’t do. Then again, the people would have to understand the Constitution is a negative document based on what government can’t do. But since all of government has become our constitutional “experts,” the people have no good example to actually understand that.

Which brings me to another famous quote made in 1866 by a judge named Gideon J. Tucker, who proffered it about arbitrary or unpredictable actions of legislators in one of his decisions: “…no man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” I would add: Or after we elect a new president, governor, county commission or city council or go to federal court.

And today, the government proves it day in and day out, right in front of us.

I’ll begin with the latest rage known as the Department of Government Efficiency. First off, seriously with that name? It’s more absurd than anything Ayn Rand, Jerry Jenkins or Tim LaHaye could ever come up with. Because the last thing we want is the government to be more efficient at anything it does. And that’s because most of what it does is bad.

But like anyone else who goes into government with good intentions, Elon Musk had to learn the hard way that government is totally in favor of waste, fraud and abuse – just along party lines and agendas. After all, for the government to put into effect anything Elon found, Congress would have to vote on it. And tell me the last thing Congress approved that took away its ability to confiscate more money and give itself more power.

How about the bill with the worst title in history, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act? First off, the name alone should cause it to never be brought before Congress. But more proof is in how each side can argue over it on spending alone.

After all, how can Republicans say they cut spending by nearly 2 TRILLION dollars, and the democrats are (unbelievably) arguing against how it raises the debt ceiling by 5 TRILLION dollars? Only in Washington, D.C., can such lunacy be argued by both sides as fiscal responsibility, especially when, given the chance, they’d use the very same arguments in opposite ways depending on who’s in power.

The federal government is bankrupt. Period. Yet it will try everything in the world except the one thing that would solve the problem: Shutting things down and cutting spending. Ironically, both things Elon was “fighting” for. He just fell for the lie that the government would do something about it. Elon was just another distraction for both sides while agendas drove forward.

Closer to home, we have Pontius Polis on his barnstorming tour, signing into law all the new legislation just passed, at different locations throughout the state. It’s odd how those locations are government funded. Odder is in how Pontius declares government is committed to “bringing down the cost” of this or that with these laws, and those costs have skyrocketed under unrestrained, democrat-party rule.

It’s the same here in Grand Junction. We elect a council to do this, and then it does that. I can’t wait to see how our new, “conservative” council advances the agenda of our voted-out, radical, leftist council. Because that’s exactly what is going to happen.

It’s what always happens once politicians see they have the power to “fix” everything when money is no object. For the feds, just raise the debt ceiling. For democrat Colorado, just add some “fees” and get rid of TABOR. For the lost city of Grand Junction, just use some accounting tricks and buy this land or that building or get a “grant” paid for by “fees.”

You know what they call all of that in the real world? Extortion, money-laundering and influence peddling. Yet to government, it’s just “doing the people’s business.”

And that premise is why the government is always up in our business. They need us to pay for it.

In Christ and Freedom.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com