During difficult times like these, leadership is about confronting reality and making the tough choices today that are necessary for a better tomorrow.
Since the Democrats' historic sweep in 2008, tough choices have been badly missing from the political landscape. In Washington, congressional Democrats and President Obama have racked up mountains of new debt, even one-upping the Bush administration and congressional Republicans whose irresponsible spending policies earlier this decade helped lead Republicans into the electoral wilderness.
Unfortunately, congressional Democrats aren't alone in dodging the tough but necessary choices, as the just-completed session of the General Assembly showed in powerful ways. During the last 120 days, Gov. Bill Ritter and legislative Democrats enacted nearly $1 billion in new taxes and new fees, raided hundreds of millions in cash funds and trust funds rather than scrutinizing government budgets, and even pushed legislation that proposed to seize the private cash reserves of Colorado's worker's compensation insurer of last resort. Ignoring continued warning signs of plummeting tax revenue, the governor just signed a $17.9 billion budget for next year that is likely to dip back into the red as soon as the next quarterly economic forecast is issued by legislative staff....
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