This bright morning finds Mrs. Animal and yr. obdt. back in sunny Colorado, where moments from now loyal sidekick Rat and I will climb into the inestimable Rojito and go afield to do battle with antlered ungulates.  As mentioned earlier, watch for some more Teutonic totty as placeholders whilst we are afield; normal news posts should resume a week from today.

But for now, here’s some Colorado news.  We have a gubernatorial election this year, and as is often the case, the Democrat candidate, one Jared Polis, is having trouble explaining how he would pay for his ambitious agenda for our fair state.  Excerpt:

Republican state Treasurer Walker Stapleton’s clear goal was to call U.S. Rep. Jared Polis “radical and extreme” as many times as possible in their hour-long gubernatorial debate Monday night at Colorado State University-Pueblo.

Polis, the Boulder Democrat, didn’t bristle at the steady barrage from Stapleton, but neither did he answer it with what the GOP candidate demanded— details on how Polis intends to pay for an ambitious agenda that includes affordable health care, free pre-school and kindergarten classes.

Polis, who is a multi-millionaire from starting and selling companies, said he would work as governor to lower prescription drug prices, find other solutions in providing better care and could even work with President Trump.

“The time for name-calling is passed,” he told Stapleton, who clearly didn’t think so.

“If you will tell these people how you will pay for it, I’ll stop calling you a radical,” Stapleton shot back.

Polis denied he was either radical or extreme, saying Oklahoma provides free pre-school to students “And if Oklahoma can do it, we can do it.”

Now, to be fair, Colorado has changed politically in the thirty years I’ve lived here, but it hasn’t been Californicated to the point (yet) where a Ocasio-Cortez or Pelosi could be elected to statewide office.  Our current governor, John Hickenlooper, is as close to a moderate Democrat as you’ll find these days.  And, while I’d prefer to see Walker Stapleton win this fall, smart money in our increasingly-purple state tells me we’ll probably be dealing with Jared Polis for the next four to eight years.

But moderate (hopefully) though he may be, Jared Polis still has one failing common to Democrats and, to be fair, to plenty of Republican as well – he has a lot of big ideas, but honestly very little idea how much they will cost or how he plans to pay for them.

But here’s the catch:  Colorado’s Constitution demands the state’s budget be balanced.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have something like that at the Imperial level?  Don’t  hold your breath, though, until Congress votes to tighten up those vote-buying purse strings.

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