Last session, to their credit, some moderate Colorado Democrats carved out a reasonable position, killing some of the more onerous bills targeting small businesses and consumer freedom.
This session, however, some far-left Dems simply won’t rest until they can inflict some serious damage.
Take, for instance, the counterproductive “parental leave bill,” which would force employers to grant up to 30 hours off each year so parents can attend school plays.
First off: What about those of you who are sick and tired of children? Or even those of you who aren’t parents? Why shouldn’t you be able to take advantage of 30 hours off?
Dave Pearson, spokesman for Colorado’s Club for Growth, a chapter of the free-market activist group, points out other unforeseen consequences.
“Well, that’s smart,” he quips. “Now companies will avoid hiring employees with a lot of children since they would lose them money in the end.”
Sen. Peter Groff, the Denver Democrat who sponsored the bill, may simply be confused.
When meddling legislators take time off, sure, we all win. But when productive members of the workforce take “unpaid” leave, those hours need to be filled by another productive worker who expects to get paid.
Now, if 10 employees receive 30 hours a year off, those 300 hours need to be accounted for. A business can’t simply raise taxes to make up the difference – like government. Instead, businesses can deal with this costly intrusion in three ways: raise prices, lower salaries or fire people.
In any event, there’s no arguing, if Groff’s bill passes, moms and dads across Colorado will have more time to spend with their kids. You know, when they get back from the unemployment office.
There is, however, a far more destructive bill on the docket. One that is driven purely by ideology.
State Rep. Judith Solano of Brighton has sponsored legislation that would require businesses with 3,500 employees or more to put 11 percent of total wages toward health care.
This bill targets Wal-Mart (with some unanticipated collateral damage) and is more punitive than a recent bill passed in Maryland, a state that may now lose hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs.
“This is a national movement,” says Pearson. “Unions have been unsuccessful in penetrating the ranks democratically, so they are trying to figure out another avenue into Wal-Mart. It is a vendetta.”
The vendetta in Colorado is driven by local AFL-CIO chief Steve Adams.
Adams recently told The Post that he was “surprised” that his anti-consumer agenda wasn’t wholly swallowed by Dems last session.
After all, his organization “had worked so hard to get these people elected.” Adams, in fact, said the more successful he was, “the more work it was to get them educated and pointed in my direction.”
“My direction?” Is this unelected, unaccountable, radical anti-business union official educating the Democratic Party?
There’s no arguing unions have paid in. Big Labor is all over Solano’s roster of campaign contributors in 2004.
What does she think Wal-Mart will do?
First, they’ll raise their prices, and the ones this bill purports to help, “working families” (Don’t middle class and rich families work, too?), will pay.
For the far left, unions trump that concern.
Wal-Mart also hires young people who are getting their first job, older people who need extra cash, and poor and unskilled workers looking for jobs.
Unions trump the needs of those people, too. Unions, incidentally, that Wal-Mart employees have repeatedly said they want no part of.
“We are sending people to the legislature that lack basic – and I mean the very basic – understanding of economics,” say Pearson, who has worked on hundreds of campaigns across the nation. “I’m talking about basic supply and demand. They have no understanding of what markets do.”
Let’s hope reasonable Democrats do.
David Harsanyi’s column runs Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
