Integrity in Politics -- Becoming an Oxymoron?

In this week's Real Estate Today column, which you can read at www.GoldenREblog.com, I wrote about Golden Real Estate's commitment to "Hometown Service Delivered With Integrity." It was hard to stay away from making the point that one of President Trump's most negative impacts on society has been making political dishonesty "normal."

The biggest and most painful lie Trump tells is everytime he uses the phrase "fake news" to color news that is true but he doesn't like. One has to wonder how long-term the effect of his presidency will be.  We must return to honest discourse by our leaders and to honest appreciation of the hard-working mainstream media.

Another particularly painful development is how all those "Never Trump" incumbents fell right in line with him after the election.  Why? The simple answer is that they put their re-election above what they already knew was the right and honest thing to do.  An example is our own Colorado congressman, Mike Coffman, who vowed to "stand up to Trump" if he were elected. Not a chance.

In my column I spoke fondly about Rotary's Four-Way Test, but many Rotarians who recite the Four-Way Test at the beginning of every meeting support President Trump.  In my opinion, no self-respecting Rotarian who sincerely believes in and promotes the Four-Way Test could support Donald Trump -- just like no self-respecting Evangelical could... but they do!

Let's talk about climate change.  It is clearly the number one issue facing the world today, and its impacts are playing out with each new 500-year flood, out-of-control wildfire, or devastating hurricane.  Meanwhile, the EPA administrator has ordered the phrase "climate change" purged from the EPA website and has fired his science advisor.  How appalling is that?

It is evident that major damage has been done well beyond the walls of the White House in every agency of government.  It may take decades to recover from the Trump Administration, no matter how short we're able to make it with our votes in the mid-terms and in 2020.

Colorado Enacts the First-Time Homebuyers Savings Account Act

Last year’s General Assembly passed a law which allows Coloradans to deposit up to $50,000 of after-tax dollars into a First-Time Homebuyers Savings Account where it can grow tax-free up to $150,000 for use by the depositor or other family member/friend as a down payment on a home purchase.

Several other states have passed similar legislation, and in June, 2016, Rep. Mike Coffman introduced legislation to create the same law at a federal level. The state law only exempts deposits from paying state tax on interest and capital gains, but those gains are still taxable at the federal level.