Stagflation's Biting Colorado's Ass – Here's How States Can Punch Back
Ditch the Excuses: Affordable Living Starts at Home, Not in D.C.'s Gridlock
Inflation's clawing its way back up like a bad hangover, job growth's flatlined, and wages? Forget raises – most folks are lucky to break even. Welcome to stagflation, the ugly cocktail of rising prices and stalled everything else that's got economists sweating bullets.
August's CPI jumped to 2.9%, growth's crawling at under 1%, and yeah, it's starting to feel a lot like the '70s nightmare all over again. But while Washington's too busy finger-pointing – especially under Trump, whose tariff tantrums are pouring gas on the fire – states like Colorado don't have to sit on their hands.
We can slash costs right here, right now, without begging for federal scraps. These aren't pie-in-the-sky dreams; they're doable, no-BS fixes that hit healthcare, housing, jobs, and energy where it hurts. Let's get real.
There are steps each state can take to improve affordability – and Colorado should lead the charge.
First off: Mandate immunizations, full stop. No more half-assed opt-outs except for legit medical reasons. We're already strapping kids into seatbelts to save lives – same logic applies here.
Dropping vax rates isn't just a dumb risk; it's a budget buster.1 Measles outbreaks cost states millions in ER visits, quarantines, and long-term health fallout – think lifelong frailty from complications that jack up Medicaid bills for decades.
Colorado's seen vaccination rates dip below 90% in some spots, fueling outbreaks that hit the poorest hardest. Parents whining about "choice"? You can't fix stupid, but you can protect the herd – and our wallets. Pass it, enforce it, watch ER tabs drop.
Next: Wipe out Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) entirely. Colorado's already on the ball with HB23-1227, cracking down on these middlemen who skim billions off drug prices nationwide. Full implementation hits January 2027, but let's accelerate – other states, copy us now.
PBMs jack up costs by 20-30% on generics alone,2 per federal probes, forcing insurers and patients to foot the bill. Eliminating them? Pure win: insulin prices plummet, co-pays shrink, and healthcare inflation cools by at least 5-10% in affected markets. No trade-offs, just savings that trickle straight to families scraping by.
Don't sleep on housing: Override Polis and pass the RealPage Act – for real this time. Last session's bill to ban rent-fixing algorithms like RealPage sailed through the legislature, only for our governor to veto it with some weak-sauce gripe about "innovation." Bull.
These tools let corporate landlords collude on prices, spiking rents 7-10% above market in hotspots like Denver and Boulder, according to HUD data. Tenants are hemorrhaging $200-300 extra a month – that's $3,600 a year stolen from groceries and bills. Reintroduce it, rally the pressure, and put the pressure on Polis to sign. Affordability's the 2026 election's albatross; he won't want to own this mess.
Jobs side: Ban non-competes cold turkey. California's been doing it since the '70s, and guess what? It turbocharged Silicon Valley into the innovation beast it is today. Non-competes trap workers in dead-end gigs, suppressing wages by 5-15% across industries (Brookings numbers). They keep talent from jumping to better-paying spots, letting bosses lowball everyone.
Ditch 'em, and watch salaries climb as companies compete for skills. At my old shop Windward, we skipped non-competes entirely – just NDAs to protect secrets – and it worked fine. Colorado's tech and energy scenes could explode if we follow suit.
Energy's the silent killer on bills: Scrap subsidies for rooftop solar and EVs. These handouts – like Colorado's $1-per-watt solar rebates and up to $6,000 EV rebates for the "qualified" – sound green but screw the working stiff. They shift costs to all ratepayers via higher utility fees, hitting minimum-wage folks hardest while subsidizing McMansions with Tesla chargers.3
Federal EV credits end September 30 anyway; let's kill state ones now. Folks who can afford panels or Polestars don't need our dime – redirect that cash to actual relief like bill credits for the bottom 40%.
And while we're at it: Hit pause on "electrify everything" mandates. Great long-term vision, idiotic right now.4 Colorado's grid is wheezing – Xcel's forecasting blackouts and rate hikes of 20-50% as coal plants shutter without enough backup.
Forcing heat pumps and EV chargers on every home? That's begging for brownouts and bills doubling overnight. End the subsidies and regs pushing this; give us breathing room to build reliable power first.
Finally: Halt the renewables frenzy – wind and solar included. Don't get me wrong, they're part of the future,5 but today's buildout is a sucker's bet. Intermittency means pricey gas/coal backups, inflating costs 20-30% over straight natural gas turbines (EIA stats).
With our generation shortfall looming – down 27% from coal alone last year – let's pivot to affordable gas peakers now, then R&D nuclear and carbon capture for tomorrow. Cheaper electrons mean lower bills, period.
Will this fix it all? Hell no – stagflation's a bitch. But it'll shave 2-5% off inflation and nudge wages up 3-7% in targeted spots, per similar state reforms. That's real relief for the grind. Until Democrats claw back Congress and the White House – because as messy as some of 'em are on econ, Trump's chaos is in a league of its own – this is our play.
Polis can veto half of it, sure, like he did RealPage. But affordability's the firestorm heading into Bennet and Weiser's races, and the guv's seat in '26. Hammer them on these: What's your plan? Demand answers, share this, and let's make "unaffordable Colorado" yesterday's news.
Like me (no McMansion but I do have solar and an EV.
I dislike recommending this but most Colorado residents cannot afford the cost to fast-track this right now.
At least solar is. I’m not sure wind will ever make sense without subsidies.
"Mandate immunizations, full stop." For what, exactly? I think covid vaccinations are mostly a waste of time for people under 50. But all kids should get MMR. I just want to know what we are signing up for.
I agree for the most part with the rest. Some of them I don't understand.
I'd add one more. People are not aware of this, but the Mayo clinic provides the best medical care in the country for about half the cost of most hospitals. That is because they are an integrated charitable medical center with a large endowment. Cutting health care costs cuts out of pocket expenses, and insurance costs.
St. Jospeh's in Denver is a charitable hospital. They spend about $190 million per year. If you added $1 billion to their endowment, that would generate $50 million per year. So about $4 billion would cover all their current expenses. $10 billion would allow them to treat a much larger volume of patients. This would be in perpetuity - the endowment would keep funding it forever. The general idea would be to use endowments to fund on-going expenses and substantially reduce medical costs. Once you get St Jospeh's to a perpetuating low-cost status, move on to the next nonprofit hospital. As more and more medical care becomes low cost, there would be more competition to lower prices around the state. Lower insurance and out of pocket. It would also become VERY attractive to employers offering medical insurance - they could offer more benefits at lower cost.