Jared Polis
Appearances
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
Sadly, there's not as many elected Democrats anymore.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
You got it here. Well, that's part of the problem. There's too many of them, and you guys got to edit it a little bit. Cut them down a little. By the way, how great it would be if the folks here were the governing coalition of our country and how proud we would be as a nation. Thank you. to create prosperity and peace in the world. Um, someday, someday you'll be back.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
We could argue about a couple of things, you know, there's still, there's 15 or 16 of them. So, uh, that was, uh, we need EPA reform. My goodness. So EPA, did you say we might be on the same page, but we need NEPA reform too. I mean, these are things where, We hope the Trump administration gets it right. We'll get to that. We will. So there's too many. Okay. And they're all good.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
They're all wonderful. I look through them. I mean, we can go through them, but integrity, character, and virtue matter. That might be sort of a sad wish. as opposed to kind of a value, because to the voters, they don't. Now, this is important, because this is a value. Every person has dignity, quality, and worth. Truth is important.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I think you can combine that with no one's entitled to their own facts. So, I mean, look, somehow Martin Luther did 95 theses, but generally speaking, in marketing and in politics, you've got to get it to three or four to kind of resonate. And I think there's ways to kind of, without sacrificing the value piece...
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
kind of get this down to the three or four that you can put on a little card, and you can put on a sign, and that can mean something to people. But I'm excited by them all. Free and functioning markets deliver prosperity. I mean, absolutely. And I think that's been forgotten.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I just heard a tale in the last discussion, the danger of the tariffs and taxes on shutting down transactions between two people who are inherently better off because they make a transaction.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
We got rid of 208 old executive orders. So I had been working on this. By the way, you know, the proper way is you work on things and you plan them. You don't just go by the seat of your pants. So it took us about six months to figure out. You know, we were going to repeal these 208 orders.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
And then, unfortunately, because of the timing, it was during, after the election, people, you know, then thought somehow we got the idea from Doge. But I say, no, no, they got the idea from us. Okay. We started earlier. But, yeah, as an executive, I can get rid, and I got rid of executive orders dated back to 1920 that were still in effect in our state, vast majority over the last 10, 20 years.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
So that was exciting. And I've challenged our legislature to do the same. to go through our rules, because again, unlike certain other executives, I don't think I have the power to single-handedly nullify laws.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
So I challenge our legislature to go back and look at all of the laws that require different rules, because sometimes an executive is required by law to do rules, and go back and eliminate some of that as well.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
It's like get government out of the way. The market and the price of housing is a function of supply and demand. The fact that demand is high in Colorado is wonderful. People want to live there. You want to live there. It's great. You all move out there. But we have artificial government-imposed constraints on supply.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
That is a single reason why a home would cost a lot more than its replacement value, which they do. Average home price in Denver is about $600,000, which is high. I mean, it's not California high, but it's high.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
And so we have basically allowed more housing to be built, whether it's townhomes, whether it's multifamily housing, the kinds of inherently more affordable housing, which ironically is often the most difficult kind of housing to get past your local planning board. The single-family homes they let you build, but the more affordable kinds of homes are actually harder to approve.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
So we've made a lot of progress in that. We continue that work.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
When I became governor, our income tax rate was 4.63%. We cut it at the ballot box to 4.5%. We cut it at the ballot box to 4.4%. And then we cut it through the legislature to 4.25%. So that's our income tax debt. Okay. And...
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
No, this is where we say, I like this. Every person has dignity, quality, and worth. That needs to stay there. I mean, we value everybody based on the content of their character, their contributions, and who they are. There's good and bad people of all kinds.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
Well, none of us had the context going in because this was, until it was elevated by the president and the governor, it was an obscure thing going on with Maine. So we didn't really know what was going on at the time. But apparently it has to do with following the guidance around women's sports.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I mean, women's sports are, you know, obviously something like in any sports we want to prevent cheating. I mean, everybody wants to prevent cheating in sports, you know, and of course, uh, steroids, hormones, they can all be used for cheating and that has no place in sports. And, um, and of course, you know, at the same time we want people to be able to participate.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
It's a really, it's a little, so, you know, my, um, We have discussions about our dinner table. I have a 10-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son, and we were talking about this. Where's the line? How do you make sure that you don't have boys cheating to play in girls' sports? My daughter said, I don't understand. We beat the boys. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
And she did basketball, you know, there's a girl's basketball team and they beat the boy's basketball team. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I mean, you just discuss it in a rational way. Of course, boys shouldn't be in girls' sports. I mean, it's obvious. That has nothing to do with cutting Medicaid funding from people in Lewiston. Right. And it has nothing to do with people who were born of indeterminate or intermediate genders and where they play. I mean.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
you know, it's, you want fairness in sports, but you didn't want participation in sports, but it's like, it's, it's kind of, and I think that's a, those are broad American values. You want fairness and you want to provide ways people can participate. But yeah, very little of that has anything to do with like the cost of living and the real issues that matter.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I mean, I think after talking to Janet Mills, after she said, there's like one kid, this even affects in their whole state. Yeah. I'm curious if you've got any clarity. Obviously, on a human level, we've got to feel bad for that kid that they're in the center of all this stuff. I mean, my goodness.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
There's no clarity from this. So that in my limited time, what I talked about, and I know you came off a conversation of tariffs like you, I believe, in free trade and open markets and trade is inherently good. You can see why he's my favorite Democrat there.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
But my concern was, and obviously we all, you know, we're hopeful that that's the president somehow has this master negotiating strategy. We're going to wind up with left terrorists rather than more, but you know, I'm not holding my breath. But I did say, look, if there's less tariffs, I'll be the first to praise that.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
But I said, whatever is happening here, please try to wrap this up in the next few months because investment is frozen. Nobody can plan. The uncertainty is the enemy of prosperity and the business.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
So whatever level we're going to wind up at, we've got to figure this out for your own benefit, Mr. President, in the next few months because if this goes on for four years, the uncertainty alone will cause a recession.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
No. No, no. As I said, I hope that somehow if we come out of this with, I'm not holding my breath, but less tariffs, less restrictions on trade, that would be wonderful. I was just speaking for myself.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
As far as we can tell, there's no rhyme or reason to the cuts. Now, obviously, we want things that are wasteful to be cut. But an example of this sort of wrecking ball approach was they actually laid off a lot of the folks involved with fire prevention, park management in Colorado, which are incredibly important.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
So not the firefighters themselves, but the road maintenance, how you get to fires to fight them, forest management. So these are folks that are, in our view, and I think the view of any rational government on the left or right, small government, big government. I mean, this is like a core function thing, right? So we hope that they reverse that. No idea if they will.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
That's right. For every government program, you should ask really two questions. First is, should we even be doing this? And there's absolutely things that are being done that are counterproductive that we should not do at every level of government. The second is, okay, we should do this. How can we do it more efficiently? Let's create a more efficient way of doing it.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
It's not just sort of like, who saw? Destroy it all. Like, okay. You know, should we be doing it? And if we should be doing it, how do we do it more officially? Yes, Mitch Daniels absolutely would have been wonderful.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
You know, again, let's give them the space to see if they hoist themselves on their own petard here, right? Like with trade. As I said, if somehow this leads to lower tariffs and more free trade, That's wonderful. Yeah. That's wonderful.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
Well, I don't have much visibility into what's going on, right? I mean, does anybody?
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
They're going to tear stuff down. And again, If there are things that we don't need to do, let's stop doing them. And then the question on if there's things that we agree we should do, how do we do it more efficiently? Doge doesn't seem to be answering that at this point. It seems to just be... you know, stopping the current way, fine.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
But then what replaces it is actually turns out to be very important.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I'm going to get rid of the penny. That's great. I'm with you on the penny. Taxpayers, a couple hundred million dollars a year, environmental costs, the mining of zinc and copper.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
Well, you know, we'll still make pennies for collectors. Some of those are in Denver, by the way. You know, we have the Denver Mint, but we still will make nickels and dimes and quarters.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
We can't use the force of government to preserve horse and buggy manufacturers once the car is invented. That's a good point.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
What have they done so far? I mean, it's mostly.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
Yeah, a lot of them were held up in court. I mean, I can't think of one right now. Me neither. That's discouraging, though. I'm hopeful, Tim, on zoning reform and permitting reform, if they get rid of the penny. But no, it's all if. If they do this, if they do this, if they do this.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
But no, I mean, nothing makes Colorado more prosperous than they've done yet, or America more prosperous, in my opinion. In fact, to the contrary, the threat of the tariffs obviously is a major drag on our economy.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
Those are not all threats at this point. Aren't some of them, with China, they're actually enforced, right? The Canada and Mexico ones, thank God, are still a threat. I hope that threat goes away. But some of those are actually already been implemented, so they're already causing harm.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
you know, trying to name the Gulf of Mexico. I said, we could do a compromise. We have a place you know well in Colorado, Casa Bonita. I said, we should call it the Gulf of Casa Bonita because it's a little bit American, a little bit Mexican. It's good for business. You could sell me on that. We could maybe sell the naming rights also. You could auction them off. That's what those should be doing.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
You hit on something. Why not? Not that, but let's auction off some other naming rights. Maybe we should do that in Colorado too. Auction off the naming rights for one of our towns or something.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
No, and we all, what the president said during the campaign, the deficit would go up substantially, and all this talk of Doge, and again, I hope they succeed, but This is like this much. I mean, you know, whether it's USAID and these other things, it's not... We've got $5 trillion in tax cuts. It's not in any material way, yeah, closing the deficit.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
So, you know, I support... In Colorado, we balance our budget every year. I think we need a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And, you know, not because it's good policy, but because it's better than the alternative of not having one, as we've learned. So I think we should have it.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I guess. The bad to quite bad is like top of the...
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
Well, I think he's interested in, well, he is interested in health and prevention and reducing chronic disease. And that excites me. Colorado is a healthy state. We have one of the lowest obesity rates, healthy diet. We get one of the longest lifespans. So I'm excited to work with him. Saw him yesterday and talked to him. And I think there's a lot of ways we can work together. And
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
To be clear, and it's a shame I have to say this every time, but of course I don't believe in the nutty anti-science stuff. I'm pro-vaccine. I'm for all that. And he said that he won't get in the way of that, so hopefully that'll be the case. We come back to our fundamental disagreement. Eternal optimism. Your eternal optimism.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
We need more research. Absolutely. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
Look, I mean, you look at the life-saving research that's been done in our generation, the previous generation, we all have healthier, longer lives, and we need more research.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
It's not like we voted for this guy. We're just saying we hope best wishes for the country here. I mean, he's got to get something right out of the 20 or 30 things he's involved with. Are we sure? I hope so.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I'm obviously very concerned about abandoning our European allies and the fight for freedom and democracy. Yeah. Again, don't know where that's headed, but very concerning remarks about the conflict. We cannot embolden Putin on the world stage, and I'm worried about that.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
First of all, I think these principles that you have are a very good underpinning. Again, there's too many of them, but they're promising. And really talking about prosperity, abundance, economy, I mean, you know, we are deeply concerned that this president's economic agenda could lead to less prosperity rather than more if he does what he's saying he's going to do.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
And I think we need to offer the alternative. And the Democrats have not always been, you know, Pure on these issues, they've been pro-trade. President Obama and President Clinton led us into many more trade agreements, brought down tariffs, brought down non-tariff barriers to trade. We've had large, significant pro-growth tax policies.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
But these are things that we should lean into because it makes a difference for people.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I mean, he's trying to meet the needs of Colorado. So we've been focused on we talked about reducing taxes, removing barriers to housing. We also eliminated sales tax on a number of products. We implemented free universal preschool, which is a very big priority for us, preparing all kids for success. It prepares kids for success.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
The long-term longitudinal studies show that, and I love your data point that data is important. It also saves families $6,000 a year in the here and now of four-year-olds. Preschool is very expensive. So really just trying to meet the needs of folks where they're at and grow our economy and prosperity.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I'm not an expert in coastal politics, so I can't.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I can't say all the factors. You're the NGA. I could talk more about what we did do, right? So, I mean, we also, in addition to cutting income tax, we cut property taxes too, and we capped any future property tax increases of 5%. So, you know, really just trying to address people's costs and concerns.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
We've had a thriving economy in Colorado, and that's kind of, in fact, what led to the run-up in housing prices, right, along with the artificial constraints on supply that we're trying to systemically disassemble and allow more housing to be built.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
You want to wear a mask? Wear a mask. I mean, please, I would encourage you. It's like, right, we encourage, but we didn't have, we said the mandates didn't make sense. And we did. We just looked at all the data and the studies, and people are perfectly able to be agents in determining their appropriate risk levels for themselves.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
And I was glad that my parents, who are now 80, did stay home a lot. And when they went out, wore masks. And that was very important.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
I guess that's my point. I don't honestly remember what he was saying yesterday. during COVID. I don't remember if he was responsible or what he advocated during that. But as I said, on reducing chronic disease, improving health, diet and nutrition. These are the shoe job side for the American people, if that's what he focuses on.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
And there'd be downside if he were to focus on making vaccines harder to get or reducing our vaccination rate.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
Yeah, I'd be happy to grab a few. Let's let's we'll strategize. You know, nobody comes straight to mind. I'm just worried that they're going to fall asleep before they make it through all 16 of your principles.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
That would be great to get her, absolutely. So we'll strategize. I think we absolutely, this is not partisan. We should have a lot of great folks, and whether they're D's or U's or R's, they ought to be part of this, because this is just on the heels of another little conference called CPAC. You may have heard of it. And I said, you want to be bigger than CPAC, so you've got to grow next year.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol and Jared Polis: Send In the Clown
That's the goal. You've got to be bigger, bigger than CPAC. Look at that.