Family economic security
Boulder Daily Camera editorial: Easiest way to deal with poverty: pretend it doesn't exist
The Heritage Foundation released now-widely quoted talking points last week, encompassed in a Sept. 13 report "Understanding Poverty in the United States." It is designed to show that the poor in America are not like the poor in say, 1920 or in modern day Haiti. Most have air conditioning. Most have a microwave. Almost 75 percent have a vehicle. More than half with children have a gaming system, including the Xbox.

Aspen Daily News: City's available affordable housing hits new heights
Aspen's housing office is carrying its highest available inventory of income-capped homes for sale in recent memory, as unstable economic conditions continue to influence the local working class.


Fiscal policy
Denver Post editorial: Congress must seize moment
We support a bipartisan call for the deficit supercommittee to go well beyond the $1.2 trillion it is currently aiming to cut.

Colorado News Agency: Statewide tax increase on ballot draws flak at Capitol
With less than two months to go before November's election, lawmakers opposing a statewide tax increase on the ballot turned out at the Capitol Thursday to back the Save Colorado Jobs campaign-so named for the 119,000 jobs opponents of the proposal say will be lost if the measure is approved. Editor's note: The "job loss" claim is false, even according to the opponents' own research, an analysis by the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute found.
Also: Colorado Pols: Hyperbolic Doomsaying Is Stupid, Proposition 103 Edition

Longmont Times-Call editorial: Think before spending more billions
Some aspects of President Barack Obama's current $447 billion jobs bill may have merit. But in total, this bill is too expensive coming not that long after the $800 billion stimulus program in 2009.


Jobs and economic security
The Denver Post: Colorado loses 1,800 nonfarm jobs in August
The world's economic woes this summer took their toll on Colorado, costing the state 1,800 nonfarm jobs last month, according to an employment report out Friday.
Also: Associated Press via Aurora Sentinel: Colorado unemployment remains high at 8.5 percent


Health care
Colorado Springs Business Journal: Coloradans spent $25B on insurance last year
Coloradans spent more than $25 billion on insurance premiums in 2010, according to the Colorado Division of Insurance. The report also shows how companies spent premiums by providing the loss ratios for individual companies. A loss ratio is the ratio between premiums paid to an insurance company and claims settled by the company. A higher loss ratio means more of the premium dollar went to claims and benefits, and less to overhead and profit.

KCFR-radio: What Colorado Could Learn from Massachusetts
Colorado is creating a health insurance marketplace - an exchange - where lots of people can shop online for the best deals. That includes people who don't have insurance today. Exchanges are required by the federal health care law. Massachusetts was the first state to set up an exchange -- 4 years before the Affordable Care Act came along.