EDITORIAL: New Year brings chances for reforms made clear and dear to Americans

Despite the theatrics surrounding issues of the nation’s budget and gun control, the country and the state have a very real opportunity for meaningful change on several important political fronts.

Not that the so-called “fiscal cliff” doesn’t harbor real economic danger for all Americans, but clearly President Barack Obama has the political upper hand and will prevail in ending tax breaks for some of the country’s wealthiest citizens, and some aspects of budget entitlements will be reduced.

More importantly, the country has turned a corner on wanting to push ahead with health-care reform, gun-control reform and civil rights.

With the watershed decision by the U.S. military to end discrimination against gays, and the ever-increasing number of states ending discrimination against gay marriage and civil unions, it’s time for Congress to match the political reality for a vast majority of Americans by repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act as a signal to states and all Americans that the end of nationalist bigotry is finally at hand.

Similarly, the unthinkable slaughter of a classroom full of kindergartners and six teachers in Newtown, Conn., has pushed the country to a tipping point in how much nonsense Americans will tolerate from gun-rights extremists, including the National Rifle Association. No one with any sense of reality expects the U.S. government to begin grabbing guns, but a country terrorized by a wide range of lunatics and monsters has come to its senses about how dangerous it is to freely permit the distribution and use of weapons intended for military use, turning the country’s schools and movie theaters into battlegrounds for common sense.

A majority of Americans want the government to rid the nation of this threat, and to do it now.

And just as critical is the undone work of health-care reform. Americans are rightfully discouraged that after the bruising political battle over trying to legislate our way to affordable, quality, accessible health care in the this country, all citizens have seen so far is massive price hikes.

Congress and the Colorado Legislature must move to end what is obvious gouging of a country nearly bleeding to death in an effort to stay well.

Health care in this country has become a reach even for wealthy Americans. Even health insurance commands a price that makes even the affluent wince and beg for mercy. Insurance companies continue to find ways to either cover less or charge more. And while nearly every single American industry in the world has had to hold the line on costs and price increases, hospitals, clinics, doctors, supply companies, drug makers and insurance companies continue to wildly hike prices in the midst of the longest and worst recession in American history. There is no recession in the U.S. health care industry. No controls. No reason.

No reform effort in this country will ever be much more than acceptable because Congress doesn’t have the courage to nationalize and universalize health insurance. Only then will Americans see real change and savings to put us on an even playing field with Canada, Germany, Great Britain and a host of other modern, Western nations. The U.S. health care system is sapping the economic strength right out of this country.

As new legislative sessions begin here and in Washington, everyone should be talking about what ways to improve and accelerate reform changes and how to protect consumers from what the inevitable and irresistible pillage of Americans.