The Daily Camera: Guest opinion: Joe O’Dea: Politicians don’t know what it’s like to work and struggle

This article appeared in the Daily Camera.

The problem with Washington is that it has too many Senators and Representatives who have never worked a hard day in their lives. I’ve worked and I’ve struggled, like so many of you have worked and struggled. 

How in the world can we expect Congress to respond to the struggles of working Americans when too many politicians don’t know what that’s like? 

That’s why I’m running, to be a voice for working Americans. I don’t care about political parties, I’m going to put Colorado first. If it’s good for Colorado, I’ll buck my party. 

Our country and state are headed in the wrong direction. When I’m traveling through the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado I hear story after story about people worried about the cost of groceries, heating bills and falling behind. Working families are getting squeezed. Earlier this summer, we saw jaw-dropping prices at the pump. This fall, parents were stuck between paying for school supplies or paying for food and rent. Joe Biden’s reckless spending has hurt our economy. Inflation is near a 40-year high. 

Despite warnings from economists that Biden’s spending proposals would worsen the inflation crisis, in March of 2021 one party in Congress went ahead and voted to pump $1.9 trillion additional dollars into the economy. Rather than prioritizing the needs of Coloradans, Washington put partisan interests ahead of working people.  

As a result, Colorado is tied for having the highest inflation rate in the country. The Denver metro area is one of the most expensive areas for renters in the entire country. Grocery prices are up over 13%. Rent is up over 6%. Electricity is up almost 16%, the largest increase since 1981. Meanwhile, the Fed hiked interest rates for the fifth time this year to fight inflation, as more jobs and buying power are lost. 

The first thing we must do to address this crisis is stop the reckless spending. We need to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy and lower the deficit. The American people have watched in disgust while both parties have run up the debt over the last 25 years, and it’s time for change.

We must also establish American energy dominance to fight this inflation crisis. Higher energy prices are the primary driver of inflation, making food, gas and manufacturing more expensive. 

We need a government-wide focus that embraces American energy production of all kinds — wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas and oil. This allows us to leverage innovation to continue to drive down emissions to address climate change. At the same time, our oil and gas are produced with tougher, smarter regulations than anywhere else in the world. Flooding global markets with clean, American natural gas can bring down emissions worldwide and help struggling families. 

Coloradans are also being affected by a rise in crime in our communities and the humanitarian crisis at our southern border. Colorado leads the nation in car thefts, small businesses are concerned about rising crime and too many Coloradans don’t feel safe in their own homes anymore. This is unacceptable. I support our law enforcement heroes because Coloradans deserve to live in safe communities. 

Along with rising crime, our communities are afflicted by the fentanyl crisis — a national crisis. Nearly 2000 Coloradans lost their lives to drug overdose in 2021. This poison comes across our border, right up I-25 and gets distributed to the rest of the country. If we want to get serious about fighting this crisis, we must secure the border. When I’m in the Senate, I’ll fight for legislation that secures our border and addresses our broken immigration system. Our Dreamers ought to get citizenship, and the millions of undocumented immigrants in our country who pay taxes and contribute should be able to go through a predictable process to attain legal status.

I’m a contractor, not a career politician. I’ve been a working guy my entire life. While my wife Celeste and I were blessed to achieve our American Dream, we see that too many working Americans are getting left behind. I’m a fourth-generation Coloradan running to be a voice for working people. My heart and soul are here. I’d be honored to have your support in this election.