We hear how deeply the left cares about the poor. This concern is hard to believe after 10 months of the left’s control of Congress, the White House, and all of Colorado state government.

Tuesday’s meeting of the Colorado Springs City Council showcases the latest manifestation of the left’s hostility toward the poor, which in turn takes a disproportionate toll on minorities.

Everyone knows about the Democratic Party’s unfortunate embrace of racist instruction in classrooms that goes by “Critical Race Theory” and more nebulous names. That’s the overt racism of words. The rest is tangibly economic and immediately damaging to those of all backgrounds who struggle economically.

We doubt anyone on the Colorado Springs City Council harbors malice toward the poor. We have an above-average council balanced by moderates who are slightly left and right of center and want the best for their community.

Tuesday, national circumstances forced the Council to enact a natural gas rate increase that will further torment the lower-middle-class and poor without regard for anyone’s genetic lineage.

“I am so concerned about so many of the ratepayers that are going to be affected,” said Councilwoman Yolanda Avila, a compassionate person who represents the city’s most ethnically diverse and economically challenged district.

Avila and all other council members approved a nearly 27% increase in natural gas rates Tuesday. They had to, mostly because of President Joe Biden’s animosity toward domestic energy production that is shared by the otherwise egalitarian Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. The council, which doubles as the board of Colorado Springs Utilities, merely passes down the price of gas and the overhead of distributing it.

Combined with an increase in March, Tuesday’s rate hike will add an additional $37.92 to the monthly cost of heating the typical Colorado Springs home this winter. This sounds like pocket change to the financially fortunate. To those who barely afford their bills, it could be the hit that puts them on the streets – parents and children alike.

The natural gas increase combines with soaring gasoline prices, general inflation, and looming new taxes to pay for Biden’s proposed social programs. Those include one in his “Build Back Better” proposal that would subsidize wealthy consumers to buy flashy high-end battery cars.

“President Biden’s policies restricting the supply and distribution of natural gas are clearly factors in these skyrocketing natural gas prices,” said City Councilman and former Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams in a visit with The Gazette by phone Tuesday.

Williams has a chart that shows the average natural gas price – not counting an anticipated spike this winter – is 25% higher than the highest prices during the prior administration. Maybe ugly tweets don’t hurt so much as an unheated home in the winter.

“Who wants to invest in natural gas production when you have a president doing everything he can to obstruct it?” Williams asked.

Without a complete change in the course of national energy and monetary policies, expect life to get harder for the lower-middle-class and the poor – the people most in need of affordable energy. We can expect Biden’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to keep laughing about the rising costs of fuel because she can afford it.

None of this economic hostility toward the poor and lower-middle-class should come as a surprise. Americans knowingly elected Biden despite his routine remarks that mock non-white Americans and the poor:

• “Poor kids are just as bright as white kids.”
• Barack Obama is the first “African-American who is articulate and bright and clean…”
• “You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”
• “You ain’t Black” if you don’t vote for Biden.
• “Unlike the African American community… the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.”
• Desegregation would cause Biden’s children to “grow up in a jungle. A racial jungle.”

The list could go on, and a more charitable view of Biden’s words would dismiss them as the gaffes of a buffoon. A more realistic view sees a man who looks down on average Americans working ordinary jobs and trying to pay bills. The emerging results of his social and economic policies support the latter.

Colorado Springs Gazette editorial board