The chairman of the newly-formed Rural Affairs Committee in the Colorado State House, Democrat Rep. Dylan Roberts, talks a big game of alleviating stressors for rural Colorado in a new op-ed in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Unfortunately, when we look at the issues he hopes to address, it’s Democrats’ fault that these things are even issues.

Let’s talk about a few of them.

First, Roberts hopes to address the sky-high cost of rural healthcare. Sadly, he fails to acknowledge that it’s the Democratic Party’s Obamacare that has spurred drastic increases in health insurance costs in rural Colorado. We’re sure that addressing the sad state of rural healthcare in Colorado polls well, it’s just that he forgets that it’s his party that put them there.

Then, he talks about wanting to “spur innovation and economic development” in rural Colorado. You know what doesn’t spur any kind of innovation or economic development? The miles of regulations that Democrats embrace as core to their platform. The only thing Democrats encourage with their platform is economic wastelands.

Then, Roberts makes the claim that climate change threatens rural communities. Maybe. But probably not as much as decimating the oil and gas industry, which has supported rural economies for decades. Perhaps we’d believe this claim if it wasn’t so transparently about pushing oil and gas out of Colorado.

Finally, and perhaps most comically, Roberts makes the claim that rural Colorado is threatened by wildfires. And, to be sure, rural Colorado is threatened by wildfires. But, it’s because radical environmentalists, the kind that support Democrats like Roberts, repeatedly sue to prevent proper forestry techniques throughout Colorado, which would prevent the kind of forest fires that destroy thousands of homes and rural towns.

We’d laugh throughout this entire op-ed, if these issues weren’t so serious to Coloradans. When Democrats start actually backing up their talk with a little action (action that doesn’t exacerbate these problems, that is), maybe we’d catch our breath. As it is, it’s just a bunch of hot air.