Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet voiced strong concerns about health care, the economy, fairness in voting, and other issues at a town hall in Durango Tuesday.
He took questions from a mostly sympathetic capacity crowd of about 200 in the Fort Lewis College Theatre building.
Bennet was asked about a recently proposed bill, SB 2496, that would provide some continuous coverage for children up to six years old under the Medicaid program and the Children's Health Insurance Program in an effort to counteract recent cuts to Medicaid. A woman who said she was a nurse asked why the bill covers children only to age six. She also noted that a legislation-tracking website gave this bill a zero percent chance of passage.
Bennet commented that he had introduced the bill just last week, adding dryly, “so maybe it has a one percent chance.” He said he’d like the coverage to include older children, but thought focusing on the youngest provided the best chance of getting the bill passed.
However, he said, “at some level we’re defending the worst health-care system in the industrialized world,” saying he believes in moving toward a universal health-care system.
Bennet said the cuts to Medicaid, as well as other aspects of the giant budget bill passed by Congress, will have major impacts locally. “It’s going to be a tough, tough bill for rural Colorado,” he said.
“We are in tough times, no doubt about it, but we cannot give up hope.”
Asked about the future of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is 60 years old this year, Bennet spoke about Republican efforts to suddenly gerrymander districts in Texas in order to try to gain more seats in the House in the 2026 midterms. “This is a horrific situation we’re in, it’s just appalling,” he said.
He said partisan gerrymandering is “one of the great toxins in our system.”
Colorado is one of a minority of states where redistricting is done by independent, bipartisan commissions.
According to Ballotpedia, in 33 states the legislature handles the redistricting, meaning it’s done in favor of whichever party controls that legislature.
“There is a point where the institutions we’ve been bequeathed are in a smoldering heap at our feet,” he said. Bennet said “all bets are off” as to how Democrats will respond to the redistricting in Texas.
He also discussed tariffs and economic concerns. Asked how U.S. society can get back on track, Bennet said, “We’re going to be in this battle for the rest of our lives.”
He said President Reagan unleashed a 50-year period of so-called “trickle-down economics” and that hasn’t worked.
A young man makes 40 percent less in real (inflation-adjusted) money than such a man did in 1976, Bennet said, and women’s pay still lags behind men’s.
The top 1 percent of Americans own 50 percent of the wealth in this country, he said.
“We have to create an economy that grows for everybody, not just people at the top,” he said, “and I think Colorado can lead in that.”
A couple of people questioned Bennet on his decision to run for governor rather than remain in the Senate, noting that the Senate “runs on seniority” and a new person will face years of work before he or she gains pre-eminence in committee assignments. They said Phil Weiser, the current attorney general of the state, who is also running for governor, is well-qualified.
Bennet said he was at the town hall as a senator, not a gubernatorial candidate, but that the state is facing “significant, significant challenges.”
“There’s not a county in this state where people feel confident their children are going to be able to live in that county,” he said, calling for discussions about the state economy, health care, energy, affordable housing, and TABOR (the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights).
Bennet said he believes he can help make Colorado into a leader in all those areas. “I think Colorado can provide a vision for all 50 states.”
He said he isn’t burned out and simply wanting to leave the Senate. “It’s not about my not wanting to spend one more day in the Senate with Ted Cruz [of Texas],” he said.
Bennet was critical of the Democratic Party’s efforts in the last election, speaking passionately about its problems.
“As angry as I am with Trump and people not pushing back against Trump, I’m also incredibly angry at the Democratic Party for losing a second election to Donald Trump,” he said. “We should never have lost this election.”
He said the party was wishy-washy about what it stood for, being unclear on its positions on health care, the economy, and other critical issues.
He called on people not to give up fighting political battles.
Though the political system may seem corrupt, he said, “One thing I know is, it’s not more corrupt than when John Lewis [a venerated congressman and civil-rights activist] was subjecting his skull to a club [on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in 1965].”
He said, “For better or worse, nobody’s riding to our rescue.”
