US CONGRESS · SITTING

Michael F. Bennet

Senator for Colorado · Democratic · United States

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

“The other kids in the school need to be vaccinated. The other kids in the classroom need to be vaccinated for vaccines to work. And, until this administration, that wasn't controversial because we could see what the science told us.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗

“Based directly on what they saw at Fort Lewis and similar outbreaks at that time, the CDC updated its guidelines in 1989 to establish the two-dose MMR schedule recommended for every schoolchild in America today. This updated recommendation paved the way for measles to be officially eliminated across the United States in the year 2000.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗

“But that peace of mind is being undermined by the current administration--including by the President of the United States and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who have worked tirelessly to undermine decades of settled science around routine vaccinations that have kept kids safe in this country and around the world for years.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗

“I think we should be having a debate in this country about the state of healthcare in the United States of America and about the ways in which we failed this generation and the next generation in providing a system that actually delivers better healthcare at a reasonable price and mental health care at a reasonable price, instead of plung…”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗

“And the last thing that they wanted to worry about was getting a free vaccine for their children or whether they should have that vaccine at all.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗

“They had to send him out on live television to contradict the President of the United States, who said that this routine vaccine that we have relied upon to save millions of lives was ``quite lethal.'' Meanwhile, Secretary Kennedy spent last week serving as the keynote speaker for an anti-vax convention.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗

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“I think we should be having a debate in this country about the state of healthcare in the United States of America and about the ways in which we failed this generation and the next generation in providing a system that actually delivers better healthcare at a reasonable price and mental health care at a reasonable price, instead of plunging people into further misery or into bankruptcy. I wish we were having that debate on the Senate floor, but we can't begin to have that until the basic facts about science and medicine are taken seriously by this administration. The President should start by rescinding his Executive order today on childhood vaccines. He should fire Secretary Kennedy, as I have long called for. But until that happens--and I don't think it is going to happen in the foreseeable future.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“And when we allow misinformation to drive down vaccination rates, we aren't just failing to meet an important public health indicator; we are failing moms in Aurora and in Pueblo and in Durango. We are failing pediatricians like Dr. Stinar in Grand Junction, who are fighting on the frontlines of this disease; and we are failing vulnerable children across Colorado who have no choice in the matter. Parents, pediatricians, and families across Colorado should be able to expect more from their government. They deserve certainty. They deserve clear communication. They deserve to know that their public health system is designed to keep them safe, rather than to pursue another political agenda that has nothing to do with their education or their health.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“When the leadership of HHS spends its time amplifying conspiracy theories, they are not making communities safer; they are driving down immunization rates, leaving our schools vulnerable, and putting the lives of Colorado's children directly in harm's way. Today, Colorado has the sixth lowest measles vaccination rate in the nation for kindergartners. Only 87.7 percent of Colorado kindergartners have received both doses of their MMR vaccine, and that is well below the 95 percent threshold for herd immunity. In fact, 57 out of Colorado's 64 counties now fail to meet that basic safety line. My message to Colorado parents from this floor tonight is simple: Vaccines are safe, they are effective, and they remain our strongest defense against diseases like measles.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“They had to send him out on live television to contradict the President of the United States, who said that this routine vaccine that we have relied upon to save millions of lives was ``quite lethal.'' Meanwhile, Secretary Kennedy spent last week serving as the keynote speaker for an anti-vax convention. In the middle of the worst measles surge our country has seen in 35 years, the Nation's top health official stood in front of a crowd of anti-science activists and reassured them that they have ``a strong and steadfast friend in the White House.'' I wish I could tell families trying to get their kids back to school that they have a steadfast friend in the White House, that they have somebody who is trying to make their life easier, not harder; to make it easier to bring up a kid, not harder.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“The other kids in the school need to be vaccinated. The other kids in the classroom need to be vaccinated for vaccines to work. And, until this administration, that wasn't controversial because we could see what the science told us. And for families in rural Colorado, where healthcare access is already stretched thin and local hospitals are already in danger of going bankrupt because of the razor-thin margins, this burden that they are creating is almost unbearable. And to make matters worse, the other week, the President told the American people that the MMR vaccine--a safe, lifesaving shot given to hundreds of millions of children over four decades--the President called it ``quite lethal''--``quite lethal.'' They had to send out Dr. Oz to clean up the record after that--the Director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“And the last thing that they wanted to worry about was getting a free vaccine for their children or whether they should have that vaccine at all. In those days, not that long ago, there was nobody worrying about a President or an HHS Secretary peddling misinformation that would lead to the biggest outbreak in measles that we have had in 30 years. Things are hard enough as it is for families in Colorado and all across this country right now. We don't need to make matters worse by intentionally misleading them about what is safe and making it harder for them to get a free vaccine at the pharmacy down the street. And, by the way, I know my colleagues here well enough to understand something that I don't think the administration understands. It is not good enough just to get your kid vaccinated.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“And, earlier this year, Japan officially abandoned the experiment--as we will, undoubtedly--and returned to the combined MMR vaccine. We don't need to repeat another nation's mistake when the safety and lives of American children are on the line. And telling parents to ask for shots that don't exist today only plunges families into further chaos. It forces parents to schedule endless appointments, take time off work, and pay multiple copays for vaccines that used to be delivered safely in a single visit. As everybody in this place knows, before I came to the Senate, I was the superintendent of schools in Denver. This was such a happy time every year, when people were coming back, bringing their kids back to school.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“That recommendation ignores the basic, undeniable fact, which is that separate single-disease shots for measles, mumps, and rubella do not even exist in the U.S. market today. They are so obsolete, and we were following the science, such that those single shots that the President and the HHS Secretary are calling for don't even exist today. And it ignores the evidence that we have from countries that have already tried to separate the dose and then reverted back because it didn't work. In the 1990s, Japan moved away from the combination MMR shot and attempted to separate the vaccines. The result was predictable. It was immediate and disastrous. They saw vaccination rates plummet and measles outbreaks surged.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“Instead of defending the settled science that saved millions of lives, President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have spent months waging a campaign to promote skepticism, stoke fear, and amplify outright lies. Look at what has happened in just the last few weeks. In August, President Trump signed an Executive order on childhood vaccines that overrides decades of settled scientific consensus. It encourages States to abandon school entry requirements. It recommends reducing the number of routine vaccines protecting our kids. And it calls for breaking up longstanding combination shots like the measles, mumps, and rubella-- MMR--vaccine into separate single-disease doses spread over multiple doctor visits.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“Based directly on what they saw at Fort Lewis and similar outbreaks at that time, the CDC updated its guidelines in 1989 to establish the two-dose MMR schedule recommended for every schoolchild in America today. This updated recommendation paved the way for measles to be officially eliminated across the United States in the year 2000. That was a quarter of a century ago, when, following the science, this country eliminated measles; and for 30 years after that, routine vaccine recommendations have kept children safe and in the classroom. Back then, faced with a public health emergency, we did what you would expect: We followed the evidence, updated our practices, and successfully prevented another outbreak of that scale or severity going forward. We learned from each other. Today, we are taking the opposite approach.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“In Colorado, we have already confirmed 25 cases this year, including 7 hospitalizations. Of these cases, 22 people were unvaccinated. Of the 25 who have measles in Colorado today, 22 were unvaccinated. That is the most we have had in over 30 years. You have to go back to 1995 to find an outbreak in my State that is even close to what we are seeing today. We are going backward when it comes to public health in the richest country in the world, and families in Colorado and all across this country are suffering the consequences. But what is taking place in Colorado is especially tragic because Colorado's experience is one of the reasons that the United States has a two-dose vaccine recommendation today. Back in 1988, an outbreak of 84 measles cases swept through Fort Lewis College in Durango.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“But that peace of mind is being undermined by the current administration--including by the President of the United States and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who have worked tirelessly to undermine decades of settled science around routine vaccinations that have kept kids safe in this country and around the world for years. The consequences of that broken trust are showing up in our emergency rooms and in our classrooms. Parents are increasingly concerned that their kids will go to school and come back with a serious disease. Right now, our Nation is living through the most severe measles outbreak in over 35 years. Measles is not a mild childhood inconvenience; it is one of the most contagious viruses on Earth, capable of causing high fevers, brain swelling, long-term disability, and death.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“Madam President, over the past few weeks, familiar scenes have been playing out in Colorado and all across the country. Families are buying new books and backpacks, picking up school supplies, and taking their children to the pediatrician for their annual checkup. For decades, back-to-school season did not prompt anxiety or confusion--except for maybe the kids like me that didn't do their summer reading. Parents could rely on the recommendations from their pediatricians, and the questions they did have were answered by professionals.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“185, a joint resolution to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea. ____________________”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 187, motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 777, Michael J. Hendershot, of Ohio, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Ohio. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay. I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 188, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 777, Michael J. Hendershot, of Ohio, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Ohio. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay. I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 189, motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 778, Arthur Roberts Jones, of Texas, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay. I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 185, motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 780, John George Edward Marck, of Texas, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay. I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 186, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 780, John George Edward Marck, of Texas, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay.”
Senate13 July 2026Source ↗
“Colorado has spent years implementing top-tier cyber security measures and audits to prevent hackers from interfering with our electoral process. We have one of the most secure election systems of any State in the country, and because Coloradans have trust in our gold standard system, we have some of the highest voter turnout in America. That is the model we should be using across the country, in my view. Instead of wasting time and taxpayer dollars on the SAVE Act, Congress should be implementing Colorado's practices all across the country. I yield the floor to my colleague from Rhode Island. Thank you very much for his leadership in bringing the Nation's attention to this issue today.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“In Colorado, we are the first State in America to complete a risk-limiting audit, the gold standard for verifying the integrity of election results to begin with, and it entails counting and comparing a representative sample of ballots to the reported result. To prevent hacking, none of our voting machines are attached to the internet. We require county clerks to use two-factor authentication to access voter databases. And once a vote is cast, a bipartisan team of election judges in each county checks every signature against the copy in the database for any discrepancies. All election officials and judges with access to the tabulation process must pass a Colorado Bureau of Investigation background check.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“Compare those 30,000 Kansans who attempted to register and were denied to the 30 people--30 people--the 30 noncitizens who reportedly voted in the 2016 election nationwide. That is about 0.0001 percent of all votes cast. If there ever was one, this is a solution in search of a problem, and the only solution doesn't even work. It only makes it harder for law- abiding Americans to register to vote or patriotic Americans to register to vote. Perhaps it would be better if this bill were modeled after the system that we have in Colorado. We have set the gold standard in my State. It is a system that actually encourages people to vote in a fraud-free system.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“The SAVE Act does nothing to make it easier to cast a ballot; it only succeeds in making it harder for Americans to register to vote and to exercise their rights. This is not theoretical. Kansas tried to implement its own State- level SAVE Act in 2013, with disastrous results. The law blocked over 30,000 potential registrants in just 2 years--about 12 percent of all voter registrations during the period. State officials acknowledged in court that over 99 percent of affected voters were U.S. citizens. Now, even Kansas's Republican secretary of state, who championed the bill when he was a State legislator, has warned against it, saying: It didn't work out so well. I would say so. About 12 percent of the people who tried to register couldn't.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“Mr. President, I, too, am here on the floor today to oppose the SAVE Act. Today, Americans register to vote in a variety of ways, typically set by each State in this country, but Federal law requires that Americans attest to citizenship under penalty of perjury. In Colorado, you can register online; you can register in person; you can register through the mail. It can be as easy as providing your Social Security number and signature, which every American has, through the secretary of state's website. Alternatively, the SAVE Act would change that by requiring that all American citizens, whether registering for the first time or updating their registration, to present proof of citizenship in person, largely in the form of a passport or a birth certificate.”
Senate30 April 2025Source ↗
“Mr. President, with that--if I can find my glasses--I ask unanimous consent to amend the previous order and that the Senate stand adjourned until 8:30 a.m., with all other provisions of the order remaining in effect. There being no objection, the Senate, at 11:14 p.m., adjourned until Friday, April 4, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. ____________________”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“We should find a better way of supporting them, and we should shelve this budget, which is going to do nothing but harm the American people. I thank the Presiding Officer for his patience. I thank the staff for being here so late tonight even though tonight's lateness is going to be nothing compared to tomorrow night's lateness. ____________________”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“Those are the choices that we should be making tonight. I want to finish this by thanking again the people who have come to my townhall meetings; to the people who have brought their loved ones, especially their children, to those townhall meetings; to the people who took the time to write, who have not given up on the idea that they can have a voice in this democracy and that the decisions that this place can make can actually align with the priorities that they have. They are not asking for anything here except the chance to continue to take care of their children, to take care of their parents, to take care of their loved ones, and to be contributing members of our society. We should support their ambitions for themselves. We should support their ambitions for our country.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“From birth to death, our Medicaid Programs are a lifeline for my constituents and for millions of Americans. My colleague from Georgia started his speech by saying that a budget is a moral document. I could not agree with him more. I think we should reconsider, in the face of the advocacy that we are hearing, whether these are the best choices we can make, and of course, they are not. In a rational world, we would be figuring out how to get everybody healthcare in this country and do it for less money than these other countries are spending, just as they are doing, and we would be able to use the savings from that to pay down our deficit if we wanted to do that or invest in our military if we wanted to do that or invest in our roads and our bridges if we wanted to do that or in the mental health of our children if we cared to do that.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“I would certainly not be who I am today without lifesaving medical expenses I would never be able to afford myself. I am currently caring for my now-disabled mother, who also relies on Medicaid and support services. Without Medicaid, I, my family, and millions of others would be left to die. Medicaid is a lifeline for so many of us, and we all deserve access to healthcare in the richest, most powerful country known to humankind. I couldn't have said that better myself. Nearly 1.3 million Coloradans like Kalyn rely on Health First Colorado and CHIP to get health coverage. Half a million of them are children. These cuts would affect more than half of Colorado's seniors who rely on Health First Colorado to help pay for nursing homes because they literally can't afford to die anywhere else.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“They represent our societal commitment to providing and promoting those opportunities to all citizens, and these values and commitments--manifested in Medicaid services--are the sole reason that I have been able to overcome quadriplegia and live a purposeful, beautiful life. My name is Kalyn Rose-- She is from Denver-- --and I was born with a rare condition: osteogenesis imperfecta. My mother lost count of all my broken bones at a young age, but it is certainly over 100 fractures and likely 50-plus surgeries now. Because of my access to Medicaid, I have been able to get life-supporting surgeries, emergency room visits, and wheelchairs that I would not otherwise . . . receive. Thanks to Medicaid, I live a full life as an artist, educator, mentor, and community advocate based in Denver, CO.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“But as I began my rehabilitation, I learned about Medicaid and home- and community-based services. By the time I returned home, I had set up home health care services that allowed me to receive the needed care to be independent throughout the day and enabled my parents to continue working. By the time 1 year had passed after my accident, I was back living on my college's campus and taking a full slate of classes. As I write this, I am a staff attorney at the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition--an organization I dreamed of contributing to professionally when I was a volunteer advocate here over a decade ago.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“Don't force parents to actually leave their households when there is no one else to take care of their children. No one would make these choices in one of our communities at home. I would like to hear a city council meeting where these were the choices that were being made: Cut electric for the poorest people in the country. Borrow as much money as we have ever borrowed. Give the benefit to the two wealthiest neighborhoods in town. It doesn't make any sense. Here is a letter from Bryce in Denver: When I sustained a cervical spinal cord injury from a shallow water diving accident at age 20, the only thing I was certain of was that my future aspirations and independence were finished. I had plenty of time to think about what I had lost as a quadriplegic during my 45-day stay in the ICU.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“It is a crisis in the richest country in the world. Now we are going to provoke this crisis. We are going to make it even worse. We are going to destabilize these families. For what--so we can give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America? Why don't you just not do that part of the bill? Why don't you just not do that part of the bill? This economy has shoveled benefits for 50 years on the wealthiest people in our country. Do we want to compound that unfairness with a set of tax policies like the ones that are being pursued here and turn around and cut healthcare for the most vulnerable people in America? If you are concerned about waste, fraud, and abuse, go after waste, fraud, and abuse, but don't make people's lives even more painful. Don't make people's lives even more difficult.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“I change her, dress her, get her out of bed, feed her, bathe her, drive her to therapy and other appointments, exercise, massage, and physical therapy at home, give her her medications, get her ready for bed, and help her in the middle of the night if she wakes up. Because she depends on me, I'm unable to get a job outside of the [house, and that] is why I depend on this waiver. I would rather care for my daughter, give her the quality care and love she deserves, than hire a stranger and depend on them to take care of my child. Without the waiver, I wouldn't be able to afford to stay home and make sure she is safe and happy. Thanks to the waiver, she [has] the therapy she needs. It's a crisis, and we need Congress to ensure that everyone has access to home- and community-based services right now. It is a crisis. It is a crisis.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“Barbara from Greenwood Village: Our son Derek is autistic and nonverbal. His dad and I are 86 plus, and it became hard for us to take care of him. We wanted to be sure he would be in a safe and secure situation and happy there. On May 29 of this year, we were able to find a host home for him to live in. He is doing well there. He has people that take him out in the community 6 days a week to enjoy being out and about, which is so very important to his happiness and well-being. We pray that Medicaid will continue to support him in continuing this new way of life for him. Our community of people with disabilities desperately need help! Sasha from Fountain: I have a 9-year-old, wheelchair-bound daughter with cerebral palsy. She depends on me 100 percent. She depends on me 24/7, morning, day, and night.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“He cannot be in a typical daycare or even go to preschool due to the high level of support he requires. Medicaid pays for his speech therapy and occupational therapy. After just 6 months of ABA therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, Jackson is now speaking. He's not as aggressive and is getting better with managing the sensory issues that he struggles with daily. Without Medicaid, we would not be able to pay for our home or food as I am his paid caregiver through Medicaid. I cannot work a typical job. It is important that he receives these therapies and supports for Medicaid as well as me so that our family can survive and he has the brightest future possible. If anything is taken away from him or us, it will be detrimental. Please give my son and our small family a fighting chance. Thank you.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“Joaquin has received services ranging from medications that prevent constant pain to (before our move) air ambulance flights from Albuquerque to CHCO, including several life- saving surgeries. Losing funding for Medicaid directly translates to unnecessary suffering and even loss of life for Joaquin and countless children like him. Please do not allow that to happen. Mr. President, I can't tell you the number of parents I have met who have spent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in care of their own children but who are able to do it because of the small payment that is made by Medicaid. What are these parents supposed to do if this is cut? How are we going to meet the moral obligation of this country to our children with this cut? A letter from Brittny in Denver: My son has autism, a developmental disability, and a speech delay.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“The care I say that all of us deserve. Erica from Johnstown: My son has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. His care alone without Medicaid waivers will cost us at least $1 million per year. Medicaid allows me to be paid to take care of my child and not rely on nursing care. Medicaid has really helped him get the best care possible without having to worry about the cost. And to be able to have his parent there to take care of him. Samuel from Denver: My name is Samuel. I moved to Denver with my wife Cynthia and our son Joaquin just over a year ago-- Welcome-- in order to have his complex medical issues treated at Children's Hospital of Colorado. Medicaid has without exaggeration saved our lives; my wife is paid as our son's caregiver when she would otherwise be unable to work.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“It provides funding for adult programs that give her purpose, medical equipment, and living assistance--expenses that most families simply cannot afford. No family could afford. Without Medicaid, she and many others like her would be left without critical care, increasing the risk of institutionalization or homelessness. Medicaid also plays a vital role in adoption. Many children with disabilities, like my daughter, find forever families because Medicaid provides the financial support needed to care for them. Without it, fewer families would be able to adopt, leaving more children to age out of the system without the care they desperately need. Please support Medicaid funding and policies that ensure individuals with disabilities receive the care and dignity they deserve. Thank you for your time and dedication to this critical issue.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“As aging parents-- Eighty-six-year-old parents-- --we are greatly concerned about these proposed huge cuts to Medicaid . . . It's so important for us to know that all these supports will still be in place after we are gone and unable to advocate for him. Please help us to do this by not cutting Medicaid benefits!!! The next letter is from Michell in Thornton: I am writing to urge you to protect and strengthen Medicaid for individuals with disabilities. My daughter, who was adopted at age 10, is now 21 but has the cognitive level of a five-year-old. She has Fragile X Syndrome, ADHD, PTSD, anxiety, and possible fetal alcohol syndrome. She requires constant supervision, behavioral support, and medical care beyond what private insurance covers. Medicaid is essential for her survival and quality of life.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“That is why they are there at 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock at night with their children when their children should be home in bed, because they want people here to understand what it is going to mean to their families if these cuts go into place. The first letter is from Barbara of Greenwood Village: We are 86 year old parents of our 53 year old, nonverbal autistic son who we had become physically unable to care for him in our home anywhere. We were able to place him in a host home May 29, 2024, where he is being provided a safe and caring environment. He requires 24/7 supervision, to be given his needed daily medication, and seeing that he gets to all needed doctors and dental appointments and continues to do so. Without continuing Medicaid's current level of support, we are terrified that these needs may not continue to be met!”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“There is a choice that would never be made--a choice to hurt the people that now are going to have to go without healthcare; a choice to blow a massive hole in the deficit--not to invest in the country but to cut taxes for the wealthiest people. Why don't we have a tax cut for working people? Why don't we have a tax cut for the middle class? Why don't we expand the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit for working people here? Mr. President, I am going to finish. I do want to read some letters that have been written to me from people in Colorado who are deeply concerned about these cuts to Medicaid.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“We know that they cost the country $4 trillion; that the sons and daughters of teachers and firefighters and police officers all over this country who are not going to benefit in a material way from the tax cuts are going to have to pay back the debt that is incurred to give them to people who, as the Senator from Georgia said, aren't even asking, really. Many of them know we are in this situation where we have the worst income inequality that we have had since the 1920s and that we should be thinking about how to build that middle class again, give people the chance to get into the middle class, which is what we should be focused on. So there is a set of priorities here that somehow makes sense when it gets to Washington, DC, but surely doesn't make sense in the towns and cities of this country.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“What are you going to spend that money on? Parks? Public safety? On the mental health challenges that I described earlier? On our infrastructure? Our roads? Our bridges? Our schools? And the answer is: No, no, no. Well, what are you going to spend it on? We are going to give tax breaks to the two wealthiest neighborhoods in town and let it trickle down to everybody else. That is the Trump tax policy. That was the Trump tax policy in 2017, and it is the Trump tax policy this year. It is very unusual, by the way, to have a President who has been here twice with an interruption, but that is the case with President Trump. We now know the facts of the math that he claimed the last time. He said last time that the tax cuts would pay for themselves.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“But here comes a budget where a massive hole is being blown into the deficit and is causing a proposal to cut healthcare for the poorest people in the country and the poorest children in the country--here is what it is doing. It is cutting taxes for the wealthiest people in America. Fifty percent of the benefit of this tax bill will go to the top 5 percent of Americans. Fifty percent of the benefit of this tax bill will go to the top 5 percent of Americans. I have said it on the floor before. I am not going to dwell on it again. This is analogous. It is the same if a mayor in Denver or Grand Junction or Limon or Durango or Springfield came to see the citizens of those communities and said: I am going to borrow more money than we have ever borrowed before. You ask them: What are you going to spend it on? I am worried about that.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“You don't need this exercise in self- government. I can fix it. You should expect your private sector and your public sector to be hopelessly corrupt, hopelessly bankrupt. That is a dark vision, but that is the dark vision that he was elected on twice. I think we would be a lot better off trying to figure out how to create an economy that, when it grows, it grows for everybody, not just the people at the very top; and an economy that, when people work hard, they feel like they know they will be able to propel their kids forward. It was an economy that reestablished the American dream for this entire country. We better do that. We better do that if we are going to have any hope of saving this democracy.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“There is a lot of discussion these days about what the threats to our democracy are or the fact that our democracy is threatened. I don't think there is a greater threat to our democracy than the lack of economic mobility we have, than the fact that too many families in Colorado and across this country feel like their kids are not going to live a life as good as the life they live. In Colorado, there is not a county anymore where people feel like their lives are going to be better, where their kids' lives are going to be better than theirs. When you lose that sense of opportunity, when you lose that sense that if you work hard, you are going to get ahead, that is a danger to democracy because, inevitably, somebody shows up, as President Trump did, and says: I alone can fix it. You don't need a democracy. You don't need the rule of law.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“This country relied, when I was growing up, on the idea that if you worked hard, you could get ahead; if you worked hard and your kids worked hard, they could live a better life than the life you lived. That was the American promise. That was the American promise. Today, for the first time in American history, half the people that are 30 years old are going to make less money than their parents. Think about that. Half the people that are 30 years old in the country today are going to make less money than their parents did. If you look at young men in the United States of America, they are earning 40 percent less income today than they earned in 1976. We tell ourselves that we are the land of opportunity. We need to be the land of opportunity, but we are seeing our economic mobility slide behind competition, from Southeast Asia to Europe.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“People are going to fill up these emergency rooms. We know that because people will try to get healthcare wherever they can, even if it is the most expensive way of doing it. We would be a lot better off having a conversation about how to cover everybody in a way that costs us as little as it costs in other countries around the world. But not only are we not having that discussion with this budget, we are having a discussion about a budget that cuts taxes and blows this massive hole in the deficit, no matter how much the healthcare cuts are, of about $4.6 trillion. And that is to extend the tax cuts that Donald Trump came here and passed in 2017. This is another shocking part of this budget. You know, we have very significant problems in our economy.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“That is what is going to happen. Most of the people who are on Medicaid are children and senior citizens. That is who is on Medicaid--and disabled people and people who have spent their entire lifetime--they have spent their entire lifetimes working, and now they have spent their lifesavings down just for the privilege of spending the rest of their days in a nursing home, often in rural parts of our country, on Medicaid. So this budget has these cuts to healthcare. It is a way of saying it. I mean, we call it Medicaid, but it is healthcare for poor children, for poor seniors, for working people, for disabled people, for people that are living in nursing homes that have no other options. It is their healthcare. If you take this healthcare away, people are just going to get sicker. It is going to cost the society more.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“This budget is an immoral budget. You would think that we lived in the poorest country in the world, not the richest country in the world, if you saw this budget. There is no way that any mayor in Georgia or any mayor in Colorado, whatever party they are in, Democrat or Republican, would put a budget like this in front of their people. There is no way they would come to them and say: We are going to make life even harder for people who are even hanging on by their fingernails just to get the healthcare they get because, as my colleague from Georgia said, we are all sicker if kids don't get inoculated. We are all sicker if this country of ours doesn't have people that have primary care. It just gets more expensive if families have to go to the emergency room to get care for their children because they have no other way to get healthcare.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“And I think I heard my colleague from Georgia talking about how Martin Luther King had said that inequality in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane of all. And I wonder if one of the things he was thinking is that it is shocking and inhumane, in the richest country in the world, that not everybody is covered, even though in every one of these other industrialized countries, people are covered. And everybody in this room knows that no matter whether you are covered or whether you are not, if you have a sick child, you are going to try to get them a doctor. If you have a sick child, you are going to try to get them to the hospital, whether they are covered or whether they are not.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“I am sure my colleague from Georgia has the same experience I have in Colorado, which is to notice that every year it seems like healthcare actually becomes more scarce in America--less abundant--even though we are spending all that money. And don't even ask me about mental healthcare, which our families desperately need in the United States of America now. And as a former school superintendent, I can tell you our kids are facing a raging epidemic of mental health issues that are related to COVID, that are related to other challenges they are facing, that are related to the social media algorithms that are ripping their childhoods apart with absolutely no response from this place. So that is the starting point.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗

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