Bennet doesn't get the message - The Denver Post

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editorial
Bennet doesn't get the message
The Colorado senator is ignoring voters' will by pushing a reconciliation vote to cram health care reform down our throats.

By The Denver Post
Posted: 02/18/2010 01:00:00 AM MST

Most Americans want Congress to start over on health care reform, but it seems Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet would rather jam it down our throats.

Ignoring the message that voters sent in Massachusetts, and shedding any notion that he intends to be a moderate Democrat, Bennet is leading a pack of liberal senators who want to push through health-care reform using a process known as reconciliation.

How is it possible that Sen. Bennet, yet to receive one vote from a Coloradan, has such a tin ear for what most Coloradans and Americans want?

Under reconciliation, which does away with normal Senate procedures, health care reform needs only a simple majority vote. We editorialized last spring against using reconciliation on this issue and urged congressional leaders to come up with a bipartisan solution. Something of this magnitude, which would make generational changes to our health care system, shouldn't be forced on Americans by one-party rule.

And here's the kicker: Bennet doesn't even have the votes necessary to ram it through on reconciliation.

So why even bring it up?

Bennet's recent actions — from last week's unnecessary nod in favor of a questionable appointee to the national labor board to pushing reconciliation — reek of calculation. Is he so nervous about his primary with Andrew Romanoff that he's looking to curry favor with leftist activists?

When Congressman Jared Polis pitched the idea of reconciliation last month, he won praise from liberal bloggers and activists. But unlike Polis, who's in a safe seat, Bennet — should he survive his primary challenge — will face a statewide electorate that's evenly divided among unaffiliated voters, Democrats and Republicans. Those independents are trending away from Democrats, and this mad dash to the left could haunt him come November.

We have supported the need for comprehensive health care reform, including a public option, which Bennet wants to include in the reconciliation vote. But we also think the health care bill that's hanging by a thread in the Senate is at odds with Bennet's stated goals for reform.

The Senate failed miserably in its goal of reining in our nation's runaway medical costs and instead poisoned the bill with unnecessary deal-making and concessions. We've argued that both of Colorado's senators should reject the bill and start anew, not jam it through.

Bennet in late December made an impassioned speech on the Senate floor about the ugly process and failures of the bill. It was the type of speech a strong, moderate senator from Colorado should give. But then he turned around and voted for the bill.

Perhaps our senator is trying to curry favor with President Obama, who is in town today to raise money for Bennet's campaign. If so, it's a mistake.

Obama doesn't need Bennet to be his defender in chief as much as Colorado needs a centrist, independent senator.

Time is running out for Bennet to fill that role.