Colorado Public Radio sat down with U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, now running for governor, for a long interview centered on housing costs, Medicaid, TABOR, the state budget, and Bennet’s argument that Colorado’s affordability crisis demands a statewide mission. Bennet says no working person should have to spend more than 30% of their income on housing, and he told CPR he wants more construction, less regulation, and a broad push to increase housing stock across Colorado.
The interview also covered Bennet’s view of the state budget mess, where he blamed Colorado’s fiscal crisis partly on Trump’s Medicaid policies, federal decisions, health care costs, TABOR, and other constitutional limits. Bennet said Colorado needs a longer-term fiscal strategy and that he is open to changes to TABOR, except removing the right of voters to approve tax increases. Translation: same old tune, new campaign microphone.
And here we go again. Blame Trump. Blame TABOR. Blame the old constitutional “shackles.” Blame everything except the ruling class that has spent years making Colorado more expensive, more regulated, more centralized, and more allergic to common sense. Same circus. Different clown car.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Bennet is making housing affordability the centerpiece of his gubernatorial campaign, saying no working person should have to spend more than 30% of income on housing. Lovely goal. Also, I would like a unicorn that pays property taxes.
- He says Colorado needs more starter homes, more condos, less red tape, and faster approval processes. Great. Show us the deregulation. Do not give us another government program with a scenic logo and a 14-member advisory board.
- Bennet says he does not want a “command and control” answer from the governor’s office in Denver. That is rich coming from a guy running for governor while promising a statewide housing mission that sounds suspiciously like Denver knows best with softer shoes.
- On the budget, Bennet points to Trump, Medicaid, health care costs, TABOR, and constitutional limits. Blame Trump. Blame TABOR. Same crap, different day, and somehow taxpayers always end up holding the mop.
- Bennet has spent 17 years in the U.S. Senate after being appointed to the seat in 2009. Name one major, memorable, life-improving thing he has accomplished for Colorado in that time. I’ll wait. Bring snacks.
My Bottom Line
Either Michael Bennet or Phil Weiser would be a continuation of the same circus we have now. Different voice. Same act. More state power. More programs. More “strategic conversations.” More lectures from people who caused the affordability fire while now showing up dressed like firefighters.
Bennet talks about housing as if he has suddenly discovered local government, land use, and the math of regulation. What does Michael Farrand Bennet know about local land-use authority? Not much, from where I sit. Counties and municipalities live this stuff every week. Planning commissions, infrastructure capacity, water, roads, neighborhood impacts, property rights, local process. This is not a white paper. This is where people live.
Now, I will give him this much: he said “red tape” out loud. Good. Let’s see it. Let’s see real deregulation. Let’s see Colorado stop choking construction with mandates, delays, fees, process traps, and one-size-fits-all dreams from Denver. But if the answer becomes another taxpayer-backed housing program, another public option, another statewide office, another bureaucratic “mission,” then no, that will not make housing affordable. Government cannot spend housing into affordability while regulating it into scarcity.
And let’s be honest about Bennet himself. This is not some scrappy Coloradan who crawled out of a ditch with a lunch pail and a zoning map. He is an East Coast elite who somehow landed in Colorado’s government grift stream and rode it beautifully. Yale Law. State Department family pedigree. Clinton administration orbit. Hickenlooper chief of staff. Denver Public Schools superintendent. Appointed U.S. Senator. Seventeen years later, he now wants to run the state because, apparently, the Senate was not enough room for the résumé.
All government grift. All polished. All credentialed. All wrapped in concern for working people while the actual working people keep getting priced out, taxed harder, regulated deeper, and told the next plan will finally fix what the last plan broke.
Colorado does not need another elite manager of decline with better vocabulary. It needs leaders who understand that housing affordability starts with supply, property rights, local realities, infrastructure, water, and getting government’s boot off the neck of the people trying to build. Bennet says he wants less regulation. Fine. Prove it. Until then, this sounds like the same Gold Dome philosophy with a Senate haircut.
Source: Colorado Public Radio
Share your thoughts...