Yesterday, January 12, was a shameful day for us in Colorado. First we woke to the news of the Senate pushing through a budget resolution in the middle of the night, paving the way for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act by the end of this month, well before any plan for replacement is established. Then we see the video of our own Sen. Cory Gardner, acting the bully, banging his gavel repeatedly as he presides over the proceedings, shouting “Out of Order!” as Sen. Elizabeth Warren tries valiantly to cast her vote against the measure with a brief statement about how it will have devastating consequences for millions of Americans who stand to lose their health insurance.

Later in the day, we learned that our other senator, Michael Bennet, joined twelve other Democrats in voting against a measure that would significantly reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. The official reason given is that the bill didn’t have adequate safety measures to ensure the medications are safe.

But the reality is that many of the medications that would be imported at lower costs to us are actually manufactured in the U.S., and so they already comply with FDA standards. And while we are able to import food from all over the world, we are to believe that it is beyond our capabilities to ensure that prescription drugs from other countries are safe? Nonsense. The real reason for Bennet’s vote against the bill, it turns out, is that Michael Bennett receives big money from “Big Pharma,” as do all of the thirteen Democratic senators who voted no.

It is clear that neither of our senators care whether the citizens of Colorado have access to affordable health care. They care more about making Big Pharma and Big Oil happy. Shame on them both.

Rebecca Henderson, Lyons

On Thursday, thirteen Democrats in the U.S. Senate, including Colorado’s own Michael Bennet, voted against a bill sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobachar which would have lowered the cost of prescription drugs for millions of Americans. The bill had the support of twelve Republicans and would have passed if all of the Democrats had voted for it. Unfortunately, Sen. Bennet chose to go where the money is and vote against it.

According to OpenSecrets.org, Sen. Bennet has taken $396,000 in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, also known as “Big Pharma.” This is a perfect illustration of the corrosive and corrupt effect that big money has had on our political system. Perhaps Sen. Bennet is banking on the notion that his constituents will forget this vote by the time he comes back up for re-election. I plan to do everything I can to see that that does not happen. No excuse is good enough for him to justify this shameful vote.

Michael Dubrovich, Parker

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