Pressed by a moderator why he’s described government spending that’s helped bolster his private business as “opportunity” and spending that benefits others as “dependency,” Joe O’Dea tries to make a distinction that lands a little flat.
“When we pay people to sit on the couch, at home, that’s dependency,” O’Dea said. “When we pay people to invest in our transportation system, in our water storage system, in our economy, in our energy, those are assets that we’re growing.”
Bennet pounced on the “couch” comment, calling it an offense to hard-working people who are struggling to pay their bills and make a living.
“I think it’s so insulting to Coloradans when Joe says, ‘Coloradans need to get off the couch’… People in this economy, with this inflation, are killing themselves,” Bennet said. “The problem is not that people need to get off the couch in Colorado.”
Bennet then pointed to O’Dea’s support for the tax cuts passed by Republicans in 2017 under former President Donald Trump, noting how they disproportionately benefitted corporations and wealth individuals.
O’Dea responded with a jab at President Joe Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act,” a health care, climate and tax law.
“You just voted for an ‘Inflation Reduction Act that even Bernie Sanders says doesn’t reduce inflation,” O’Dea shot back. (Sanders did, in fact, share that criticism of a bill he felt didn’t go far enough on social spending.)
Read More: Colorado Senate debate between Michael Bennet and Joe O’Dea