DENVER—Republican Ken Buck trounced Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet in the 9News/Denver Post debate at the Auraria Campus this evening. The candidates fielded questions from Coloradans, ranging everywhere from jobs and to Washington’s out of control spending, to Afghanistan and Social Security. The first question came from a Coloradan asked for “meat and potatoes” answers on how to create jobs. Buck talked about giving certainty to small businesses, tax incentives for creating jobs and providing real health care reform. While Bennet’s answer amounted to crumbs.
“Michael Bennet doesn’t understand the issues that the people of Colorado care about. That became clearer today than ever before,” said John Swartout, Buck’s campaign manager.
One of the biggest differences between Buck and Bennet came when discussing Afghanistan. Buck laid out three objectives to withdrawing troops form the country, including ensuring the country is stable, the drug cartel is disbanded and the Taliban is defeated.
Bennet retorted—
“If we say we are going to stay there until the Taliban is defeated, that’s the same as saying we are going to be there forever.”
“Michael Bennet does not want to defeat the Taliban, the people who fund terrorists including the attacks 9/11,” said Swartout. “Ken Buck believes we must defeat terrorists here and abroad.”
On spending, Bennet talked big, but his record reflects differently. Bennet talked about supporting PayGo, but voted to violate it four times; he said he was for capping discretionary funding, but voted against it several times. The fact is that our debt is at $13.6 trillion and our unemployment just hit 9.6 percent.
“We can’t afford another six years of Michael Bennet,” concluded Swartout.
