Good evening and welcome to Colorado University. I am a publisher of the daily sentinel and im pleased to serve as moderator tonight. This event is made possible in part by macy university, Colorado Public Radio and k rcc. Tonights event is produced by cmu faculty and students. I would like to welcome Democrat Michael bennet and republican joe odea to grand junction. Thank you both for joining us in person. Both campaigns have agreed to the rules of tonights forum and will respond to a series of questions from our panel. We are joined by a reporter from the daily sentinel, and the editor, and a student. Each question will be posted posed to both candidates and each will have 90 seconds to respond. Whoever gets the question first will have a 32nd rebuttal. As moderator i reserve the right to interrupt candidates who go over time. We have one hour together, so lets get started. I will recognize our first candidate for opening remarks, senator bennet. Sen. Bennet thank you, jay. Thank you to cmu for hosting this tremendous event with cpr and the great daily sentinel. It is great to be back in grand junction. When i have traveled colorado, the most beautiful state, and my opinion. It is easy for me to summarize my town halls the last 10 or 14 years. People saying michael, we are working hard. No matter what we do, we cannot afford some combination of housing, health care, Higher Education or Early Childhood education. A reflection of an economy that for 50 years worked well for the top 10 of americans, but has not worked well for a out of 10 coloradans or nine out of 10 americans. We have to change that. In Human History when people lose a sense of opportunity, someone inevitably shows up to say i alone can fix it, as donald trump did. He did not fix it, but that is what he said. You do not need the rule of law, you should expect the public and private sector to be hopelessly corrupt and bankrupt. That was what he ran on, the dark vision he won on. I am deeply worried our democracy will struggle not because of him, but because people have a loss of a sense of opportunity we have to restore. We need an economy that grows for everybody, people can afford a middleclass life and families with kids are living in poverty and have a chance to get their kids out of poverty. I think if we can restore an economy, one that grows for everybody, it will not just save this democracy, but it is a chance once again to lead in the world and that is why i am running for the senate. Jay thank you. Mr. Odea thank you for doing this, cmu. I, fourth generation coloradan. Was adopted by a cop early on. Had a loving mother. Got in trouble in junior high school. My parents put me in an all boys Catholic School where i got a little discipline, and a job washing dishes. After graduating i went through an Apprenticeship Program in colorado and chased the love of my life up to Colorado State university where i got my Construction Management degree. We started a company out of our basement and employee 300 families in colorado. We survived three recessions. I am proud of what we built. My children live in colorado and run their own Small Business. I am not a career politician, i am a contractor. We need people who have done a hard days work. We have been blessed to live our American Dream in colorado. I am worried about the direction our nation is headed. What will we leave our kids and grandkids . The division, the anger, we have had enough. We are all americans. We need to come together, put labels, partisanship, political titles aside, and solve problems. I am running to be a voice for working americans. If it is good for colorado, count me in. That is the problem with senator bennet. He votes with the joe biden 90 of the time. I love my wife dearly, but i do not even agree with her 98 of the time. Michael bennet as joe bidens rubber stamp has led to soaring inflation, growing crime, and a war on American Energy. It is not working. It is time for a change. I hope to earn your support. Jay we will shift to the question portion. Bennet mr. Bennet, whether it be the agriculture or hospitality industry, colorado depends on migrant labor. But getting visas and citizenship can be onerous. How would you fix the situation Given Congress appears to lack the ability for reform . Sen. Bennet we have to fix this through congress. It cannot be fixed by the administration without congress doing the work. I was part of the gang of eight in 2013 that wrote legislation to pass. It got 68 votes. Tragically it was stopped in the house of representatives by the Freedom Caucus and the tea party, but it had four elements that are important. A path to citizenship, the dream act for people the agriculture division, the visas we heard joe odea talk about that have affected his Small Business, those need to be addressed. 40 billion of Border Security, but not to build Donald Trumps wall that joe odea supports. Instead, 21st century Border Security that we developed in iraq and afghanistan to allow us to see every inch of the border. It is a shame it did not pass the house in 2013. We need to pass a similar bill again. I think ultimately we will after we overcome this. Immigration is so critical to economic growth. It constitutes 1 3 of our growth every year and that is why we have to fix this problem. Mr. Odea it does start with securing our border, i agree. We need to provide citizenship to the dreamers, that is key. We have to streamline our immigration because it is not working. I have had guys who worked for me 15 years. They have had different visas, they are earning a living, growing a family, legally, and they cannot get through the process. The process is broken. Senator bennet has been in the senate 13 years. I would have hoped he ran in 2010. I applaud the fact he was with the gang of eight, but that issue needs to come back and run again. I will personally put my name on a bill that does that. First bill i introduce when i am senator here next year. What we have going on now is partisanship. We have people to vote with their party 98 of the time. That is not working. We have to do more. I will reach across the aisle and make sure we can put it back in the process to get that done. Sen. Bennet first of all, that is insufficient because it does not do anything for the 11 Million People living in a cash economy underground in the u. S. We need to address that, we cannot skip over it. I have dealt with this issue the entire time i have been in the senate. The problem now is, republicans like Donald Trumps immigration policies, will not come across the aisle. Joe odea voted for donald trump twice and knowing how horrendous his immigration policies were. He cannot be believed on this issue. Jay our second question. As someone born and raised in afghanistan [indiscernible] many are waiting in line for asylum to come to the u. S. In places like afghanistan and ukraine, people wait years to receive asylum. What can you do as a member of the u. S. Senate to improve this process for asylumseekers to come to the u. S. . Mr. Odea it started with a policy in afghanistan that was broken. The way we left afghanistan, americans, 80 million worth of equipment abandoned. What we have seen in ukraine, russia, on Foreign Policy we need to do more. We need to do more for these asylumseekers that just want justice. They are coming here, they need to be allowed to be here in the u. S. I will work as a member of the senate to make sure we have a clear path to get people here. We need a better Foreign Policy. Part of the problem is, it is not based on economics. It needs to be based on energy. Energy is key to making sound Foreign Policy. Nobody wants to attack somebody that is supplying them with natural gas. If we can bring that here too the war on energy and provide energy to europe, we can make sure we end this war in russia. We have a war on Foreign Policy right now that does not involve our energy and that is a problem. The war on energy started the moment joe biden got into the office. Sen. Bennet thank you. That is another way in which our immigration system is broken. Our asylum system is not set up for the numbers of people coming and we have to address that not just with respect to afghanistan, but anybody seeking asylum in the u. S. With respect to american Foreign Policy, it is an incredible relief to have a president who, instead of indicting our allies every day as donald trump did with nato and europe, we have an administration forging a coalition of people to push back against putin, who has invaded a country for no reason other than his own territorial ambitions. It has been inspiring to me to see people all over the world demand their elected leaders do more. That is why this coalition is so important. It is why American Leadership is so vital and important. It is why i am so glad we no longer have a president who does not understand that. Our coalition is a reflection of our strength, not a reflection of our weakness, as it joe odea seems to think. Jay mr. Odea, 30 seconds. Mr. Odea none of that happened under the watch of the last president. It has happened under the weak president biden. We are not solving them, we are making them worse. This goes back to energy dominance. Once we start dominating the market, supplying europe with energy, this war will end. Jay our next question . The 1922 Colorado River compact comes up for renegotiation in 2026. In an environment of increased water need by all seven Member States and a decreased flows in the river, what happens if the Member States cannot reach accord . What solutions from the federal level do you anticipate delivering from your senate seat . Sen. Bennet my view is the states must reach accord, consensus. Failure is not an option. This is not something for the federal government to determine. That would be a disaster and counterproductive. One of the reasons i want to go back to the senate is helped lead negotiations between the upper basin and lower basin states, so we can rescue the Colorado River. The fates of the American West depends on our ability to do that. Our entire way of life from agriculture to ski resorts to our economy depend on getting this right. The right role for the government to play is to back up census reached with federal resources. We started that with the Inflation Reduction Act with 4 billion for water savings initiatives in the upper and lower basins. I am working with mitt romney and his team to develop legislation to provide the federal backstop i described, similar to what has been done in the great lakes region. That is appropriate. There are 40 million americans who rely on the Colorado River basin for their water. This is an appropriate place for the federal government to play a role. The fate of the American West pens on it. That depends on it. That means the fate of america depends on it. Mr. Odea we have conserved, we have done our job, but the lower states have not. We need to push back on california, hold california accountable. The water you are claiming is a right does not exist. We are not getting that amount of water through the system. We are in a drought. It needs to be equally shared by all the states. We need leadership to stand up to california. They need to be talking about desalinization. All the water they have at their beck and call in the ocean they could help relieve. The federal government has a role, making sure we can relieve the problem at the lower end. At the same time, any decision that needs to be made here should be made by coloradans. We need to work with locals. It has to be balanced. We need to move water storage projects forward. I have been on a project that took 25 years to get approved. We need to reform our permitting and move those projects in these Drought Conditions forward to solve the issue here in colorado. I believe i will do a good job negotiating with california. Sen. Bennet in the last two months i lead the negotiations to get 4 billion into the Inflation Reduction Act to address the issues on the Colorado River. I took on arizona to do that and california. I had a conversation with new mexico, nevada, colorado and utah. Joe may have missed that. I know he has not missed that bill because he said there is nothing to like in that bill, including the 4 billion i negotiated to try to deal with the Colorado River. Jay our next question. Education is a critical element to longterm development. So many women and girls are denied access to education [indiscernible] especially after the withdrawal of u. S. Security forces. What is the obligation of the u. S. To help women in developing countries . Mr. Odea we have a role in world affairs. When our nation is strong, has a strong economy, we can provide security and resources for all of those countries to help them. When our economy is under attack, when we are in an inflationary capacity, when we have leadership that approve 5 trillion over the course of the last two years causing record inflation in colorado, and jacking the price of fuel up with a war on energy, jacking the price of groceries up, our economy is weakened and the u. S. Takes a step back. It does not allow us to help other countries. We need leadership that will not just vote party line. We need leadership that will look at policies in place and lead this great country back to prosperity so we can help with education across the world. Under my leadership we will work hard to get this inflation under control, reduce it, stop the war on energy that is causing all of these economic woes. The price of diesel is over 5. 50. You are going to hear joe odea say over and over again, there is a war on energy, we were producing five billion gallons of oil a day. Today, we are producing 12 Million Barrels a day. I am not saying fossil fuels dont have an Important Role to play, i think that they are critical for us to keep europe in the fight with the exported lngs. His answer for everything is fossil fuels, fossil fuels, fossil fuels. The question that was asked by halima what is the impact on women around the world . I dont think fossil fuels is the answer to that. I think we do have an obligation around the world, especially with china the way it is showing up. In africa and other countries around the world, we have an obligation to show up. We have an obligation in the United States of america to improve our own Education System, too. The Education System we have today, rather than liberating people from their circumstances, is actually ratifying the income inequality that we have. There is more work for us to do as well, it is not just about the fossil fuel industry. Mr. Odea you pointed out that we have not done enough for education here in the United States, and it is difficult for us to reach across the world and help people. Right now, 60 of them are reading at one third of the grade level. Eighthgraders cant add and subtract at the grade level. That is because we neglected our School System here. Thanks to the leadership, our education has slipped back. According to the congressional budget office, the federal budget was one point trillion in the fiscal year 2022. 21 trillion after decades of spending by democrats and republicans. Such as Social Security and medicaid make up two thirds of federal spending. Keeping all that in mind, how do you propose to reduce national debt. Please be as specific as possible and do that that making cuts. Sen. Bennet one of several areas that i have taken the administration on is on the issue of Charter Schools where he and i have a fundamental disagreement. I have let that slide and i will continue to. With respect to the budget deficit, today, as we sit here, we are collecting revenue that 19. 7 of our gdp, we are spending about 23 , that is the deficit we have to deal with. We do have to address it as Interest Rates rise. It will be more important for us to deal with this, and we have to come together in a bipartisan way. I think the 5 trillion for tax cuts for the wealthiest americans that joe odea has said that he would have supported, is the biggest waste of money that i have ever seen. It has blown a massive hole in the deficit. The two wars that we fought in the middle east, massive. The Healthcare System that caused twice as much as any other industrialized country in the world. I am proud to receive the fiscal hero award from the coalition, three times that i have been in washington dc. I dont believe there is any other senator that has received that. I have taken tough votes to approve spending even went republicans and democrats are doing it together. Mr. Odea in the 13 years you have been in the senate, you are responsible for 20 trillion worth of debt growth. I dont know if i want to know about that. We need to stop the reckless spending. Under the joe biden regime, we just approved 5 trillion over the last two years after covid had already subsided and we were beginning to come out and go to work, it jumped to one point 9 trillion into the marketplace. That supercharged