Hickenlooper: “I am betting on profound changes in the U.S.”

SENATOR FOR COLORADO SEEKS HIS REELECTION

Newsroom El Comercio de Colorado

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We spoke with the Senator for Colorado, John Hickenlooper, who is participating in the Democratic primaries to be reelected as the Democratic candidate for Senator for Colorado. “We need incremental changes to get to the place where we achieve big change. Transparency in healthcare is not an incremental change. It would be revolutionary, but we still have a lot more work ahead of us to reach universal coverage,” Hickenlooper indicated.

Jesús Sánchez Meleán: What will happen to your amendment to prevent Tina Peters from receiving money from the fund against political persecution proposed by President Trump?

John Hickenlooper: I introduced my amendment to deny that a single penny could be used to compensate Tina Peters. And, obviously, inherent in that is preventing others who also attacked democracy from benefiting. This was leaked, and the president found out that we had enough Republican votes, so they were going to lose this vote. And they stopped trying to pass the bill and we went into recess. And they are going to try to bring it back again. I have the same amendment ready to bring it a second time.

JSM: What needs to be reviewed regarding the management of ICE and its detention centers?

JH: Every aspect of ICE should be scrapped. They have done a terrible job with the people they hire. They have done a terrible job training them. They enter and, without any warrant, take people out of their homes, beat them in some cases, and in other cases shoot people dead in the street. And they do not want to use face masks. Our police departments deal with people who are much more dangerous than those ICE deals with. Much more dangerous—you know, drug carteles, etc.

Hickenlooper: “I am betting on profound changes in the U.S.”

JSM: Identify a bill that you feel proud of.

JH: Probably the biggest bill this country has ever passed in terms of addressing climate change was the Inflation Reduction Act. It also injected millions of dollars or billions of dollars into our infrastructure. So, I was on the team that helped create that bill.

JSM: A project that you would like to support, encourage, or advance if you are reelected.

JH: What excites me looking toward the future is one I am working on with Bernie Sanders, who is the highest-ranking Democrat on the health committee, and Bill Cassidy, who is the Republican head of the health committee. Both have signed on to support a bill that would create absolute transparency in all aspects of healthcare. We would have an idea of every hospital visit, every medical checkup, every X-ray, all pharmaceuticals—everything would be transparent.

Right now, people receive their bills and cannot tell what they are paying for. There is no clarity in anything. Of course, healthcare goes up by double digits every year. It is the only place where there is no market effect. People do not compete to win your business. We are going to fix that, and I think we will pass it before the end of the year.

JSM:A vote that you genuinely regret and why.

JH: I voted against 95% of Trump’s nominees. I voted against Hegseth. But I thought there would be a couple of people who would stand up to the president. And I look at those votes… I would never do that again, simply because there is not a single person in the cabinet who stands up to the president and negotiates with him or has a debate within the privacy of his office to find a better way to do things. And I think that means any vote for any of them was a bad vote.

Hickenlooper: “I am betting on profound changes in the U.S.”

JSM: A project that you would like to support to back minority-owned small businesses in the U.S.

JH: We have several other bills we are working on to make sure that genuinely small businesses and gig workers can have a retirement plan so that, when they turn 65, they can count on something more than Social Security. We have a bill in which the federal government takes a big step by creating a portable fund.

In other words, each individual will have… it is like an IRA account. It does not matter if you change jobs, it does not matter where you go, this retirement fund would go with you and the federal government would put the first 1% into that fund.

JSM: How do you feel when your opponent labels you as an “incrementalist”? What does this word mean to you?

JH: You know, it is very frustrating because I believe we need to be unified. I have no problem with having a rival in the primaries, but if it is always about attacking and saying, you know, calling names or putting labels… I mean, when I was governor, we became the first state—in fact, the first government entity anywhere in the world—to regulate methane.

You need incremental changes to get to the place where you achieve big change. I would argue that transparency in healthcare is not an incremental change. It would be revolutionary, but it does not solve our problem. We still have a lot more work ahead of us to reach universal coverage.

As a musician and a cook

JS: What do you say to the musical challenge issued by your electoral contender, Regional Senator Julie González?

JH: I gladly accept the challenge, although I must confess it causes me some anxiety because she plays the guitar and sings very well. I know I do not sing extraordinarily well. However, I love music and I consider that we could perform a duet of the American folk song “This land is your land, this land is my land”.

JS: You come from the hospitality and restaurant sector; what is your best-kept secret in the kitchen?

JH: Most of my kept formulas explain how to brew high-quality craft beer, but I have a special method for preparing French toast. Furthermore, I share a very special anecdote. When I got married, we took our honeymoon trip to the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. We spent an entire month there taking Spanish language lessons and traditional gastronomy classes.

Somewhere in the boxes in my basement, I keep a notebook with four different versions of authentic recipes to make Oaxacan mole; I promise to look for it to share those culinary secrets with the whole community.