As the U.S. Senate prepares to debate and vote on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Gov. John Hickenlooper called on Colorado’s Congressional delegation to rethink its approach.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Hickenlooper said that Congress should not “pass on almost $1.5 trillion in additional debt to future generations, and hand out tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them-and in many cases, don’t even want them-at the expense of the middle class and the poor.”

Hickenlooper called on the state’s Congressional delegation to work in a bipartisan manner that would benefit all Coloradans rather than pass the bill in its current form. He called the bill trickle-down economics, adding that economists have viewed such proposals as a “fairytale. Last year the federal budget borrowed 20 percent of the dollars it spent; with unemployment already low, we have to ask ‘What are we getting for this extra debt?’ If you’re going to borrow $1.5 trillion, you should build something meaningful,” Hickenlooper said in his statement.

Of particular concern is the proposal’s impact on the Affordable Care Act. The legislation would eliminate the individual mandate, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated 13 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage under the bill.

Hickenlooper said losing the individual mandate would increase costs by as much as 10 percent for those who still have health coverage and result in an increased burden for the middle class.

The Senate Wednesday voted along 52-48 party lines Wednesday to proceed to debate and a vote, but as many as eight Republicans have indicated they may vote against the proposal, citing the impact on the individual mandate and/or the $1.5 trillion addition to the federal deficit. The House has already approved its version of the bill.