A day cannot go by without Colorado’s self-entitled U.S. senators loudly condemning President Donald Trump’s reforms of the Medicaid program that go into effect in 2027.

But Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper seem oblivious to the very real and substantive Medicaid cuts that their fellow Democrat, Gov. Jared Polis, is inflicting on the state in just a few months in 2026. 

Faced with a $783 million shortfall they blame on Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” despite their own chronic fiscal irresponsibility, the massive Democratic majorities in the state legislature largely abdicated their budgetary duty. They conferred extraordinary power on term-limited Polis to unilaterally decide $252 million in cuts.

This allows these election-sensitive Democrats to wash their hands of any culpability for the Polis cuts and gives themselves plausible political deniability.

Rather than scaling back Colorado’s bloated workforce that has exploded by 6,000 state jobs since he was elected in 2018, Polis trained his sights on Medicaid, the jointly funded federal-state program for the poor and elderly.

More than one-third of the Polis cuts are found in canceling a planned increase in the reimbursement rate for providers who treat Medicaid patients. This is especially devastating in rural areas, but seniors on fixed incomes and children will be hurt across the state.

In the face of these Polis cuts to Medicaid, our heroic senators have slinked away as silent, compliant spectators. Their righteous indignation over Trump’s Medicaid proposals becomes deafening silence when it comes to Polis.

Their acquiescence is terribly consistent with so much of the mediocrity that has defined these two senators over the past 20 years.

John Hickenlooper is emerging from his five-year nap that he insisted he needed during his grueling election in 2020. After his presidential campaign embarrassingly cratered in 2019, he shoved out several Democratic candidates who had already been campaigning for months to challenge U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in 2020.  

He constantly refused to participate in forums with his Democratic opponents because he said, “I need my sleep.” Hickenlooper will turn 80 years old in the Senate if he is reelected in 2026.  

Meanwhile, Michael Bennet must be bored after 16 years in the Senate because he now wants to be governor although it is difficult to discern why. Inspired by Hickenlooper’s exclusionary actions in 2019, Bennet shoved aspiring Democrats such as Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who might have been Colorado’s first woman governor, and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, who might have been Colorado’s first Black governor, out of the gubernatorial race.

No one really knows why Bennet wants to be governor other than his self-professed hatred of Trump. Apparently, the floor of the United States Senate, the world’s greatest deliberative body, just doesn’t meet Bennet’s high standards from which to launch his anti-Trump attacks.

Bennet finally stumbled into one specific policy he would pursue if elected governor. It is not hard to imagine the gathering of his campaign brain trust when one shouts “I’ve got it! Let’s take cell phones away from school kids!” which has become the centerpiece of Bennet’s threadbare legislative agenda.

As laudable as this might be, it is a far cry from the consequential education reforms forged by Democratic Gov. Roy Romer and Republican Gov. Bill Owens during their tenures. Bennet’s small-ball just doesn’t match up.

Meanwhile, Bennet and Hickenlooper remain muted in silent acquiescence as Polis makes hurtful, deep cuts in Medicaid.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who managed campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Gov. Bill Owens. He was campaign manager for U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota in 2004 when Thune unseated Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle.