Congressman Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., echoed Trump\u2019s calls for compromise and emphasized the success of past bipartisan legislation, such as bills targeting the opioid epidemic and criminal justice reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity to focus on cooperation, to work beyond party lines and put partisanship aside is an incredibly important message for the American people, and Congress, in this moment in time,\u201d Gardner said in an interview Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
Yet, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and other Democrats remained unsatisfied with Trump\u2019s address.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take more than a speech to paper over President Trump\u2019s consistent view that the only obligation he has is to his political base,\u201d Bennet said in a post-speech statement.<\/p>\n In an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em> after the president\u2019s address, Tipton highlighted bipartisan legislation of the past year that \u201cthe public hasn\u2019t heard much about before.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrom comprehensive tax reform to the strongest response to a drug epidemic in our nation\u2019s history, the federal government has worked to advance policies that will have positive impacts on communities across the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While Republicans celebrated the party\u2019s successes of the past year, they said there was room for more action.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is still work to be done on issues that are critically important to Coloradans and all Americans, like border security, common-sense immigration reform, infrastructure and health care,\u201d Tipton said.<\/p>\n To Bennet and other Democrats, Trump failed to address key issues facing most Americans.<\/p>\n \u201cWe heard nothing in tonight\u2019s speech that addressed how the president will raise incomes for middle-class Americans, make quality higher education more affordable or address the urgent problem of climate change,\u201d Bennet said.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s focus on unity came as the country recovers after the longest government shutdown and as the prospect of a second shutdown looms.<\/p>\n \u201cI think another shutdown would be an absolute catastrophe. I thought that about the first one, and I think both sides should put every ounce of effort into avoiding a shutdown,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n While Republicans were quick to support Trump\u2019s calls for unity and cooperation across the aisle, the first challenge comes as the federal government is set to run out of funding Feb. 15.<\/p>\n \u201cColorado knows what hard, bipartisan work really looks like. We\u2019ll be looking in the days, months and years ahead to see if any of it can be produced in Washington,\u201d Bennet said.<\/p>\n Liz Weber is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Democrats say key issues facing most Americans are being ignored<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1137,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-62393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62393"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=62393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}