This week in political doublespeak, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet was dialoging at a Greeley town hall meeting where he dismissed the idea of a single-payer health system, then told constituents how they could get a single-payer system.

His bottom line was this:

The senator also said he hoped the topic “won’t turn into a litmus test” for Democratic candidates.

Bennet’s suggestions for not turning health care over to the government in a single-payer system includes putting more people on government-operated Medicaid and Medicare programs.

Then he contracted a severe case of amnesia and suggested this:

“Maybe there is a way for states to make a decision to do a single-payer and then the rest of us can look and say, ‘Hey, that’s something that we would like,’ ” Bennet said.

Liberals tried that already. It was called Amendment 69, the $36 billion proposal to create ColoradoCare, and it was soundly defeated by voters in the last election.

Perhaps Bennet was too busy running for reelection to his own seat to even notice.

In all instances, this is a single-payer system, and the single-payers are us, the taxpayers, despite Bennet’s doublespeak.