Battleground Wisconsin

We discuss the shared revenue plan rammed through the State Assembly late on Wednesday by Speaker Vos. The plan harms Milwaukee by providing less shared revenue than other cities and towns, and contains poison pills opposed by Milwaukee voters and leaders. Now that Vos has called the Governor's bluff, we call on Gov. Evers to wield his veto power if the Senate does not dramatically improve the bill. We are joined by freshman State Representative Darrin Madison, a rising star in progressive politics, to give us a report from the trenches and discuss Speaker Vos’ “hostage taking” of Milwaukee. We also return to the looming unwinding of Medicaid in Wisconsin. 309,000 Wisconsinites will likely lose healthcare coverage and 49,000 will end up uninsured and the gerrymandered Legislature says nothing about it and continues to block BadgerCare Expansion. Finally, we ask why the hell is a Waukesha 1st grade teacher who spoke out when the school district banned 'Rainbowland' being terminated by their superintendent, James Sebert, and why are 4 GOP State Legislators defending his authoritarian conduct?

We discuss our state budget veto campaign that went on a statewide media tour this week in La Crosse, Eau Claire, Wausau, and Green Bay to support Gov. Evers using his strongest in the nation veto pen to drag the Speaker Vos and GOP leadership to the negotiating table. Our panel reviews the latest on the “debt ceiling” debate in Washington, D.C. where House MAGA Republicans attempt to hold the country hostage, threatening default which would result in catastrophic cuts to critical programs and services. This Thursday, Title 42 is lifted. We discuss the challenges and what’s next for refugees coming to America. We are disgusted by the verdict in the Wauwatosa “protestor list” trial, where a federal jury cleared the WPD of all charges. We salute activists who immediately protested the flawed decision and call for legislation addressing the situation. FDA advisers voted unanimously this week in support of over-the-counter birth-control pills. We close by welcoming Kyle Johnson & Keisha Robinson from Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) to discuss their community organizing and the new podcast they are about to launch.

We discuss Speaker Vos and the gerrymandered Legislature’s removal of 545 items from Governor Tony Evers’ budget. Citizen Action is calling for Evers to use his powerful veto for leverage against Vos and the Republican leadership to force them to negotiate. We expose the outrageous Republican shared revenue ransom note from GOP leadership that attacks local democracy and forces a tough on crime budgeting stance in exchange for allowing Milwaukee to tax itself. During the recording of the show it was announced that Gov. Evers will veto the authoritarian plan.

We welcome Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT) co-executive director Cendi Tena to discuss how the Republican’s shared revenue plan forces Milwaukee Public Schools to put police officers in MPS schools, in direct opposition to a local Board decision a few years ago to remove police officers from schools after a long and well organized community effort.

We close with a series of racist incidents across the state that demand discussion: including; Dane County Board Supervisors threatened with racist verbal attacks; a racist video from a UW-Madison student the same week Vos calls for defunding Diversity offices in the UW System; and a Wausau band teacher uses racial slurs against a Hmong student. So much for the post-racial society claimed by Republicans.

We welcome new regular panelist Priscilla Bort, Citizen Action’s Movement Politics Director. Priscilla shares more about herself with our listeners. The panel dives into the state budget battle brewing that will consume the Capital for the next few months. Robert reports back on the final Joint Finance Committee (JFC) public hearing held in Minocqua where Republicans again pretended to listen to the public. Now the real action begins as JFC takes votes on the budget. Priscilla tells us about Governor Evers’ plan in the budget to ensure all Wisconsin students eat for free while in our schools. We highlight Rep. Kristina Shelton’s relentless support for the proposal and her leadership in the Assembly and beyond. We call out the latest GOP bills targeting social safety net programs that passed the Assembly early this week. Robert highlights AB 148 which would impose costly and antiquated barriers on access to health care. The panel discusses the dangerous debt limit fiasco and Rep. Van Orden’s decision to back Speaker McCarthy’s scheme to make Trump tax cuts for the rich permanent, make draconian cuts to critical programs, and reverse climate change and health care affordability advances. Priscilla updates us on the Republican effort to legally harass former Racine alderman John Tate II, in wake of the quick dismissal of the bogus partisan charges. We expose the Milwaukee Police Association’s effort to fight legally over the new City of Milwaukee video release policy which improves transparency for victims’ families and the public to which the police are supposed to be accountable.

Happy 420 Day (the annual day of action for Marijuana legalization). Unfortunately, in Wisconsin this freedom remains elusive and is costing the state $165 million in revenue. We recap Tax Day this Tuesday where Citizen Action released a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness which shows that when billionaires and corporations dodge taxes, American families pay the price in threats to critical social supports such as Medicare, Medicaid, and food assistance. Congress needs to pass President Biden’s wealth tax and reject the House GOP’s push for making permanent the Trump tax cut.

We welcome Joe Evica, the chief steward of the union at CUNA Mutual in Madison (OPEIU Local 39), to discuss a strike vote their members took on Wednesday and the media event they will have on Monday, April 24th at 6pm at the South Central Federation of Labor in Madison. If you live in Dane County, the union urges you to attend the event to show community support.

The Milwaukee Common Council unanimously voted this week to demand the giant hospital chain Ascension re-open the birthing and delivery unit at St Francis Hospital in Milwaukee and called on them to stop disinvesting from the City. We discuss a Green New Deal Resolution to be reintroduced in Congress and its critical importance to dealing with the climate crisis and creating family supporting union jobs for everyone across Wisconsin. Robert also attended an event with mayors and Governor Evers to tout the opportunity of federal money for climate change from Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Law. We also received more news this week exposing the increasing Mississipification of Wisconsin by the GOP, as new data revealed the state is now in bottom 10 for public college funding. Finally, craven Republicans continue their ugly smear campaign against long time Racine criminal justice and police reformer John Tate II

We continue to debrief the historic Supreme Court election, including Ron Johnson urging the Republican Party to reduce its reliance on advertising and invest in a ground game and college students voting. We welcome Attorney Matt O’Neill, who represented the Janet Protasiewicz campaign, to discuss the campaign’s successful effort to remove from broadcast a false and trashy ad by the WMC. Matt provides his perspective on the ads and the challenges judicial elections face in the current campaign environment. We discuss Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling on mifepristone and how Big Pharma enabled these judges. In Wisconsin, Legislative Republicans want to arm school staff and scheme up new barriers and requirements designed to kick people off needed benefits like health care and unemployment insurance.

We debrief the smashing victory for democracy in the pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the most important election in the U.S. of 2023. The resulting shift in the Supreme Court presents progressives in Wisconsin with significant organizing opportunities, including recruiting, training, and electing a new generation of reform leaders. Robert updates us on Congressman Bryan Steil’s attempted intervention into the prosecution of Donald Trump by the New York City District Attorney. Has Steil joined the MAGA wing of the GOP? Robert tells us about a new study finding 40% of Milwaukeans work in low paying jobs that fail to meet their basic needs. And finally, what does the back and forth over Senator-elect Dan Knodl’s statement of openness during the campaign to impeach Janet Protasiewicz say about the norms of the new GOP super-majority in the State Senate. Is any state official safe from retribution at the hands of the anti-Democratic super-majority?

We preview the home stretch of the critical Supreme Court race heading into the final weekend. It’s time for progressive leaders and activists to volunteer and Get Out The Vote for Janet Protasiewicz! SIGN UP NOW >> https://bit.ly/CAWGOTV2023

We review the closing week of the campaign, including an ugly and false Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) smear against Judge Protasiewicz which is further traumatizing a rape victim. Is there any ethical limit that the Wisconsin corporate lobby will not transgress in its relentless pursuit of a Supreme Court that will always rule in their favor? We discuss the opportunity mayor candidate Brandon Johnson presents the City of Chicago for a new direction of leadership, including public safety. We close the show talking about Bernie Sanders and Democratic U.S. Senators confronting founder and billionaire former CEO Howard Schultz on union busting in a headline grabbing Senate Hearing. Will the heroic sacrifices of Starbucks workers turn the tide for labor, or is there more we need to do?

We discuss the economic “double talk” in D.C. that rationalizes bailing out the banks (and ultra-wealthy) and not the people. Just this week, the Fed tempered their projected interest rate hikes, which were resisted by banks and their allies because of the threat to banks who have placed risky bets on low interest rates. The Fed and the banks show no such concern for unemployment, the real victims of rate hikes. We review Sen. Tammy Baldwin epic cross examination of Moderna’s CEO for their outrageous COVID vaccine price hike. Will this give Senator Baldwin a great re-election issue? We also raise the alarm bills on 300,000 low income Wisconsinites who will be kicked off BadgerCare as COVID public health emergency ends April 1. Meanwhile, Congressman Bryan Steil focuses on Donald Trump’s legal defense in an outrageous letter to the NYC DA which shows that Trump still commands the GOP. At the other side of the Capital, The TikTok sideshow continues in D.C. Is there any limit to the bipartisan China-bating? Meanwhile in Wisconsin, we review the latest State Supreme Court Election news and talk about report that Illinois took in $36.1 million in cannabis tax revenues last year from Wisconsin residents. Robert debriefs a few GOP “tough on crime bills” that are intended to stoke the issue and look tough while doing absolutely nothing to improve public safety.

We have a special interview with U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan to discuss his fight against the Big Health Insurance take over Medicare. These profit hungry corporate behemoths are running multi-million dollar campaign falsely promoting Medicare Advantage programs as Medicare, duping seniors into inferior coverage and bilking the federal government. In reality, these programs are rife with abuse, and threaten the long term existence of Medicare. We review the historic bailout of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the role of incomplete financial reform following the Great Recession, dangerous bank deregulation in the Trump years supported by Republicans and conservative Democrats. Should wealthy Tech Industry players who claim to be Libertarians get a bailout from the government? We review Tuesday’s bankruptcy of Diamond Sports/Bally Sports Network and its potential impact on the Milwaukee Brewers’ financial stability. We make the obvious connection to the sudden demand of the Brewer’s owner for a massive state tax giveaway. China hysteria continues in the U.S. with a move to force the sale of Tik Tok to a U.S. company. But is Tik Tok data really less secure than the other big tech monopolies? Also, we reveal conservative Wisconsin Congress members Glenn Grothman and Derrick Van Orden’s shameful and hypocritical effort to force people in need of food assistance to regularly report to the government that they are working in order to receive food. Congresswoman Gwen Moore fights back on behalf of needy families.