Battleground Wisconsin

Much like Dr. Suess’ Zaxs, GOP leaders who control all levers of power in DC & Madison are puffing their chests up with pride but failing to repeal health care or approve a state budget. We discuss the Senate healthcare bill 2.0 that GOP leaders are hoping to pass next week without the CBO score they promised. The panel reviews the GOP stalemate in Madison over the state budget and explores the opportunity it presents progressive leaders to articulate a compelling vision ahead of 2018 elections. We also take a sneak peek at the electoral opportunity Paul Ryan’s failed Speaker-ship is presenting Democrats, and the Congressional town hall we held without Ryan in his own district with another Congressman.

This week Robert Kraig and special guest State Senator Chris Larson discuss the health care impasse in Washington and the innovative state bill announced this week by Legislative Democracts to open BadgerCare to everyone in Wisconsin as a public option. They also discuss the bizarre Republican maneuver in the State Assembly on a bill to outlaw health insurance lifetime and annual limits. Does it show that health care be a big electoral issue for progressives? Then we dig into the state budget impasse, and the reasons why the conservatives who dominate Wisconsin government seem unable to govern. Finally we speculate on the rumor about the infamous sweat shop company that makes iphones coming to Wisconsin. What kind of deal is Trump, Walker, and Robin Vos trying to cut and will it benefit Wisconsin workers?

We review the failed Senate Republican effort this week to hold a vote on their draconian healthcare bill. President Trump was optimistic saying, “healthcare is working along very well. We could have a big surprise with a great healthcare package... A great, great surprise.” Jorna highlights Sen. Johnson’s disturbing comment comparing people with preexisting conditions to someone who has crashed their car and wants to buy auto insurance. We welcome Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative members, Lindsay Dorff (Green Bay) and Hans Breitenmoser (Merrill), to discuss their leadership in organizing citizen support for fair election maps and end to our current gerrymandered districts. Jeff Smith, organizer for the Western Wisconsin Organizing Cooperative, joins us to talk about their fight against Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs.) We also look at the new Marquette Poll which appears on the surface to show Gov. Walker gaining in popularity.

We discuss the long-awaited, secretive Senate healthcare bill that includes larger cuts to Medicaid but differs little from the “mean” House bill that cuts healthcare from million Americans to provide a large tax break to the wealthy. State Rep. Eric Genrich joins us to talk about his visionary legislation to provide BadgerCare for all through a public option. We welcome Sachin Chheda, director of the Fair elections Project, to update us on the legal developments this week in the historic gerrymandering case the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear this fall. We also review new developments on Republican efforts to restrict free speech at the UW System and how Gov. Walker’s plan to drug test Medicaid recipients received over 1000 public comments in opposition while only 5 comments in support.

We discuss the secrecy surrounding the Senate healthcare legislation and President Trump’s shockingly unkind words about the health care plan he forced Paul Ryan to jam through the House of Representatives.” Robert reveals interesting details of meeting between Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative members and Sen. Ron Johnson’s legislative aide regarding the difficulty Republicans face in passing a healthcare bill. We welcome Matthew Rothschild, executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, to discuss the the Assembly passage of a bill that could spark a constitutional convention and the dangers it poses our democracy. We close the show with a discussion of innovative approaches to creating good jobs and economic opportunity in Los Angeles with Roxana Tynan, the executive director of LAANE (Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy).

We open the show with Sen. Ron Johnson’s very disturbing comment that he is pushing his fellow Senators to legalize insurance industry discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. We also discuss the surprising support by the Republican leading on the Opioid epidemic, Rep. John Nygren, for Gov. Walker’s shameless plan to force drug test BadgerCare recipients. We welcome new Citizen Action organizer Katie Dunn to tell us about the “Healthcare For All” Organizing Cooperative she is launching with healthcare professionals, consumers and advocates. The new cooperative will have a launch party next Thursday, June 15th at 6:30 in Milwaukee (Details below.) Turning to threats in Congress, Liz Ryan Murray, the policy director at People’s Action, joins us to talk about the CHOICE Act which deregulates Wall Street and payday lenders. Finally, Jorna Taylor joins us to discuss Paul Ryan’s new vulnerability in the 2018 election, including 3 candidates already running against the author of the wildly unpopular TrumpCare.

We dig into the dismal economic report showing Wisconsin's job growth last year was the worst since 2010 and that we are continuing to hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs. What does the new data say about Scott Walker's economic performance? Jorna educates us on a new GOP bill to restrict free speech at the UW System. We look at the NRA’s dangerous effort to allow people to carry open guns without permits, concealed weapons without training, and guns onto school grounds. We discuss the Joint Finance Committee’s vote to allow state park fees to increase 62%. Robert updates us on the latest U.S. Senate health care repeal and replace news and a new legislative effort by state Democrats to protect critical health care protections in the ACA. We close the show with a discussion of Trump’s dangerous decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreements and its impact on the U.S. economy and the future of the species.

We review the new Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) findings that the House healthcare bill will result in 23 million losing their health coverage and potentially destabilize the Wisconsin health insurance market. We also look at the prospects for the House plan in the Senate. We welcome Ken Taylor, the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, to analyze President Trump’s budget and its repercussions for Wisconsin families. We look closer at Medicaid cuts in Trump’s budget and discuss how Trump’s budget is even upsetting Republican members of Congress. We close with a discussion of GOP plans to start a conservative “think tank” at the University of Wisconsin and Democratic efforts in the Joint Finance Committee to support state funding for two years of free college education.

This week the panel digs into the latest scathing audit of WEDC, Governor Walker's failed jobs agency. The audit finds that WEDC cannot even track the number of jobs it allegedly created, has over $11 million in delinquent loans, and to top it all off spent over $41,000 on chauffeurs. The panel also discussed the new GOP anti-riot bill, the apparent appointment of extreme right-wing Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke to the Department of Homeland Security, and the shocking bad week for Trump. Finally, the panel discusses the state of the health care debate, including Walker's waiver which would impose forced drug testing for BadgerCare, and the U.S. Senate health care repeal process where Sen. Ron Johnson has joined the working group.

We welcome the Center for Media and Democracy’s Deputy Director, Mary Bottari to discuss their extensive investigation into the Bradley Foundation’s “weaponized philanthropy.” New recently released information reveals in tremendous detail how the Bradley Foundation has spent hundreds of millions in tax deductible money to build a huge partisan apparatus across the country molded on what they have already done to Wisconsin. We also review Walker’s insulting exchange with Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson over Walker's statement that he would consider seeking a waiver to re-legalize preexisting condition discrimination. In the second half of the podcast, we present an in-depth interview with Robert Hickey, co-director of Campaign for America's Future and one of the top strategists on the left, about the political moment and how to turn the resistance movement into political power.