Battleground Wisconsin - Evers’ bold budget

Evers’ bold budget

02/20/25 • 53 min

We review the Spring Primary victory by Jill Underly in the State Superintendent of Public Instruction election and the real challenge to public education that is posed by the well-funded voucher advocate who also advanced to the April 1st General Election. Both the DPI and Supreme Court elections will be won by talking directly to voters throughout the state on phones, doors, and one-on one conversations. We urge you to sign up and volunteer with Citizen Action to make calls from home in support of Susan Crawford and Jill Underly in our weekly phone bank starting next Tuesday, February 25th at 5pm RSVP HERE The state budget battle commenced this week with Governor Tony Evers releasing his budget. We review some highlights, including BadgerCare expansion, Prescription Drug affordability Board, and a sweeping set of new regulations on health insurance abuses, including a first in the nation audit of claims denials. This Tuesday, Citizen Action joined Wisconsin Public Education Network (WPEN) and WISDOM in calling for the Governor to leverage his potent constitutional power to veto any state budget produced by the Legislature that fails to finally secure BadgerCare Expansion, include sufficient funding for K-12 public schools, or lacks reforms needed for Wisconsin’s troubled corrections system. We urge you to contact Governor Tony Evers and tell him to fight for his top budget priorities by threatening veto of any budget that fails the public on these key public priorities and others that the governor also deems essential. We encourage listeners to RSVP for our Capitol State Budget Lobby Day on Tuesday March 4th. We close reviewing the week 5 of the Trump assault on the republic, including mounting bipartisan opposition to House Republican leadership’s plan announced this week to gut Medicaid funding to fund a massive tax cut for the wealthy. UW Madison’s research is threatened by NIH funding cuts and we expose the fake energy emergency Trump has declared to ram through an expansion of Wisconsin fossil fuel projects.

Previous Episode

Vote for Jill Underly in Tuesday’s Primary Election

We announce Citizen Action’s endorsement of Jill Underly’s re-election as Superintendent of Public Instruction. There is a primary election next Tuesday, February 18th. Please make sure you vote. Next Tuesday evening Governor Tony Evers will give his budget address speech commencing the legislative portion of the state budget process which will play out over the next few months. We preview our call for Governor Evers to veto any state budget that doesn’t include better public school funding, accepting the federal Medicaid money for BadgerCare. He should also veto any budget that builds new state prisons. We are partnering with Wisconsin Public Education Network and WISDOM in this organizing campaign and urge all our listeners to call Governor Evers office next week and urge him to fight for these public priorities. As we head into a critical State Supreme Court election, Justice Janet Protasiewicz announces she will not recuse herself in the upcoming Act 10 case. We comment on the “Our billionaire is better than your billionaire” election funding of our major elections. We note the overwhelming bi-partisan support in a state Senate Committee this week for an expansion of Medicaid Postpartum Care, which Speaker Robin Vos continues to block. We urge our listeners to call their state representatives and urge them to push for a vote. We close with the many low lights of the 4th week of Trump Regime 2.0, including more clarity on Trump and the Congressional Republicans’ plans to gut federal Medicaid funding, denying healthcare for millions of Americans.

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Plundering Medicaid for the wealthy

This week the plundering of Medicaid commenced, as Trump, Musk, and their dutiful Republican Party “leaders” in Congress and the Wisconsin Legislature started their assault – all to fund more outrageous tax cuts for the wealthy. Citizen Action Healthcare Action Coordinator Timothy Faust joins us to give us the details on what passed in Congress this week, how it is just the beginning of the fight, and how we are going on the offensive. Not wanting to be outdone by Trump, Boss Vos declared this week that BadgerCare expansion won’t happen under his iron fisted domination of the Assembly GOP Caucus. We renew our call for the Governor to wield his powerful threat of a budget veto of any Legislative state budget that fails to expand BadgerCare. In addition to the threat to health care, we made big news this week on the climate front. We discuss the news event in Milwaukee this week unveiling new state legislation to require the Legislature to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The bill is gaining momentum and co-sponsors. We talk about why the legislation is critically important.