The federal government shutdown
extends into next week,
with the U.S.
Senate adjourning until Tuesday
after repeated failed votes
to reopen.
We're joined now by Wisconsin
Democratic U.
S. Senator Tammy Baldwin.
And Senator, thanks very much for
being here.
Thanks for having me.
What is your message to
Wisconsinites in the face of what
looks like congressional dysfunction
as the shutdown grinds on?
Look, nobody wants a shutdown and
I have voted seven times now
to reopen the government and
lower health care costs for
Wisconsinites.
And my constituents
have been telling me loudly and
clearly they are terrified
about premium increases
that they see.
In the near future.
It'll be just a couple weeks before
Wisconsinites get those dreaded
letters in the mail telling them
what their premiums will be next
year. And without an extension
of the Affordable Care Act
premium tax credits,
we are likely to see people's
premiums double, triple, even
quadruple.
In those states that have already
released the premiums for next year,
quadrupling is not unusual
at all.
And it is frightening for
Wisconsinites.
And there's no reason why
we cannot reopen the government and
bring down costs.
But my Republican colleagues and
President Trump refuse to sit
down and negotiate with us.
Even though several of
my Republican colleagues very much
want to fix this Affordable
Care Act tax credit issue.
And I would lastly say this bill
that we, you know, Trump's
signature big ugly bill
that we debated last summer,
slashes a trillion dollars
out of Medicaid, another healthcare
program, Badger Care in Wisconsin,
but it was predominantly a
tax measure.
And what that tax measure did was
send tax breaks to big corporations
and multimillionaires.
And what it didn't do
was extend a
tax break to working Wisconsinites
to help them afford their healthcare
premiums.
This is an emergency.
It's imminent and we need to act
now.
Why not vote yes on the
continuing resolution to fund the
government and then negotiate?
There is no promise
for a conversation,
a sort of a wink and a nod that, oh,
we'll bring that up later, that is
going to help our
Wisconsinites who are gonna get
these letters in a couple of
weeks.
We need to create certainty
in, and replace
Trump's chaos in the healthcare
arena and other arenas
with a vote
to extend those tax credits
now.
Listen.
We are seeing people get
their premium notices right
now across the country.
We have about five million
Americans who are estimated
to not be able
to afford the premiums next
year if we do not act.
We must act on behalf
of tens of thousands of
Wisconsinites and millions of
Americans. And it's really critical
that we not just.
I promise some
conversation in
the future.
That is not sufficient for the
people who've been pleading with me.
Keep on fighting.
To lower costs.
It was clear that the ACA
enhanced credits were going to
expire. They went into effect during
COVID and were later extended
under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Why are they still needed?
The health care system is
a mess, I will give you
that.
And we see costs going
up.
It would be a catastrophe if
millions of people lose their health
care. And Trump ran
on lowering costs for the
American people.
That is why he was elected.
And every action he has taken
seems to increase costs,
whether that's tariffs that are
harming our farmers and our
consumers, or whether that is
his big, ugly bill,
which are raising costs
across the board, but especially
in the healthcare arena.
We should have
included those tax,
the extension of the affordable care
tax credit in the big.
Ugly bill. Maybe we could have then
called it a big, beautiful bill.
But instead, Republicans and Trump
prioritized tax cuts for
the very wealthiest billionaires,
profitable corporations.
But when it came to a working family
tax credit to help people afford
their health care, no, they couldn't
put that in the big, ugly bill."
You say that there's an easy way out
and you've been working on a
bipartisan solution.
What is the easy way and what kind
of traction are you getting on a
bi-partisan solution?
Look, we need to reopen the
government and we need to get a
commitment to extend the Affordable
Care Act.
And there's several ways to do
that. The Affordable Care Tax
credits expire at the end of
this year.
My idea, and I've worked with
several colleagues on this,
would be to say that if
we don't act on a longer
term extension, that the
default position would be
that the Affordable Care Act tax
credits are extended by a calendar
year. But putting pressure
on Congress to talk
about some reforms in that system,
if we want, I think
that's fair game. The other thing we
have to get back to is
letting Congress appropriate
dollars. That is the role.
It's the role of Congress as
a checks and balance to pass
laws and to appropriate
dollars for the federal government.
These continuing resolutions
are allowing
President Trump to
run roughshod.
Since he has been president,
he's done layoffs, he has held
federal funds, he canceled grants.
Basically conducted a government of
chaos. And we need to go back to
something that people can
plan based on, which is
Congress doing its job.
And my Republican colleagues have to
stop folding to Trump's
threats and stand up and do
their jobs as duly elected
members of Congress.
I know that the president has been
talking about terminating federal
employees, apparently using the
shutdown as a predicate.
Senator Johnson told us last week
that when your company goes
bankrupt, unfortunately, he said
people lose their jobs and they
have to go and find employment
elsewhere. He further said he
doesn't see why public sector
employees should be immune to
what we all have to experience in
the private sector.
What's your response to that?
First of all, President Trump
has been firing federal employees
and withholding federal dollars and
pulling federal grants since day
one of his presidency.
Tens of thousands of
federal employees have lost their
jobs because we've been
under a continuing resolution.
And so this is a scare tactic
on Trump's part, but he's
been doing it since day of
his second presidency.
And as to
layoffs and whatnot in the
private sector and the public
sector. Look, we've gone through
planful restructuring,
where we've had reductions in forces
before.
I held a roundtable earlier this
year with employees at the
VA, and they all recall
a Clinton-era restructurng,
where it was planful and they
realized where they needed to cut.
That's not what this administration
has been doing.
When Trump ordered 80,000
people to be fired at the V.A.,
That wasn't a planful reduction
in force.
That was scattershot.
It was chaos.
And we owe more to our veterans than
something like that.
As to the current shutdown,
how do you see this ending?
Look, I know that
there are Republicans who
are terrified about what's going to
happen to their constituents,
especially as these premium notices
come to
people's mailboxes across the
country.
They want to find a
solution to this, but they're afraid
to fold to Trump's
orders to just
keep, you
know, hold off negotiations
to the future. I think The answer
is so clear.
Let us reopen the government,
let us extend the Affordable Care
Act tax credits, and
then let's pass our
bills and have Congress do its
job and fund the government.
Not through these continuing
resolutions for a week or
two or a month or two,
but through our regular
appropriations process.
That's what Congress needs.
Needs to do.
Senator Tammy Baldwin, thanks very
much.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
All right.
Take care. That was excellent.
Have a good weekend.
Thank you.