Democratic U.S.
Senator Tammy Baldwin was on the
Senate floor this week to, in her
words, rail against Republicans'
repeated attacks on the Affordable
Care Act.
Senator Baldwin joins us now.
Thanks very much for being here.
It's a pleasure.
Thanks for having me.
So you say that, but Congressman
Van Orden and 16 other
Republicans in that body voted in
favor of extending the enhanced
tax credits.
Does that represent some movement
toward that in the Senate.
You know, it was,
we had
a moment
in the Senate to take up
the bill that was passed in the
House of Representatives that would
have extended the tax credits for
three years, and my Republican
colleagues blocked it,
pure and simple.
We have known for
well over a year that
these tax credits would expire
at the end of 2025.
And I have worked
tirelessly to try to
extend these tax credits
so that working families
can afford their health care
premiums if they buy through the
Affordable Care Act.
But we're seeing the numbers start
to come in.
Thousands of Wisconsinites have
dropped health care coverage.
And we expect it only to get
worse, as some who were
automatically re-enrolled get
their premium bills.
And figure out that it's just
not in their budget to continue
health care.
And so while I will never throw in
the towel on fighting for
affordable health care for
all, I can tell
you that for some, it
is too late in this
particular year
to repair the damage that
has been done.
And as to my colleague from
Wisconsin in the house,
He has railed
against the Affordable Care Act,
supported repeal
of it in its entirety
for years
now.
And this, at the last
minute, in my mind, does not make
him now
a fan of the program.
So we just spoke with Senator
Johnson, and he is
proposing maintaining
the tax credits for
people at 400 percent
above poverty.
Is that something that you would
support?
Look, I believe that there is
a lot of room for
negotiation on
the extension of the Affordable
Care Act tax credits.
And there is
no reason in my mind
that we can't have a
reasonable income cap.
Or to have a provision
that says that you can't
be expected to pay more than
a certain percentage of your
income on health care.
I just want to relate a
story that I shared on the Senate
floor.
I have a constituent who
is paying 40 percent
of their income on
their health insurance premium.
That's how much it's gone up
in the absence of
these Affordable Care Act tax
credits. And so I think we have to
be reasonable here, capping
the percentage of people's income
that should be contributed
towards health insurance.
But I think that we can look at a
reasonable limit for
higher wage earners to
have that tax credit
taper off.
On immigration enforcement,
do you think the President invoking
the Insurrection Act to bring in the
military helps or hurts what's
going on right now in Minneapolis?
You know, when you see this
president surge,
what is now close to 3,000
armed, masked ICE
agents into neighborhoods,
schools,
residential areas, I
think that makes our communities
less safe, not more
safe. And the chaos that is
going on in
Minnesota by these unaccountable
actions taken by these ICE
agents is the
part that is causing tensions
to rise, and
I think that the
Trump effort to change the
narrative and blame
residents who are
peacefully protesting this
presence is wrong-headed.
He's been talking about
reckoning and retribution.
That's what I think this is all
about. And it is
very, very disconcerting
to see this surge.
Right now ICE agents outnumber
local law enforcement 3
to 1.
What do you think about it?
Invoking the Insurrection Act.
I think it's entirely wrong-headed
and is about the retribution
campaign that this president
Do you think this kind of powder keg
comes to Wisconsin?
You know, I think we need to
be watching and
vigilant about what's happening in
our neighboring state of Minnesota
and be ready.
I think it is very responsible
for our local
leaders and state
leaders to be
talking actively about what
this would look like in Wisconsin.
On foreign policy,
U.S. Threats against Iran,
the incursion into Venezuela,
and the play on Greenland, in
your mind, where does all this leave
the U. S.
In the world?
You know, first of all, it's so
clear that the president is
distracted and
trying to distract the attention
of the American public.
When he ran for president,
he said, on day one,
I will bring costs down, and
on day one I will end
our international conflicts,
our endless wars.
And instead he
has promoted
policies that have increased
prices of everything from
groceries and consumer goods to
energy, housing.
And he has, instead
of bringing an end to
conflict, he has proposed
or actually engaged in
more. This president is totally
distracted from what he promised
he would do for the American people.
People.
Because what do you think
Wisconsinites care most
about right now?
Is it the cost of everything
including housing?
Including housing,
including health care, as we just
discussed.
Many are facing these
impossible choices and actually
dropping something as essential
as health care coverage because
they can no longer afford
it because of policies
that Donald Trump has promoted.
The economy is by
far the number one concern
that I hear from my
constituents. And the
cost of things feels just
impossible to them right now.
Housing costs have skyrocketed,
and we have seen
grocery prices accelerate
in terms of inflation in
recent months.
And the president's
energy policies are going to
create a significant price
hike for people.
And so again, this president
is distracted, and
he is not focusing on the very
things that Wisconsinites
who voted for him would
like him to do.
Are there fixes to this that
you may be working on across
the aisle?
Um, there are certainly,
uh, uh there are fixes
to everything.
As I said, I won't throw in the
towel on healthcare costs.
I continue to work with my
Republican colleagues on
ways in which we can bring down the
costs of prescription medication,
ways in we can reform
the health care system, which is
terribly broken right now.
On housing, I certainly reach out to
my Republican colleague to
join with me and others
to make
sure that private equity
firms and large
corporations aren't gobbling up
all the single-family homes
that make them, take
them off the market and make
homeownership so much
more difficult for first-time home
buyers. The average age of
the first home
buyer is now 40 years
old.
Imagine that.
And the price in the last
decade or
so of housing has
nearly doubled in our state.
And so we have to squarely
focus on these issues of
affordability so that being in
the middle class means something, It
means you're getting ahead.
We leave it there.
Thanks very much.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
All right.
Thanks for having us.
All right. Take care.
Bye-bye.
You too. Bye.