- Now back to state politics and the next in our series
of interviews with candidates running for governor.
Tonight, the former executive director of the Wisconsin
Democracy Campaign and founder of Blue Jean Nation,
Democratic Mike McCabe,
who announced his candidacy on Tuesday.
Thanks very much for being here. - My pleasure.
- So what sets you apart from the other Democrats running
in this crowded field?
- Well, there's going to be a lot of candidates.
It's going to be a crowded field indeed.
They're all very accomplished people.
They come from different backgrounds.
They've got different experience.
But they all have at least one thing in common.
They seem very, very comfortable operating
within the political system as it currently functions.
And I'm not.
They all seem at peace with the political culture as it is.
And I'm not comfortable with the culture.
I think it's been poisoned.
And I think the system is working really,
really well for a very wealthy and well-connected,
privileged few, but it's leaving an awful lot of people behind.
It's failing a lot of us.
- So it's been poisoned by?
- By the influence of huge donations
that go to elected officials, who then return the favor
with actions that benefit those big donors.
And it's done at everyone else's expense.
It's a government that works for a few
and leaves everybody else behind.
- Meanwhile, as you launch this campaign
in this way with this message,
I saw this week that Republicans are criticizing you
for being a hypocrite for taking money from George Soros.
What about that?
- There is so much
that's misleading and untruthful about all of that
we'd probably need two shows to straighten it all out.
It's a sign they must be spooked by my candidacy.
But when I ran the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign,
we got a grant from the Open Society Institute,
which is a charitable foundation that is prohibited
by federal law from doing anything to influence elections.
They now try to equate that foundation
with these dark money groups that try to influence elections
and conceal who's doing the funding.
So, you know, I think it's because
they've drenched themselves in so much dark money,
tens of millions of dollars, to try to buy elections
and now they want to muddy the waters and equate
what a nonprofit group gets from a charitable foundation
with that operation.
- Let's move along to the issues.
What do you think is the single-most important thing
that Wisconsin needs to do to make
its education system more robust, better going forward?
- I think first of all we've got to make sure
that we have affordable and debt-free education
for everybody in the state.
You know, when people go to get the education they need
to have a path to the American dream.
They can't be buried under a mountain of debt
the way they are now.
And right from the beginning,
we have to do a better job of adequately funding our schools
and dealing with the morale problems within those schools.
But then all the way up through the tech school
and university level, we've got to make sure
that it's affordable for everybody.
And it's not right now.
There are an awful lot of people
who can't afford that path to the American dream.
- If the Affordable Care Act remains in place,
would you be in favor of taking expanded Medicaid for Wisconsin?
- Absolutely.
We have the BadgerCare program here in Wisconsin.
I actually favor expanding that to the point
where it's there for all Badgers.
We should make BadgerCare something that is
available to everyone in the state,
make it a public option that anybody could buy into,
if they wanted or needed.
It should be on the public insurance exchange.
- What's the best way in
your mind to grow good-paying jobs in Wisconsin?
- Invest in small businesses and empower five million people
in the state instead of showering tax breaks and state
subsidies on a few thousand or even one or two huge global
conglomerates and hope that they somehow will work
magic for the rest of us.
And some of that will
trickle down to the rest of the population.
- Speaking of that, what is your position on the Foxconn
incentive deal and Foxconn itself?
- Corporate welfare
is just not the way to build a sturdy economy.
It's been a failed strategy for a long time.
And it's because the whole approach,
this top-down approach, giving lavish benefits to a few in
hopes that some will trickle down to the rest of us
is the wrong way to go.
We need to do an about-face and build an economy
from the bottom up.
Empower five million people.
Living wages for everyone.
Health care for all.
Internet to every single household.
Debt-free education so that you give people the means to do more
for themselves and for each other.
- What would be your idea for a funding source,
sustainable funding source going forward for Wisconsin's roads
and highways, which we seem to have so much trouble with?
- The two options we're using right now is both neglect of our
roads to the point where they're some of the worst in the country
and then borrowing so heavily.
20 cents out of every dollar doesn't even go to roads.
It goes to debt payments.
We've got to be willing to be reasonable and maybe put
a couple pennies on the gas tax.
Pay for it now rather than put it on a credit card and make
future generations pay for it.
- We need to leave it there. Mike McCabe, thanks very much.
- Thank you.