The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original
production. >> Canadian wildfire smoke
blankets the state, prompting air quality alerts,
with more expected on the horizon and through a haze
of budget negotiations, state lawmakers are at an
impasse. While a federal deal inches forward.
[MUSIC] tonight on "Here& Now".
Republican Senator Ron Johnson on where he stands
with the reconciliation bill. The Milwaukee Common
Council president discusses heightened Ice activity in
his community and an effort to revive native languages.
Also confronts past traumas. It's "Here& Now" for June
6th. >> Funding for Here and Now
is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and
Friends of PBS Wisconsin. >> Elon Musk calls it an
abomination. Democrats hate it. And some Republican U.S.
Senators are blasting its spending. The federal
reconciliation budget bill is taking it from all sides,
even as President Donald Trump and the House speaker
praise it as big and beautiful. According to the
Congressional Budget Office, the House reconciliation
bill will add $2.4 trillion to the federal debt over ten
years. That's after cutting spending by 1.2 trillion and
decreasing revenues by 3.6 trillion. Those numbers add
up in a bad way, according to Wisconsin Republican U.S.
Senator Ron Johnson, who joins us now from
Washington. And, Senator, thanks very much for being
here. you're doing well.
>> I am so are you still a hard no on the
reconciliation bill in its current form, even after
talking to President Trump. >> In its current form. But
let me point out the good parts of the bill would take
away a eliminate an massive automatic tax increase on
virtually every American that pays tax. It certainly
default. The House has done some pretty good work at
looking at programs, trying to eliminate the waste,
fraud, and abuse of the Obamacare portion of
Medicaid that's necessary to do so. We can protect the
benefits for the vulnerable, for disabled children,
pregnant women, the people that Medicaid was actually
designed for, not to single, able bodied, working age,
childless adults. So again, the house has done a lot of
good work. You know, my main beef is the debate in the
House was pretty lacking in terms of looking at the
numbers we really need to be looking at. They throw out
1.5 trillion. Sounds like a lot, but over ten years it's
barely a rounding error in the $89 trillion was spent
in the two. In the $22 trillion additional deficit,
which again, we can argue I'm not a big fan of CBO
scores. Their static scoring versus dynamic. But, you
know, set the score aside. Look at the ten year
projection. It's pretty grim. And so my main point
is we have to look at the facts and figures. Our goal
should be to bend the deficit curve down right
now. Continues to skyrocket. But but again, the good news
is I think we've got good people in the positions. I
respect the president. I know he wants to tackle this
problem. The speaker leader Thune chairman Crapo
president's got a first class economic team. So my
next step is sitting down with Secretary Besson again
and going through the numbers. Let's get our facts
straight. Let's get on the same page. From that
standpoint. Then, you know, figure out how we can do
something that's really hard. You know, one of the
points the president made in the meeting is, you know,
Democrats are always so unified. And I pointed out,
well, that's because they're doing the easy thing.
They're spending money. They're mortgaging our kids
future. It's hard to be the parent. It's easy to be the
parent and say, hey, we're going to go to Disney World.
It's hard to be the parent who says, we can't afford
that. I know we all want to go to Disney World. We just
can't afford that. We're kind of that in that
position right now. We're trying to rein in all this
massive deficit spending, growth and the deficits.
>> Elon Musk calls this a massive, outrageous, pork
filled, disgusting abomination. Is that too
strong, then? >> Well, the spending is on
some pretty necessary items. You know, the top priority
government is defense. So it spends more on defense,
realizing that we're probably going to have a
hard time passing appropriation bills,
probably operating on a continuing resolution for
the next fiscal year. And also recognizes we have to
secure the border, and we do need to deport criminals and
members of violent gangs and human sex and drug
traffickers. So there is some funding we have to
provide. Otherwise there are some real spending
reductions here. Again, not enough to solve our problem.
And that's all I'm pointing out, is we have to look at
that problem. We have to continue to highlight it. We
have to lead and we have to lead about doing something
that's really hard. >> If adding $2.4 trillion
to the national debt is irresponsible in your mind,
as I've as I've heard you say, why not dial back the
tax cuts? >> Let's not tax cuts. It's
preventing a tax increase. And it is true. The Tax Cut
and Jobs Act, when we enacted that federal revenue
was 17.1% of our economy. Right now, federal revenue
is 17.1% of our economy. So we actually lowered rates,
and we're still taking in over ten years. Now, the
same percentage of GDP. And what is interesting is no
matter how much you try punishing success, and I've
got a great chart goes back, I think more than 50 years
showing top marginal tax rate of 91%, 70%, 50%. Again
we spend all over the place, but over 50 years, the
average revenue we've been able to extract from the
American economy, the American people, 17.1%. So
we're at that average at some point in time, we need
to recognize that reality, recognize that the top 1%.
Yeah, they earn 20% of the income. They pay more than
40% of the tax. At some point you have to realize
that's probably a fair share. We've got progressive
rates. So again, I'm not into raising people's taxes
that would harm the economy. Recognizing that economic
growth is the number one component to try and get
ourselves out of this deep hole that we dug.
>> Would you be looking for deeper cuts to social safety
net programs? Is that a place you could find
savings, even looking for cuts in Medicare?
>> No. What I've been pointing out is Covid
created a massive surge in federal government spending.
We were spending $4.4 trillion in 2019. This year,
we'll spend in excess of $7 trillion. That's a 58%
increase. I've been just saying let's return to a
reasonable pre-pandemic level. I've laid out
options. Clinton in 1998. Obama in 2014. Trump in
2019. You exempt Social Security, Medicare, and
interest spend what you need to spend, but all other
outlays, actual outlays, increase by population
growth, inflation. You end up with a baseline budget
somewhere between 5.5 and $6.5 trillion. That's a
reasonable approach. It's a reasonable control. So
that's basically looking at spending across the board
line by line. That's what I've been suggesting and
pretty well requiring is we need a process to control
spending, go line by line, program by program. There's
over 2600 programs in the federal government. My
belief is we could eliminate hundreds of those programs,
probably eliminate tens or hundreds of billions of
spending that nobody would even notice, except for the
grifters who are sucking down the waste, fraud, and
abuse. >> What about clawing back
money already appropriated, like in the rescission
package that just went to Congress? That cuts $9.4
billion from US aid and PBS and NPR, bearing in mind
that we're sitting in a PBS station right now conducting
this interview. But I trust you'll vote yes on that
first rescission package. >> I completely support what
President Trump and Elon Musk did with DOGE. They
exposed just grotesque examples of waste, fraud and
abuse. Again, we're $37 trillion in debt. We have
deficits, you know, projected to average $2.2
trillion over the next ten years. You need to start
eliminating spending. And so you just can't afford this
anymore. Again, we can't go to Disney World. We simply
can't afford it. >> And so you would like to
see all the DOGE cuts codified in in the way of a
rescission package. >> Yeah. Again, I can't say
every last one of them, but I would be generally
supportive. And again, that's pretty much up to the
white House to they have to propose, you know, you know,
prepare those rescission packages. And then, you
know, we get an up or down vote on it.
>> What about the Trump administration's tariffs?
What is your position on those at this point?
>> Well, again, I'm pretty much an unabashed free
trader. I realize that there are products that we've
allowed to be offshored that are strategic. We've got to
bring them back. I know that China is a real abuser of
world trading organizations. President Trump has a
negotiating strategy. I really don't want to reduce
his leverage in that. I do hope that he concludes it.
And we, you know, come to some, you know, steady point
so we can return certainty and stability to, to our
economy. >> All right. Senator Ron
Johnson, we leave it there. Thanks very much for your
time. >> Wisconsin once again
makes national headlines by way of immigration, when a
man who was arrested by Ice while dropping his daughter
off at school was accused of sending letters threatening
to assassinate President Trump. Prior to his arrest,
Ramon Morales Reyes was helping police as a crime
victim and witness. And in a disturbing twist, the very
man he was set to testify against is the man who
allegedly penned the letters with intent to frame him and
have him deported. Despite his innocence in the
threats, he remains in Ice custody at the Dodge County
Jail pending his removal proceedings. The Department
of Homeland Security says. Democratic Representatives
Mark Pocan and Gwen Moore paid a visit to the Dodge
County Jail this week to try to speak with Mr. Morales
Reyes and to see the conditions of the only Ice
detention facility in the state.
>> My concern is that, you know, if this case if, if,
if Mr. Morales Reyes is indeed deported, US deported
because he came to the attention of Ice, US because
he was a victim of crime that we can we can just
forget about ever, ever, ever being able to get any
cooperation out of immigrants that they will
not help local police and their enforcement efforts
won't help the FBI in securing the whereabouts of
people who truly are criminals, people who people
who truly are writing letters threatening the life
of the president. This is a much bigger issue. And that
I think that Mr. Morales Reyes is a victim. He's a
victim. >> The immigration case of
Morales Reyes isn't the only one in Milwaukee raising
concerns. There's also Yessenia Ruano, a teacher's
aide in the public schools and mother who was told to
self-deport to El Salvador even though she has a
pending visa application for human trafficking victims
and no criminal history. Her immediate removal from the
U.S. Was put on hold for now. But local leaders have
taken a stand over the federal immigration
crackdown, releasing public statements in solidarity.
The Milwaukee Common Council declares Ice actions further
fuel anti-immigrant sentiment being pushed at
the national level. Council President Jose Perez joins
us now. And thanks very much for being here.
>> Thank you for having me here in the opportunity to
share the Common Council's view and the things we're
doing here in Milwaukee. >> Tell tell us more about
why you feel the council should weigh in on these
cases. These people. >> Well, you know, I think
Milwaukee has always been a welcoming place for
immigrants. Our council cares about fairness, about
process. And it's important that these things are held
front and center. You have teacher's aide who has been
entrusted by the community to look after our children.
Been here 14 years, no criminal record, and we want
a system that supports our milwaukeeans that way and
creates opportunities and a path for citizenship,
because that's what the American Dream is about. And
the Council felt compelled to show some solidarity
about what we consider as fairness in this broken
system that we have. >> How, in your mind, have
you seen a rush to judgment in these cases?
>> You know, when we think about the impact of human.
Trafficking, these things take time. These things we
feel deserve a due process. And in this case, having to
wait so long and then for the moment of having to
deport Self-deport in a community where we want and
need more teachers and people in education, there
is a rush to judgment and to be much more fair than that.
>> Does it feel like immigrants in your city and
across the state are not being given that that due
process or that that process is quick and can be too
often flawed? >> Yeah, well, it feels that
way, especially when it takes as long as it does.
People petition, have to wait years even in Yessenia
Reynolds case, 14 years to come to a conclusion. After
applying for the visa. It just takes a long time and
disparages people from staying within the process,
continuing to apply. It's expensive so that that sense
of it not being a fair process that is inclusive
creates lots of animosity about the hope that if you
do all the right things, in the end, you know, the
immigration process will make the right decision.
>> How does the kind of Ice enforcement that we've seen
recently tear at the fabric of your community?
>> Well, we have milwaukeeans that are
sending their children to school, are showing up for
work that have have done nothing wrong or are waiting
on the system, feeling that it's coming after them. And
the Latino community has been the Latino and
immigrant community has had a huge impact on the
economics in Milwaukee, have stabilized the population
growth. We're cranking out young people, educated,
going to college, and yet it doesn't feel like the sense
of the rate of return or the investment back in the
Latino immigrant community is, is making any sense. So
it's created fear. It's created a sense of not
wanting to participate. And we need we need public
safety. Very important. We need our immigrants to
always contact the police, to have all the confidence
that the system is working. And when they're in fear or
living in fear in the shadows, it's difficult to
do that. >> Does the attention that
you and others are putting on these cases, these people
forced the Department of Homeland Security, do you
think, to afford more thoughtful kind of
enforcement, including due process?
>> Well, that's what we're hoping. We're hoping that
the attention we're we're providing to it isn't one of
agitation or being antagonistic. But when we
see good people in our community that have invested
time and energy, that are doing the right things,
we're calling on the system. To be fair. We're calling on
the system to really look at the folks and the fabric of
our community. What makes it up, and really being
conscious about that. We don't we don't always feel
that that's the case. >> Have you or the council
had communication with Ice or the Trump administration.
Not directly. I know that we that would be something for
us to consider. I know that we've reached out to our
congressional reps when we hear of things in the
community hoping that since at that federal level, they
can communicate with Ice around the truth, around
either raids or why people are deported, or figuring
out this list, how does someone make this list of
folks that are being either we hear that they're they're
following people in communities. They're pulling
them over. And sometimes we want to know what is the
criteria to make this list. So we're educated about
these stops, knowing why they're doing what they're
doing. But we haven't heard a word.
>> Council President Jose Perez, thanks very much for
joining us. >> Thank you for having me.
>> Smoke from Canadian wildfires this week left
Wisconsin in a state of haze and health warnings midweek.
Milwaukee had the worst air quality in the nation as the
fires burn and new ones break out. It could be a
summer long threat. Kurt Kotenberg with the National
Weather Service in Green Bay shares, the forecast for
smoky conditions. >> What helps get the
wildfire air down to us in Wisconsin is the wind
direction at the high levels of the atmosphere, and we've
had this is pretty persistent weather pattern
over the past few weeks, and that's been a very weather
pattern that's had very strong winds over Canada
that have literally been pointing the winds into
Wisconsin. They're blowing it about 125 miles an hour
at 20,000ft. So very high up there. You're getting very
fast winds that are ushering all of this wildfire smoke
into Wisconsin. And comparing trends from now
versus the past ten years, the trends are above normal
for wildfires that have been occurring in Canada, and
it's just kind of a more of a local thing as to why that
smoke is reaching us here in Wisconsin. Some year, it's a
different weather pattern where the smoke is not being
brought down into Wisconsin. But this year,
unfortunately, it is and has been, and it seems like the
wildfire trend is only going to continue to get worse in
Canada. Not every single day is going to feature poor air
quality, but more often than not, we might start to see
days with poor air quality. Here in Wisconsin for June
July into maybe even August and September.
>> At the state capital budget riders are at work
fashioning the two year spending plan with
Republican leaders now declaring an impasse in
negotiations with Governor Tony Evers. One of the items
in the Evers budget allocating $11 million in
tribal gaming revenue for Native American language
revitalization. For a look at that work "Here& Now",
reporter Erica Ayisi spoke with Menominee and Ojibwe
tribal members who are bringing their indigenous
languages back from a past policy of silence. This
report is in collaboration with our partners at ICT,
formerly Indian Country. Today.
>> Scott Gaetz, Panchakarma, Co-Chair.
>> Trinaty Caldwell is learning how to speak
Menominee, an indigenous Native American language.
>> The ability to talk in the language freely that to
be able to do it now, today is a blessing because our
elders weren't allowed that freedom.
>> Caldwell's native ancestors spoke languages
that are now nearly extinct. >> Pewaukee Kamala.
>> Adult language learners at the Menominee Language
Campus are on a mission to revitalize their indigenous
language from a past of systematic erasure.
>> Like even just saying Pozo wasn't always the most
comfortable thing right away.
>> Really? >> Yeah, it wasn't
ubiquitous. I didn't really hear it a lot.
>> Netsky, wakizashi. >> Shannon Dennis Matsui,
comic time where. >> There was no meaningful
social or community access to the language.
>> Rohn Kern RFK, Jr, director of revitalization
for Menominee U. Says their doors opened in 2024 after
creating a community of native language learners
online. >> That means if you're not
looking to be a teacher or be a student, there was no
place for you in revitalization.
stipend to normalize speaking Menominee on the
reservation. of the places here on the
reservation, or do our business, be it at tribal
offices and or anywhere else that we might see people who
have taken their opportunity to join this revitalization
and do that same business in the language.
>> So we. >> Alexander Medina says
he's now exposed to more conversational Menominee
vocabulary that his non-native stepfather
dissuaded him from learning as a child.
>> Sometimes it was kind of heavy handed and kind of
bad. How how much he didn't want us to basically just be
Manam, be Menominee like, use rez slang. We'd get in
trouble. learning the language, does
it have an impact on your self-esteem and your
identity? >> Absolutely. It kind of
clicked to me that it's not illegal. It's not banned
anymore. So we should do what we can to salvage the
culture we have left. >> Martin Ranay is.
>> Schoenike language revitalization efforts stem
from a troubling past. >> Cieri coming.
>> A boarding school experience was very
effective in what it set out to do, which was to kill the
Indian, save the man and every man, woman and child.
And our ancestors. Three four generations over had
this horrific life experience.
>> For over 60 years, there were at least 11 federal
Indian boarding schools across Wisconsin, including
two here in Menominee Nation in Keshena. These schools
were designed to culturally assimilate Native American
children into American culture by forcibly removing
them from their families and banning them from speaking
their native tongue. >> The most common thread
that you see in conversations about language
loss really begin in the 19th century, and it often
revolves around federal Indian boarding schools and
Indian schooling in non-native institutions.
>> Sasha Maria Suarez, professor of History and
American Indigenous Studies at UW-Madison, says the
federal Indian schools across the state were
managed by religious institutions which colonized
Native American children and prohibited their language.
What was it to be replaced with?
>> English even if they went into federal Indian boarding
schools with no grasp of the English language, that was
really the only language they were permitted to
speak. >> Severed ties to
indigenous languages has been a generational issue
for all tribal communities. >> For over a century. These
kinds of policies that have tried to diminish and
disrupt indigenous language use.
>> My great grandma, she spoke Menominee. There were
some things that were passed down and some things that
weren't. And the language just was not one of them.
>> Menominee Ho-Chunk, Oneida, Ojibwe,
Stockbridge-munsee, and Potawatomi are some of
Wisconsin's indigenous languages.
>> Schimming and. Waupan. >> Suarez says Wisconsin's
indigenous languages did not completely lose their
voices. >> Those elders who had been
to schools, who maintained an awareness of their
indigenous languages, started using education to
teach their languages to the next generations.
>> In Bad River, for a new generation of language
speakers and singers, Dylan Jennings of the band Bizhiki
wants Ojibwe traditional sounds to be a part of the
modern music scene. [MUSIC]
>> What we're. >> You know, expressing
ourselves and making things that we like. But another
part of it, too, was us using our platform to
normalize our our sounds, our style of singing and our
language. >> Their song unbound is
about preserving Bad River waters.
>> We just have to remember to utilize our language and
all those tools that we've been given. And today, all
federally recognized native tribes in Wisconsin offer
indigenous language learning opportunities.
revitalization efforts in those decades following
World War two demonstrates really clearly how boarding
schools failed in terms of trying to dismantle and
disrupt indigenous languages.
>> In 2021, Governor Tony Evers issued an executive
order formally apologizing for Wisconsin's role in the
Indian boarding schools era through state and private
funding, language revitalization efforts. At
Menominee, you plan to continue?
>> I don't have an education beyond high school, but I
have a resilient spirit that's willing to give all
that it can to see through the revitalization of the
language. >> Macheel. IL Shaikh.
>> In Menominee Nation for "Here& Now" and ICT. I'm
Erica Ayisi. >> Mendota.
>> For more on this and other issues facing
Wisconsin, visit our website at PBS Wisconsin. Org and
then click on the news tab. That's our program for
tonight. I'm Frederica Freyberg. Have a good
weekend. [MUSIC]
>> Funding for "Here& Now" is provided by the Focus
Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.