Good morning and welcome.
Welcome to that near on air.
Jane that near Greg Buck.
Kevin butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at radio park in Racine You can always join us call or text the number is the same eight five five seven five two four eight four two You can leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook YouTube and what used to be Twitter busy busy show coming up I'm really looking forward to our guest after the 930 news Will Sue is a ginseng farmer in Wisconsin and Wisconsin is a huge was
a huge exporter of ginseng, and obviously the Trump tariffs have been affecting Will's business.
I had the chance to talk to him a couple of years ago when I first started producing for Kristen, and we had Will on the show then, just to learn about, that's one of those things again in our own backyard that I think a lot of people are not familiar with,
that
Wisconsin does what?
Yeah.
Yeah, we do.
We grow a lot of ginseng.
So we're going to talk to Will Sue and find out how things are going with his business under the Trump tariffs.
That's coming up after the 9 30 news.
It's Friday.
That means the Dan Schaefer Civic Media's political editor will be here in the 10 o'clock hour.
Of course, as expected, Republicans essentially stripped everything from Governor Evers budget, including.
All of the things that the Joint Finance Committee heard about in their four meetings that they held around the state, where people got to tell the Joint Finance Committee what was important to them, and yeah, they stripped all that stuff out.
No, wait, I'm so shocked, Jane.
Look at me being surprised face.
I'm
so surprised, yes.
So we'll talk about that with Dan in hour number two.
Also going to talk about that proposal to make some changes so that more movie makers would make movies here.
Yeah.
I think that's a great idea.
I think it's a wonderful idea.
We need more hundreds of beavers.
We need thousands of beavers.
That's what we need.
That's our sequel.
And then we'll wrap up the show as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing.
Today it is the Tanks for the Memories edition.
It's a little more political than we normally get.
But
it's
fun.
But it's fun.
There's a video element involved in that as well, so stick around for that.
Also, today, Friday.
Friday it is Friday.
It is Friday,
your first chance to pick up a four pack of Brewers tickets.
What?
A little bit later on this hour, we will have the keyword that you want to text in for our statewide text to win contest.
And you're going to have until the very end of the show.
Yep.
to text in that word.
And then in the Tom Hartman show 11 to two, there will be another word.
Same thing with Todd Alba from two to four, Maggie Dawn from four to six.
So you got five chances to get your name in the running for this four pack of Brewer's tickets.
The one thing I do want to let you know about this is you cannot exchange games.
No, no, you cannot.
And the only way you can participate is by downloading this media app and texting it through.
It's just like our other contests we've done before in the past.
Download that Civic Media app right to your phone.
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Get it loaded up and get it ready to go.
And
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Honestly, if you want to get in touch with us, you can use the Civic Media to call us or to text us.
Very versatile app it is.
It is.
It's among the most versatile.
Download the Civic Media app.
We got that word of the show.
We'll say the word of the show coming up in just a little bit.
One reminder also today is the final day of voting.
Yes.
In Fat Bird Week, Wisconsin.
Big competition.
I think let me let me look at the status
that
we're down to the final two down the last contest of this competition voting day.
It is the spherical white throated sparrow versus the road ton ruby throated.
Hummingbird tough matchup very tough matchup and I must say I was Incredibly incredibly wrong about this whole thing.
I thought as I stated with Emma shots last week I said the dark-eyed Junko in the trunk.
Oh is gonna be the winner because the name alone I know he's gonna garner all votes untrue Yeah, knocked out in round two.
Yeah, this spherical white-throated sparrow was a it was an upset and we have we the winner is okay not winner not winner
The last two.
The last two.
Oh yeah, that's what I just said.
Okay, sorry.
I was looking at the wrong bracket.
He's getting all
excited.
We're not going to know the winner until Monday because Emma Schatz is going to come back.
I'm way more invested in this than I should be.
Which delights me in no end.
I understand gambling now.
But it's like the NCAA bracket.
Yes.
You know,
much
more fun.
Well, and also see, there are upsets that you never saw coming, which is why we get so invested.
It's like
Duke being knocked out in the prelims.
I mean, that made Calvin laugh.
Make sure that you get in and cast your ballot, your votes.
Today is the final day to vote for Fad Bird Week, Wisconsin.
We'll put a link in the show notes.
So we make sure that your votes gets cast.
And then Emma Schatz is going to be here on Monday.
She'll be here around 10, 20, about an hour after the official.
Winner is announced.
Big
news.
Find out the winner right here on Matt Nairnair.
It's gonna be big news.
All right, we wanted to start off with just a little trade talk.
That'll Trump yesterday announcing a new trade pact with Britain, which he has called the first of many agreements with countries around the world.
Not everyone is impressed necessarily by this deal because
Trump said the 10% minimum tariff that he applied on all countries after the negotiation with Britain, it stays at 10%.
Boy, the art of the deal, am I right?
It's more like the art of the spiel.
And now he's shouting, what a great deal this is.
This is fantastic.
Well, again, you applied these 10% tariffs to all countries.
And then you had negotiations with Britain, and now we're still at 10%.
Yay.
Yay.
Or as an excited English person would say, yay.
Yay.
I also think that this was interesting.
The Washington Post has an article about this big trade deal that we made with Britain.
He was talking about tariffs on British automobiles, which were 25%.
But our president personally intervened personally intervened to lower the tariff to 10% on Rolls Royce Jaguars and Bentley's Rolls Royce Jaguars and Bentley's
Our president personally intervened to lower that 25% tariff to 10%.
Here is what our president said, quote, some are very special cars.
That's really handmade stuff.
I said, yeah, let's help them out with that one.
That's different than one that comes out and builds millions of cars.
So we wanna make sure that all the people who are buying Bentley's and Rolls and Jaguars
aren't going to be hit as hard with tariffs as those of us who cannot afford to buy those kinds of automobiles.
Just once again saying the quiet part out loud.
I care about the people who can afford Rolls Royce, by the way.
If you are under the age of a thousand and own a Rolls Royce, I don't understand you Jaguars and Bentley Ben anything Bentley's are the most expensive of the three And I don't know if you know this if someone else knows this, please tell me now.
Let me know let us know He says they're handmade.
I'm pretty sure all cars nowadays come off assembly lines.
Yes,
they're not being hammered out by hand.
No
Custom made order by order.
So it's not not like because they used to be yeah, but but no that doesn't know
that doesn't happen anymore
And
there I actually stumbled upon an article talking about that very thing.
There's so much automation now in auto manufacturing Which actually in some instances is better than handmade?
Absolutely, but it's you're paying for it like buying a Gucci handbag
That's what you're paying for the name.
You're paying for the name on the front and the back of the car.
That's it.
And at least one of these are made by a German company.
Details, details, picky little things.
855-752-4842.
If you would like to jump in on the art of the spiel, Brian from Milwaukee is on the line.
Good morning, Brian.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Good morning.
Yeah.
As soon as you guys said the name of the cars, you know, Rolls Royce Bentley and that I'm just sooner thinking, Oh my God, who in the world, you know, middle class citizen like you and I is going to be able to afford.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Done is rich, you know, buddies that work for, you know, CEO's of Amazon Facebook and, you know, Target and everyone else that he's okay during too, you know,
it's amazing.
And again, this is a quote from him.
I'm not making this up.
Yeah.
He personally intervened because they're special cars, those Jaguar's Bentley's and Rolls.
For special people.
For special people, not you and me, Brian.
No.
Not most of us who are, you know, going to work every day.
The unwashed, take your key as I get off my property.
Yeah, you guys can handle a 25% tariff.
That's fine.
But not, not those Bentley buyers, right, Brian?
Yep.
Well, a question I would have.
Thank you, Brian.
Really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for listening as always.
This is a.
a tariff on British cars.
Other than Bentley's, Jaguar's, and Rolls Royce, and you said one of them is manufactured actually in Germany.
Or is it owned by a German
company?
How many other British cars are we, because I know Cooper, but I think they make those cars.
Yeah, many coupes make them in the United States as well, I believe.
I don't think, are we importing a lot of cars from England?
That's a good question.
Calvin, did you want to jump in on this?
Yeah, I have a list pulled up of British car manufacturers.
You have Ashton Martin, Bentley, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lotus, which I'm not really familiar with.
I've heard of Lotus.
McLaren, MG, which I'm also not familiar with.
MG's, yep.
Mini, Morgan, not familiar with.
Rolls Royce and Box Hall.
Many is the only one that I know of those are not luxuries.
McLaren's are like $300,000 a piece.
So my guess is that they'll go back and say, oh, let's add McLaren in there and let's add them.
It seems like luxury cars are the main export of England to America.
As Aston Martin's, my goodness.
Right.
We can all afford
windows, come
on.
Well, with Jane with no tariffs or lower tariffs, now we can finally afford.
Uh, I can afford a Rolls Royce.
Well, and you know, if you don't like the way things are going here, you can always move.
We can always move, you guys.
Where should we move to?
To a different country, which Donald Trump also mentioned the other day.
Calvin, do we have that clip from President Trump's police talking about a country most of us have probably never heard
of?
Mattel, I don't know, I'm not so sure.
They also said, they're the only country I've heard they said, well, we're going to go counter.
We're going to try and go someplace else.
That's OK.
Let him go and we'll put 100% tariff on his toys.
And he won't sell one toy in the United States.
And that's the biggest market.
The country of Mattel.
This is like when we was talking about this, when he was talking about the Revolutionary War or this, yeah, the Revolutionary War.
And he said, we shut down the airports.
It's all good.
But Joe Biden, totally not.
He's, he's, he's losing it.
It's totally losing it, folks.
Yeah, the country of, uh, Mattel, their main export plastic.
Well, but again, who needs dolls?
He's got a doll thing.
That would be a whole other show that we could probably spend on that.
You can always join us if you would like to call or text at 855-752-4842.
Don't forget as well coming up in just a little bit, perhaps within moments.
We're going
to give you the
word you want to text in throughout our show today and get you in the running for a four pack of Milwaukee Brewer's tickets.
Great seats, by the way.
These are club level seats.
As Greg likes to say, the seats are very cushy.
Very comfy.
Very comfy
seats.
So that is just on the way.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Good, good morning and welcome, welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calvinator on the board, committee from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
No matter where you are listening in the state, perhaps you're listening at Park Falls.
Ooh.
Or Hayward.
Or.
Butternut.
but or not.
Amory as well.
You can always join us at the same number, 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter as promised.
We got tickets for you, baby.
Oh, baby.
So grab your phone, open up the Civic Media app.
This is the word that you want to text in via the Civic Media app.
until the end of the show, so you have until 11 o'clock.
The word to text in is play, P-L-A-Y.
Text in the word play via the Civic Media app, and you are in the running to pick up a four pack of Milwaukee Brewer's tickets for an upcoming game.
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You'll get a different keyword from Todd from 2 to 4, and yet another keyword in Maggie Show from 4 to 6.
But the word you want to text in right now via the Civic Media app, the word to text in is play, P-L-A-Y, in the running for that four pack of Brewer's Tickets.
And good luck.
I'd love to see the entries come in to find out where you all are.
Like we got Adam in Oregon and Anne in Chippewa Falls, Lynn in a conim walk, Kurt in Waukesha, Jeff in Racine.
Oh, Leah from over the border.
Whoa, where is it?
I'm assuming she's in Chicago, in Illinois.
Congratulations on your new Pope.
Now, Mary and Fondleck, keep them coming in the word to text in, you have until the end of our show.
Yes.
Text in the word play, P-L-A-Y, for that four pick pack, rather Milwaukee Brewer's tickets, and then your next chance coming up from 11 to two with the Tom Hartman show.
Fantastic.
We did want to talk a little bit about the new Pope, Pope Leo XIV.
I was driving when I heard the news yesterday.
It's been interesting to see some of the reactions.
Because initially, from what I saw and what I was hearing, there was a lot of excitement on the far right about an American pope.
This is great.
The pope is from America.
This is huge.
Once they researched Pope Leo XIV a little bit more, that kind of flipped pretty quickly there.
A mega host.
says New Pope does not bode well for Trump supporters.
God saved the church.
Pretty sure God's saving the church right now.
I mean, in the belief of divine providence, I would say it's part of his plan.
But don't forget, this is the group that says that empathy is a sin.
I saw some other MAGA poster yesterday saying, uh, Pope Leo XIV has suicidal empathy.
I don't know what that means.
I, I don't either.
So, so he, so I'll take it literally.
He has empathy for those who are in such a place where they feel like that ending it all is an option.
Boy, what a terrible person to think, to feel something and, and maybe try to reach out to help them.
Wow.
What a widely ineffective human being.
And far right MAGA.
Supporter Laura Loomer.
Oh
great.
She's talking again who has the ear of the president She's she has encouraged him to fire certain people which he's done.
Yeah, Laura Loomer called it gross Gross Really?
Okay,
I bet she has the worst comebacks like oh, yeah, well you're you are gross what I okay, so first of all
And I put this in our, and I put this in our company wide chat.
I will accept all donations of Humble Pie and or Crow because
I was
absolutely said there will never be enough.
I felt like the Vatican, the Catholic church from the deepest European tradition would reject an American Pope outright.
Just it's, we don't want your on this religion.
When they announced that I was like,
Oh, no, because I was very nervous.
I was because I, because, you know, Francis was a polarizing figure.
Yes, he was within the church.
Oh, yes.
So I was really nervous that maybe this conclave was going to push more towards a conservative.
And then I found out that Francis actually appointed like more than half of the cardinals who were able to vote and that this gentleman now who is Pope Leo, not a handpicked, but Francis brought him into the made him a cardinal.
and really wanted him to succeed him because as we see now, he has a message of love, acceptance.
I mean, we don't know what he's going to do for the future.
And there are also questions about whether or not he will be an ally to the LGBTQ plus community.
You know, he is not, he's not a foaming at the mouth liberal.
He's not, he's not, at least from what I have read and what I've looked at, but it was interesting.
I did go and look at Pope Leo the 13th.
Yeah, that's where he he picked his name.
He's hopefully the 14th Pope Leo the 13th in the early 1800s was very pro-union.
There you go.
I Just feel like I mean, yeah, we don't know where his allegiances are gonna lie on those certain points But I feel like if he was someone that Francis brought in and trusted and cared for Those types of issues are going to be when he will be at least be He will listen to and he will think about it and he won't just outright say no
I have hope for this Pope.
Hope for
the Pope.
Hope
for the Pope.
Well, and as I've long maintained, mega Christians, they love the Old Testament.
They're pro-smiting.
They're very smitey.
New Testament, not so much.
And I did actually post on Blue Sky yesterday for people who are having meltdowns about Pope Leo the 14th.
I just think it's important that you remember it's called the New Testament, not because it was the latest book.
Just something to think about.
News.
Newish testament.
Yeah, new news is coming up next.
I hope you will stay with us.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air.
The word to text in is play, K-L-A-Y on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be back.
Good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Dr. Slide on the board, coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text.
The number is the same, 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
It is underway our statewide text to win contest up for grabs of four pack.
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You wanna grab your telephone, open up the Civic Media app, and text in the word play, P-L-A-Y.
Text in the word play, you have until 11 a.m.
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The game next Friday?
Next Friday versus the Minnesota Twins.
All right.
Text in the word play, P-L-A-Y.
And good luck.
Tom Hartman will have another word from 11 to two, Todd Alba from two to four, and Maggie Dawn from four to six.
So you got a whole bunch of chances to enter and pick up some Brewer's tickets.
Really glad to have our next guest with us.
I talked to you years ago, probably does not remember me.
Will Sue is here from Sue Jinseng Farms.
Good morning, Will.
Thanks so much for joining us.
How you doing?
Good morning, and I do remember you.
Well, I'm glad
you are not easy to forget.
Oh dear, did I say something terrible?
That was a compliment,
Jane.
It's a compliment.
Thank you, Will.
For one thing, I think a lot of folks still don't realize how much ginseng Wisconsin grows and how much ginseng Wisconsin used to export, but this has been a big crop in Wisconsin for a very long time.
Yeah, the crop goes back well over a hundred years to the Fromm brothers who started the industry in Hamburg or their credit It was starting the industry
a number
of farmers were growing in the late 1800s early 1900s as Wisconsin was being founded and as more immigrants and more farmers moved to this area on acquired land They started farming jinxing and we and Wisconsin has been known for its jinxing for over a hundred years
and really expanded along with the dairy industry.
So we generate in terms of an industry today about a million pounds a year.
That's down from the 1990s when the industry was growing close to 3 million pounds a year, but we've seen it decline.
in part more recently due to the trade war on tariffs, but also as the rest of agriculture in Wisconsin has faced obstacles, so has ginseng.
Well, and if I remember correctly, well, ginseng is very much a hands-on crop.
It needs a lot of tending, and there are a lot of things that you cannot do with machinery when you are growing ginseng.
Is that accurate?
Yes, it's a very labor-intensive crop and it takes five years to grow So if you include the year that the seed is basically getting ready to germinate the total crop cycle takes about five years from seed to harvest and so that makes it
extremely difficult and then you add the labor factor.
We aren't able to spray, round up and some of the broadleaf weed killers because there isn't genetic modification or engineering of the seed.
We pick all the seeds by hand, we harvest a lot of the ginseng by hand, and then even when the product is dried and finished, a lot of the processes are trimming the ginseng roots and packaging those ginseng roots by hand as well.
Yeah, so it's, again, it's massively labor intensive.
It really is.
I think I told you last time, good heavens, it's like you have to sing to those plants every night.
They just really require a great deal of hands-on care.
Yeah, there's a lot of tending to it and it's a very fickle plant to grow You know the growing region is very restrictive.
It only grows typically in northern climates or at elevation certain soil types So it has to be well-drained soils.
They can't have too much water They can't have too much sunlight So if you've ever driven through central, Wisconsin, and you see the shade fabric or the wood left
shade that is used to protect the plant that's to simulate the forest shade because this is a forest land plant that's native to North America and so that shade because it cannot support the weight of snow has to be rolled up every fall unrolled every spring and we have to do everything underneath that shade cloth and in the middle of summer black shade cloth that attracts a lot of heat it is
very backbreaking work to be hand-weeding those plants underneath the sweltering shade fabric.
And ginseng is primarily grown for its medicinal purposes, correct?
Yes, it is used as a traditional Chinese medicine in China has been since the
Probably the mid 1700s when the United States and the colonies both British and French colonies started exporting wild jinxing to southern China primarily Guangzhou and what is now Hong Kong?
And so those trading ports were some of the first places that American jinxing the wild species was imported from the the colonies that was harvested by French and British and Native American
individuals and then traded, obviously, along the traditional trade routes.
And so that has been used as a medicine in China now for close to 300 years.
If you're just joining us, Will Su is our guest.
He is the owner of Su Jinseng Farms here in Wisconsin.
Will, you mentioned when we started this discussion that, you know, 30 plus years ago, the Jinseng output was about 3 million.
You said 3 million pounds.
Yes, it's close to three million pounds a year.
And it has tapered off over the years due to various factors.
But one of the things we did want to talk to you about was that, you know, and we've been discussing this point a lot is the current tariffs and the, and the, and the first tariff war and how that is affecting you as a ginseng farmer and a small business owner and what effects they have to the, you know, the quote unquote backbone of America as politicians like to refer to you as.
Yeah, I mean I think as farmers we face a number of obstacles every year and terrace is just another one on top of things You know you have to deal with weather you have to deal with the labor You have to deal with various market conditions Unfortunately terrace are one of those artificial market conditions that we've put on our trade with China and other countries the first trade war back in 2018 2019 added about a 30% tariff onto our product
the most and that stayed on for the last six or seven years from the first Trump administration throughout the Biden administration and then
With the most recent declaration here and escalation in April.
We've gone from roughly 32% 37% terrace.
We are
now standing at based on our calculations and industry calculations 147% terrace that makes it really difficult to sell this product.
And I think you have to put it in terms.
I think that consumers here in the US need to understand which if you're is if you're going into a
drugstore and you're looking at an over-the-counter medicine which american jinxing is an over-the-counter medicine in china and you're looking at an over-the-counter medicine and might cost thirty dollars or fifty dollars uh... in china you know a few ounces of jinxing would probably cost somewhere between thirty and fifty dollars u.s.
if you go in the next day and that package of jinxing is now a hundred and twenty dollars and this
is
an over-the-counter medicine which you do take to help benefit your health you have to ask yourself
is that medicine worthwhile?
Do I have the money to be able to spend on that product?
And you know, that's a difficult decision.
Every consumer is going to make a slightly different decision, but it's artificial.
It's not that the farmers are charging more.
It's not that it costs more to grow or make or manufacture a process.
It's literally the government
intervening in foreign policy and saying one of the foreign policy tools we have is tariffs and to combat quote-unquote unfair trade or the stealing of jobs.
We're going to put these tariffs on products that aren't related to what we're arguing over and force consumers to pay more so that the government can recoup funds.
Now what the government chooses to do with those funds like any other tax is up to the government but the consumer pays for it.
What are you seeing now so overnight and again you had mentioned the 145 percent tariffs that Donald Trump initially put put on China now overnight
He said 80%.
Scott Besant, his trade advisor, is traveling to Switzerland to meet with Chinese officials, I believe, today over the weekend.
And so in the middle of the night, Trump posted, how about 80%, how does that work for you?
Okay, that's better than 145, but it's still, I mean, come on.
I'm thinking of a number
seven.
Uncertainty is so hard in this industry.
It takes us four to five years to grow this crop.
There's so many variables that are beyond your control and then you throw tariffs on top of it.
We had COVID, we thought the first trade war and the second trade war, first trade war and COVID, we called that our first whammy and our second whammy.
This
is
our third whammy and it's a moving target now and you can't plan.
So it's very difficult other than be really conservative
and reduce plantings, and that's what we've seen.
We've seen a number of farmers choose to exit this industry, choose to, as they get older, just take it almost like an early retirement rather than consider passing it on to their kids.
And we've seen this before.
When I graduated high school here in Wausau in the mid 1990s, Canada was ramping up production very quickly.
And they are now one of the largest producers, if not the largest producers in the world.
And my dad told me,
When I graduated UW-Madison in 2000, it's like, why would you move back home and be a poor farmer?
Because you couldn't make money growing jinxing in the early 2000s.
And a number of farmers exited the industry then, or they completely exited dairy to go into jinxing, or they exited jinxing to go completely into dairy.
And if my kids were that age and thinking about coming back to the farm or to the family business, I would tell them the exact same thing.
We don't know how you're gonna be able to make money in the future in this industry.
So why would you get into it?
So 15 years ago when I returned to the farm I Had there about 250 farmers here in Central, Wisconsin today there are fewer than 80 of us left growing Jinxon
in 15 years in
15 years and there used to be a thousand in the 90s over a thousand
And that leads me to a question, and I know it's hard because it's a forecasting question, but you say it's diminished from three to one million.
Do you see what the output might be for this year or the next two years?
Is it going to be less than a million?
Is it going to be even less than that?
Because these tariffs are going to just absolutely punish you for no reason, it seems.
It's gonna be a gradual decline is my expectation and then a few years out in the future might be five years might be seven years It will be a probably a market decline unless we get more farmers into this industry Or the big guys will get bigger That's the other option, but I don't think either is good for our industry.
It's not good for agriculture It's not good for our local economy.
We got about two minutes left.
Well, how many people do you employ?
At our peak, probably 10, 12 years ago, before all of this happened, we were employing close to, including our farms and our sales offices here in North America, probably close to 100 to 120 individuals.
Today, we're down to about 75 to 80.
So we've cut about a third of our workforce locally or in the US.
And my expectation is that we'll probably continue to decline as the market output declines and the market demand for our product declines due to the tariffs.
And I'm sure you're concerned as well about once you lose those markets and they find a different supplier, how do you get them back?
Yeah, 90% of the jinxing that's grown in Wisconsin goes to greater China.
So that would be.
mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
So if you don't have access to the market, you're talking about a very small market for Wisconsin-grown ginseng because it is primarily ethnic Chinese consumers who are consuming this
product.
Thank you for your time.
Stay with us.
Coming up next, the dog ate my homework administration.
That's all on the way.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Oh,
we got to keep this going coming.
Oh, yeah.
Good morning and welcome back to Matt Nair on here, Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach.
Dr. Slide, good one there on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text.
The number is the same 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
I do want to share this with you real quickly.
This from the journal Sentinel, the Ozaki County Sheriff responding to a dangerous subject.
There is a shelter in place.
order in Fredonia.
A tactical situation happening on Fox Glen Road in Fredonia, nearby residents are evacuating.
The Ozaki County Sheriff's Office says the subject is still in his residence, but is considered extremely dangerous, heavily armed, ongoing.
attempts are being made to deescalate the situation.
Washington County SWAT is helping out.
Milwaukee County SWAT will be assisting the situation.
So again, the sheriff's office said it is asking residents of Fox Glen Road.
Pheasant Lane and Partridge Lane in Fredonia, either to stay inside your home or be escorted out of the area by an officer.
This is an ongoing tactical situation again in the city of Fredonia.
I want to give you a little heads up about that.
Before we go to the top of the hour news, Dan Schaeffer will be here in hour number two, Civic Media's political editor, but I wanted to spend a little time talking about
This is really the dog ate my homework administration.
We talked about this yesterday a little bit.
Sean Duffy, Department of Transportation, everybody, everything that's wrong with the FAA is the previous administration's fault.
Don't look at me, he did it.
Don't look at me, my brother did it.
Don't look at me, the dog ate my homework.
Yeah, we have yet another example of the dog ate my homework administration, the director of the FBI, Cash Patel.
Oh, crazy eyes?
Yeah.
Was in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday, his budget request was due.
Yes.
This isn't a surprise.
This kind of is part of the whole procedure of you come with your budget request and then they consider it and whether or not they're going to pass it.
And so you have to bring this to the Appropriations Committee in order to move forward, not a surprise.
This is part of the job.
We have a little exchange between the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, and Washington's Patty Murray.
Calvin, can we play that clip, please?
When should we expect this FY 25 spend plan for the FBI?
Have you seen it?
Have you reviewed it?
When will we get it?
I'll get you an answer, ma'am.
I don't have a timeline on that.
What?
It was due last week by law.
What?
I understand.
And your answer is to understand you're not going to follow the law.
My answer is that I am following the law and I'm working with my interagency partners to do this and get you the budget that you are required to have.
That was due last week.
And you have no timeline?
No.
No.
Hmm.
So we also need a full budget request, not a single paragraph full of wild talking points that we saw with the skinny budget proposal.
We're now having a budget hearing without a budget request.
So Director Patel, where is the FY 2026 budget request for the FBI?
It's being worked on, ma'am.
Have you reviewed it?
Have you approved it?
Not yet.
When will we get it?
As soon as I can get it for my interagency partners and get it approved.
Six months from now.
I don't know ma'am.
Well, how do we as Congress do our budget and our work without that request and without the spend plan?
Ma'am, I'm here.
I'm doing the
best I can.
I can't make up answers.
I'm going to commit to you to work on getting you the information you need.
That is insufficient and deeply disturbing.
No response.
I've given my response.
That went well.
Yeah, dog ate it.
The dog ate it.
We had it.
We had the report ready.
We had the budget request ready and then somebody left the dog alone in the office and now the dog ate it.
And I don't know where it is.
Listen, didn't you get my paragraph?
Isn't that enough?
Give me money.
I loved it.
And we didn't have enough.
We don't have time to play this one either.
But if you have a chance, folks, Google Chris Murphy, Kristi Noem.
and watch him basically do the same thing to her saying you are running your department insufficiently illegally and over budget.
You're reaching over budget soon.
When these loudmouth mega elites get on the camera, oh, they talk and talk and talk and bloviate and.
Whatever make America great again, you know selfies in a prison in El Salvador, but the moment they have to produce like professionals who are in charge of Massive amounts of people massive amounts of money.
They're like little kids who have been cornered by their parents who broke the who broke the mirror I Don't know how do you not how do you not know you're the only one who's here you're in charge of this I love seeing them score them like this because it just shows they have nothing
this this extends to other
other members of the Trump administration.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, dismissive this week about the plan to cut 83,000 jobs.
Lawmakers were asking him, who's going to get fired?
Oh, he had no answer.
He says no answer on which workers will be targeted, but he's very angry.
He's very angry that he's being questioned about it.
Oh.
But he has no specifics.
It's that
pesky Congress, Jane, wanting details and working maybe for the people to make sure that the money is spent correctly.
Yeah.
The indignation they hold towards these individuals who are doing their job.
I mean.
The senator from Washington.
I forgot her name just now Patty Murray Patty Murray.
She's not she people are saying oh, she destroyed she doesn't destroy anybody She's asking questions.
These are re your report is overdue by a week.
When is it coming?
I don't know by law you had to turn this in and we don't have yet Well, you're breaking the law buddy
News is coming up next and then when we return
Civic media's political editor and creator of the recombobulation area will be here.
We'll talk about stuff.
I don't know.
I don't know what it's gonna be yet I'll let you know boats maybe in a couple weeks You're listening to Matt Nair on air the dog ate it on the civic media radio network
Good morning and welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Buck, Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text.
The number is the same 855-752-4842.
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Joining us as he always does on Fridays, Civic Media's political editor and the creator of the multi-multi-award-winning Reconvobulation Area, Dan Schaefer is here.
Good morning, sir.
How you doing?
I'm doing well.
Happy Friday to the good folks of Matt and Air on Air and all of your great listeners.
How are you guys doing?
It's Friday.
You
making
it through?
We are making it through.
Happy it's Friday.
It's a beautiful, beautiful day and should be a beautiful weekend as well.
But not a big surprise.
surprise, I guess, after the Republicans got a hold of the budget suggested by Governor Tony Evers, that they stripped out everything essentially except for the word the and and.
And even that,
you know,
they had a team
of debate.
Yeah.
But, you know, yeah, this is, you know, this, we're in the.
season now where the budget process in the state of Wisconsin where the rubber really is about to meet the road.
So we had the governor's budget proposal from a couple months ago.
We had listening sessions with the Joint Finance Committee at a number of sites throughout the state.
And now this week, the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee, a 12 to four committee that includes members of both the Assembly and the Senate, had their executive session yesterday afternoon.
And in it, as expected, they essentially gutted the governor's entire budget proposal.
So they put out this list when they scheduled the meeting, you know, the 48 hours before or whatever they're required to do.
And they just had a long list of the 600 plus items that they would be removing from the budget.
So I think after, you know, this is, we're in the back half of Tony Eaver's second term here.
So we're accustomed to this era of divided government.
And it's just seems like we're replaying
over and over because it has happened every time where the governor's put forth a budget proposal and the Republicans basically vote the entire
thing down.
They'd
light it on fire, essentially.
It seems like, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like this is just further punishment for fair maps because when fair maps came along, a lot of Republicans who didn't have to work for their districts and work for those seats got tossed out or didn't run.
And then what they did was they decided they were going to try to legislate through Wisconsin constitutional amendments.
And then they changed the makeup of certain committees in Madison.
So they were far more Republicans than there were Democrats.
And I think the joint finance committee was one of them.
That has been 12 to four throughout the whole time,
yeah.
But it's just constant thing of like, we didn't win, you will never win.
Or I mean, they did win, they're still in charge.
But now it just seems blatant and adversarial and with some sort of like tinge of, yeah, we're gonna make you hurt.
Well, and I guess what amazes me is the lack of shame among the joint finance committee.
They held four listening sessions across the state.
Some of them went on for hours.
We have one listener who waited for nine hours to be able to make comments.
And then we had an article yesterday from our civic media news team talking about the top three things that were the most important to the people who were showed up at those joint finance committee meetings.
It was childcare.
These are not...
These are things we've always talked about.
And we have these guys on the Joint Finance Committee who sit there and listen to this.
And then, like they always do, they go back and they gut all of them.
Yep.
You're absolutely right.
The top three items that they heard from in these Joint Finance Committee listening sessions were healthcare, education,
and childcare.
Those are
the top three.
Those are your kitchen table issues.
Like for all the people who are talking about how Democrats want woke this and woke that, the people who showed up to say something about this, we're talking about health care, public education, and childcare.
perhaps not coincidentally, we've had contributors at the Reconbobulation Area write pieces about those three very issues over the last couple of weeks.
So
check
those out from Emily Cephos, Tim Kruldge, sorry, Tim Faust and the rest of the crew at the Reconbobulation Area.
So go check that out.
Corrine Hendrickson was the childcare provider.
Yeah, she's been on the civic media airways a number of times.
And so these are clearly big issues.
nods to, at least when it comes to childcare, there were nods to funding childcare from assembly, you know, Republicans and candidates who in some of these swing districts, where this became a big issue, I know Bob Donovan, who defeated Lou Ann Byrd by a slim margin in that race, was talking about wanting to fund childcare in some of his campaign messaging.
Will that actually come to fruition?
We'll see.
But I do think because we have these tighter margins, it is going to put the bull's eye on some of these legislators.
who, you know, it's going to be on coming on us to watch what these votes or how these legislators are
voting on
certain issues.
But it's, you know, they're going to have to defend these in 2026 in what might be not the greatest political environment for Republicans on the ballot.
Well, and that's the other thing too is, is, you know, Bob Donovan great example, because he said, I want to fund childcare, but
just like we were seeing with Derek Van Orton and the third, he's saying, you know, snap benefits will not be reduced by a nickel.
Then he votes for the budget blueprint.
And so I feel like now what it is, what it is, as you say, I will support these kitchen table items.
But then when the rubber hits the road, they say, well, there's nothing to do about it.
Well,
but that's the same thing that they've done with mental health.
For how many years now?
Every time we have another mass shooting, it's not the guns, it's mental health.
But when it comes to actually funding mental health, they're nowhere to be seen.
Yeah, and you go through this list of 600 plus things.
There are items on mental health.
There's items on lead poisoning.
Each one of these could be its own story.
I feel
like there are
like 600 stories to be told here.
They're just like, Republicans said no to legalizing marijuana.
Republicans said no to housing initiatives.
Republicans said no to veterans health care.
All these different kinds of things that were in the proposal for the budget.
And I think to a certain extent, there's like an aspirational type.
of quality with this, that Governor Evers is putting certain things out there.
He shoots pretty high sometimes.
Sure, but it also gets to the point where you have to come, the Republicans have just so stubbornly refused to come to the center and negotiate on any of this.
Like they have to go through the motions and do this every time, but they could do this differently.
They could take more pieces of the governor's budget proposal and actually have the argument instead of just like
We're getting rid of everything and building it on our own partial.
And then, and then putting the onus on Evers to use his partial veto powers and then criticizing those partial
powers.
Yes.
And one thing I mentioned when Kareen Hendricks, Hendrickson was here a couple of days ago, these are also great items from a, from a politician standpoint to take home.
Like, Hey, we have a lead point.
We have a lead problem here in our county because
this
is not a Milwaukee thing.
This
is a statewide thing.
The PFAS thing is a statewide thing.
I'm
fighting to make sure that we are getting the money we need to take care of these problems.
I love veterans.
They all love veterans on 9-11, Veterans Day, Patriots Day, whatever they want.
These are, these are items that if I was a voter in those counties or those like, why did you vote against these things?
My husband is a, is a vet.
My grandpa was a vet.
We have lead problems.
We have PFAS.
Why did you vote against this?
Why are you not helping us?
And, and these are simple items you can go home to your constitution with and say, Hey,
We're doing the good work and but we're, we're mindful of spending, but we're still taking care of you instead of just this wholesale gutting where you're just like, no, maybe we'll let you get paper clips.
It's so frustrating.
It's, it is.
And it's just they, the, the lack of change throughout this, like I know it's, it's a lot of the same people in the, in leadership.
It's Robin Voss is still the assembly speaker.
It's a lot of the same people
who have been,
it's Howard Markline.
It's the same people who have been there for a long time, but at some point, don't you think?
Like, Republicans keep losing in statewide races, if it's not Donald Trump on the ballot, basically, right?
And so, wouldn't at some point, these legislators recognize that, hey, we have to do something for the people of Wisconsin, or else we're going to get voted out.
We're going to keep losing races for governor.
We're going to keep losing races for Attorney General.
We're going to keep losing races for Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Like, at some point,
Don't they recognize that stuff like this, stuff like the gavel in gavel out, the stubborn refusal to ever even have the conversation with the other side, I think is really hurting them politically in addition to hurting the state and the people of the state.
If you're just joining us, Dan Schaefer is here, sitting with me, the media's political editor and also the founder of the recombobulation area talking about Republicans essentially gutting Governor Evers entire proposed budget.
I think part of the problem though, Dan.
is, and we talk about people staying in their own bubbles.
And I think for Republican lawmakers in particular, they really live in bubbles.
And when people show up at these joint finance committee hearings, I think they've got themselves convinced that these are outliers, that these people are outliers, and they're all being paid by George Soros.
I know lots of people are waiting for checks.
I do think that some of them really genuinely believe that.
I think you're right.
I mean, I grew up in a very right-wing part of the state, and there's no place where the bubble is thicker than that part of the state.
It's such an insular way of looking at the world and looking at the state and looking at our politics, and I do think...
You're right.
They probably just see the people showing up at these events and they're just like,
ah, these are the people who are around at like
1030 on a Friday
morning
or whatever.
You must be a mooch.
You're in a leech if you don't have a job and you can show up at these meetings that we hold during the day.
Right.
Right.
But if you're, you know, if you're holding
a certain kind of flag, you're going to be a patriot in the middle of the day for these things.
Different
rules, different
rules.
Yeah.
I think to go back to what you said about, you know, why are they, why are they acting like this in the time when they get.
you know, voted out when he is not, when Donald Trump is on the ballot, I think it's because they just don't care.
And it's harder to work and do the work and get to know your constituents and the issues that they face than to actually, so they're going to kick and scream until they're gone.
And then when they're gone, they're going to say it was a woke America, a woke Wisconsin that got rid of us.
It was rigged, blah, blah, blah.
Because I mean,
All those people who dropped out of their races when the Fair Maps came along, they knew the grinding on the wall.
They knew they weren't going to be able to charm their way back into their seats.
They left because they're like, oh, this is work now?
I think it has to do with everything.
They really don't care about...
They don't care about the people, they care about the power, and they're going to hold on to it with every last breath they have without having to do the actual work to keep it.
Well, here's another piece of this, too.
There is a divide that WizPolitics has reported on about, like, the Republicans wanting to pass their main priority, which is a tax cut, as a separate bill.
And Evers wants it to be in the budget.
Right.
So the difference there is that, like, if Republicans...
pass their tax cut.
What's the onus on them to actually even pass a budget?
Because they don't want to even do any of these 600 plus things that the governor wants to do.
We're going to continue our conversation with Dan Schaefer.
Keep it right here.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air coming to you across the vast statewide, countrywide.
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We'll be right back.
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Civic media's political editor.
It's Friday.
Words are hard.
Dan Schaefer is here.
Also the creator of the re-combobulation area.
We were talking about what's left in Governor Eber's budget, not much.
We also wanted to talk a little bit about the, this didn't take long, the new challenge to congressional maps that has happened just this week.
Actually two challenges that was politics was reporting about another one this morning So there are there are now two challenges asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to overturn the congressional maps now, of course About it, you know a couple a year and a half ago or whatever they overturned the legislative maps, right?
That was a much bigger deal Those are much more egregiously gerrymandered the violations to the state constitution were much more apparent but the congressional maps are now
being challenged yet again this this also happened you know after Janet Protasewitz was seated at when they brought those challenges forth for the legislative maps the Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the congressional maps at the time now I haven't quite seen as much on the second of the two challenges or whatever but the one the first one that made headlines yesterday from Elias now Mark Elias and his legal team
It seems pretty much the same as the challenge that the Supreme Court refused to hear two years ago or whatever it is.
The only difference, I guess, being is that the court in ruling on the legislative maps essentially ruled that the least changed principle upon which these maps were drawn is BS.
Which it is so many words a
completely manufactured nonsense term the Wisconsin Constitution and the portion that applies to redistricting says after every Decade or however, they use it the with the phrasing they will apportion and district anew least change district anew so that
is a completely invented nonsense term that the then conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court used to bake in gerrymandered maps essentially for another 10 years.
So you will hear now some right-wingers say, hey, these are Tony Evers maps.
Well, they are technically yes, but they were drawn under the rules of saying you need to have these
least
change maps, which those are nonsense.
Challenging the lease change makes sense, but I also do wonder if the same challenge coming from the same group that the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to hear two years ago, if they hear it now, does that affect people's trust in the court?
Fair question.
Dan, I would like you to explain for people who are listening, what is the difference between
the legislative maps and the congressional maps because for the average to me it sounds like aren't they the same thing
I thought we just did all the maps
exactly
exactly so we have the the state legislative maps we have the 99 districts of the wisconsin state assembly in the 33 districts of the wisconsin state senate so these are you know the state capital the state budget those things that we're talking about the congressional maps those are federal so those are our eight
federal congressional districts are eight members of Congress, which currently is broken down six Republicans and just two Democrats.
So I think part of the challenge that, and I think this is more than a fair point is saying that like, hey, we have.
a 50-50 state in Wisconsin, shouldn't we have maps that more closely reflect that instead of having a map that looks more like a deep red state where you have this six to two imbalance.
And then you have, really the two districts are just kind of the Madison and Milwaukee area districts with Democratic representation.
So, and again, I think the state legislature was so much more obvious how gerrymandered those were.
The third congressional district, you know, it was held by Ron kind.
Derek Van Orden flipped it.
It was a close race last year.
I think, you know, Rebecca Cook or whoever the candidate might be, even on the current maps, I think has a decent chance.
You know, that I think some of the smart prognosticators have put this in toss up territory, given that Cook ran a really strong race two years ago.
And so.
And then the first district is is another one that is like in the kind of more closely competitive race This is held by Brian style.
This is kind of like southern and southeastern Wisconsin Jamesville.
We
are in the first congressional
district right now here radio
park and racing right and so this is you know, that was Paul Ryan's old district
You know, style has consistently overperformed.
And even as last cycle, Peter Barker had some funding from the national groups and all of that.
So I do think you do have to recognize like some of the on the ground realities of what's happening in some of these districts to recognize why it is six to two.
Now, a couple of the other ones that I do think are problematic is just like you have some like, and I've written a lot about the Fox Valley and it's important statewide.
The Fox Valley is currently split by the current congressional map.
So Oshkosh is in a district represented by Glenn.
growthman and Appleton is in a district represented by Tony Weed.
I think those cities in the Fox Valley should be part of one cohesive district, but then you get into challenges like, okay, what does it take away?
Who gets these other seats?
And then, you know, it's a complicated process.
It's going to be fun.
Yeah.
Are you recombobulated yet?
We're getting recombobulated.
Getting recombobulated.
I was less
than I was before.
We will continue recombobulating with Civic Media's political editor, Dan Schaefer, after the bottom of the hour news.
Making movies in Wisconsin.
We'll talk about that next.
Stay close.
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This is the Civic Media Radio
Network.
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Good morning.
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We do have coverage of today's Brewer's Raise Game.
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Dan Schafer, Civic Media's political editor and also the creator of the mall.
award-winning re-combobulation area.
There's a measure out trying to encourage more movie makers to come to Wisconsin.
Yeah.
It actually has some
bipartisan support on this.
One, two.
How about that?
We
can
agree
on this?
What?
I know.
I
know.
It's crazy.
But there is a bill making its way through the Wisconsin state legislature that would
Build in some some tax credits for people making movies in the state of Wisconsin, which used to be the case of several years
ago.
Do you guys remember the movie?
It was called public enemies.
Yes, I do with
Johnny Depp.
So that movie was being made when I was a student at UW Oshkosh.
So big chunks of like downtown Oshkosh were like movie sets and we may or may not have will not confirm or deny that we walked home.
from the bars through those movie sets pretty regularly,
like my last
year at college.
That was a lot of fun to just be walking through movie sets at two in the morning.
I know they shot in Milwaukee as well.
They did too.
They're in the third ward area
downtown, so yeah.
I mean, they shot Major League here.
Yeah.
But the public enemy is really like the last big one, unless you want to count 100 beavers or how many?
Hundreds of beavers.
Lots of beavers.
There were many, many beavers.
So many beavers.
Yeah, and then just, you
know, just like a bunch of other harrowing documentaries and
things like that.
I've been pretty
missed about Wisconsin.
But I think this is a good thing.
I think they're introducing this, and I think this is something that people have wanted.
I think there are some statistics about how Wisconsin is one of the lowest levels in the country of any state for funding any form of arts and culture
in
its state budget.
And so I think this would be a good thing.
I think this is something we could probably agree on.
The bill was introduced by Republicans, but has Democratic co-sponsors at this point.
It had a public hearing this week in the...
the assembly.
And this was something that Tony Evers also proposed something similarly in his state budget.
I think overall it caps these credits at about $10 million a year, so not a huge sum of money total that would go to this.
But I think this is a good step to getting us started and getting something back going with that, right?
I mean, this is a change, though, to me because I feel I'm surprised it's Republicans because a few years ago when they tried to do this, they were just like, no, it was it was an absolute no, we're not going to create tax credits for movies.
I mean, if you want one example, just one example of what credits for movies can do, Georgia, Georgia,
they film, I
think every Marvel property is filmed in some way in
Georgia they have created a movie.
I mean Pinewood Studios in England the famous Pinewood Studios Let it be the James Bond all film there.
They have a Georgia Satellite office there.
They make movies Pinewood Studios makes movies in Georgia They I mean you watch a movie and you see a big peach says Georgia.
It's because they filmed in Georgia and it brings Jobs.
Oh,
lots of jobs.
It brings economic influx it bring I mean it
It builds up communities.
It absolutely builds up communities.
There's no reason.
I've never understood why.
And there's other states too.
There's other states as well.
They're like, no, we don't want to do this.
What do you have to lose?
I mean, you get the attention.
It's great.
I mean, it's a job
creator.
Why not do this?
And now it seems like we have some bipartisan agreement that this would be a good thing.
Yeah, it's actually going somewhere.
Believe it or not, things can happen in the state of Wisconsin and our state government.
But there's still got to be someone who's going to come out screeching about why would we give woke Hollywood a break to bring their filth here?
You know, that's going to come from somebody.
You know, it's going to come from somebody for sure.
Right.
But I think, you know, they're also created and it's another thing they're like looking to create something called the state film office, which, you know,
Some people don't always like creating additional layers of bureaucracy in the state.
So that's, you know, something to think about too.
But you know, cap, you know, covering a certain level of production expenses for somebody who wants to make a movie in Wisconsin.
I think that'd be a good thing.
Well,
and this
involves video game industry as well.
That one's actually a separate bill.
So they're not only also introduced by a Republican, I believe, State Senator Pat Teston was putting this one forward.
So creating similar tax breaks for those creating video games in the state of Wisconsin.
That's a huge
industry,
man.
It is a huge industry.
And it brings the type of tech workers that Wisconsin has really struggled to bring.
you know,
develop
those types of industries in the state to Wisconsin.
And I think there, I think there's a couple, I wrote an article years and years ago about this in my past, one of my past lives as a business news reporter.
But I think there's a couple of offices in Madison that are part of like the company that makes call of duty or something like that.
I'm blanking on the names.
I'm not a gamer.
I apologize.
But, you know, I do think there, there is like some level of presence for that industry here.
And
again, I think it's, it's, it would be a good thing.
It's
not a
huge investment.
It's similarly like, you know, capped at a certain type of level.
It would cover like, you know, at 30% of wages and production costs or something like that.
But again, that would be a good thing.
Absolutely.
And bipartisan, you always love to hear that word.
My only, my only fear is that I'm sorry to sound very cynical, but when Republicans bring forth things like this, we have to do with the arts.
I always want to know what the language is.
I always want to know, because it just, it just seems weird that out of nowhere, all of a sudden they want to propose tax credits for movies and for video game producers.
I'm like, why?
Why?
You're always waiting for the catch.
You're waiting for
the other.
But now we have John Voight and Arnold Schwarzenegger, not Arnold.
It's Sylvester Stallone.
And who else did?
Trump tap to
be
the, he's gonna remake Hollywood, right?
Make Hollywood great again.
And all that woke entertainment stuff.
Yeah, that's right.
We have to dictate what type of art you can make.
Exactly.
That's good.
I love, you know, just love freedom.
Don't you guys love freedom?
Especially freedom for businesses.
I love freedom for businesses to do what they want.
Who talked about that all the time?
Oh yeah, Republicans.
Dude, this.
Do you feel like this is a pretty good chance to pass?
I think it does.
I don't see a whole lot of opposition to it.
Whether it passes as a standalone bill or they put it into the state budget, that could be part of whatever negotiations they have going forward.
But it looked like there was some pretty positive feedback at a public hearing, at least for the film production tax credit this week.
positive response from both Democrats and Republicans in that.
And again, it was introduced by Republicans and it has Democratic co-sponsors.
I see Chris Larson, Mark Spreitzer, Brad Paff, a number of state senators have signed on as co-sponsors for that one.
That would be great.
Let's get something
done.
Really, we have so many different areas in Wisconsin, I think, that are so different in how they look.
Yeah.
that we just have a wealth of opportunities for movie makers here.
Well, and maybe if they had more Wisconsin people, you wouldn't run into these pitfalls like you saw with that one Craig T. Nelson movie that you had that huge problem with, with the gutters.
No one would do that.
Gutters and ladders.
Why
are
you doing this, Dan?
Why
are you bringing this back up
again?
Self-respecting Wisconsinite would have done that.
As I was bringing that up, Jane was smiling and Greg was like, oh no.
I know someone we could actually have a really nice discussion.
about with this is Pete Schwab, too.
He's talked about this fact that he says that he has said in discussions, I think with us, that lack of tax credit, lack of opportunity, lack of buying from the state government causes artists to either not produce their art or to seek it elsewhere, go to other states that are like, hey, come
here.
And I just want to have, I mean, I don't know about Minnesota, but I just want to have something that makes Minnesota go, oh, Wisconsin's kind of cool, because they have everything right now.
Troy from Monhorib asks, is Voskona allowed a vote on that?
I mean, probably.
If he's allowed it to go to public hearing.
He's allowed it to go to public hearing and have, uh, advance in the process.
Uh, so yeah, I love how that we're all just approaching this, just like, is this actually
going
to happen?
What's the thing?
Is Voss going to block this at the very end?
And it's all in full, not without reason.
Exactly.
Well, look at it.
Where's the catch?
Yeah.
Where's the catch?
Uh, Calvin said that Raven software is the developer in Madison and, uh, also PJ said between the two of them, they said, call a duty doom.
And the other game, I think was quake video games.
So they've worked on those video games, but that's still huge.
Yeah, those are huge.
I've heard of all three of those games.
Yeah.
So I haven't played any of them, but, you know,
Dan Schaefer is here as civic media's political editor and also the creator of the multi multi award winning.
Reconpopulation area in the minutes that we have left any reactions about the selection of Pope Leo the 14th as the new pontiff.
You know, you know, I always look for a Wisconsin connection.
And over there's a big national story, global story, any story, really.
There's always a Wisconsin connection.
Six degrees of... We are somehow the nexus of the universe
in certain ways.
So when it was announced that the...
Pope was born in Chicago.
I, of course, was making a lot of jokes about Chicago as so many
people were.
Chicago produced a Pope before they ever got a good quarterback.
You know, all of these different things.
But I saw there was a news story that somebody, some people were going through his background and his bio and, you know, anything you can find about this guy, all the reporters looking for the local angle.
And I saw that channel 12 in Milwaukee, found an article that said he, he.
His journey included a time when he served as a teacher as the Augustinian novitiate novitiate in Okonomouac.
O'Connor Moac.
There it is
folks.
The New
Pope was a teacher in Waukesha County.
Cool.
My
homeland.
Mine too.
Did
I cross paths with the New Pope at like the Kilty in O'Connor Moac?
It's possible because it sounds like he was also there in the early 2000s.
So you know.
Bob have you met our son Dan?
He's a good kid.
He's at the school.
He's doing really well.
He wants to be a writer.
Hello sir.
That's you.
That's my head.
You met a guy named Bob.
That's right.
Bob the White Sox fan.
I love that he's a Sox fan because there's nothing I love more than denying Chicagoans happiness.
It's just been, I'm sorry.
Oh, no, I just think I know they were thinking, oh, yeah, Cubs all the way.
No, Southside, get over
it.
It's just been so interesting to see some of the memes.
Oh, yeah.
And he is.
I've been
having some fun on the platform, formerly known as Twitter on this one.
I bet.
The Pope will be able to just cut you off on 1994.
There's a non-zero chance that the new Pope has been to the Lake Forest Oasis.
Oh, that was
good.
You know, I'm just reading my own jokes at this point.
But, you know,
we're all like, this is one of the rare times that Twitter is actually a fun place is when people are.
like it just riffing.
Like
it used to be.
Like it used to be.
I mean, honestly, it's just I'm kind of excited to see where he'll go.
It seems like he's a good man at this point.
Approaching it gingerly shout out to the Pope.
It's cargo Pope
down props props to the Pope I'm sure that means a lot sure that means a lot to him Dan Schaffer civic media's political editor is subscribed to the Recon Population area.
Thanks so much, Jen.
We'll see you next Friday.
Thank you Stay with us.
We're gonna wrap it all up with this shouldn't be a thing at tanks for the memories edition You're listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the civic media radio network.
We'll be right back
Welcome back to Matt and air on air Jane Matt and air Greg Bach resident young person Calvin on the board coming to you live from her studio at Radio Park in Racine join us leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook YouTube and what used to be Twitter you have about seven and a half minutes left to text in via the civic media app text in the word
play play P L A Y text in the word play via the civic media app.
We have a four pack of brewers tickets up for grabs and Marie in Brookfield.
You may want to type it again.
You got clay that came in.
The word is play.
P-L-A-Y, text in the word play before 11 o'clock and you are in the running for that four pack of Brewers tickets for next Friday.
Your next chance with a different word will be during the Tom Hartman show from 11 to two, then Todd Alba from two to four and Maggie Dawn from four to six.
But right now the word you want to text in via the Civic Media app only, the word to text in is play, P-L-A-Y.
Coming up next week on Monday, James Causey from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is going to join us to talk about reckless driving in Milwaukee.
And he and his wife were recently caught in the middle of a high speed chase.
I can't imagine how terrifying it was, but he's got some pretty strong opinions about what he thinks should be done in order to crack down on what is an epidemic and has been an epidemic in Milwaukee for quite a while.
I'll have some questions about outside of Milwaukee because while.
Milwaukee has its own brand of reckless driving.
I live in Kenosha and I see
you see the same thing too.
Yeah.
But, uh, you know, when they're doing all these bump outs and other things to try and make people slow down, uh, James Causey has some other ideas.
So we're going to talk about that coming up on Monday.
And then Emma shots will be here with really important news.
We only break the most important news on Matt and Aaron here.
That's why we've won all the award.
Well, no, we didn't, uh, that bird week.
Today is your final date of vote, you guys.
Honk if you love
Chug.
Honk if you love Chug.
Emma will be here with the winner of Fat Bird Week coming up on Monday.
I know you don't want to miss that.
And it's a great fundraiser as well.
Yes, it
is.
Yes, it is.
So it's getting late.
It's 11.55, Calvin.
That means it's time for.
This shouldn't be a thing.
Here is the headline from Newsweek.
World War II veteran runs tank.
over Tesla.
A World War II veteran rolled a tank over a Tesla in a video stunt by a British activist group.
They are not fans of Elon Musk.
Calvin, I believe we have a clip from this 98-year-old World War II veteran.
Let's play that clip, please.
My name is Kent Turner, and I'm 98 years old.
I served in the British Army in the World War II.
as did this Sherman tank.
I'm old enough to have seen fascism the first time around.
Now it's coming back.
Elon Musk, the rich man in the world, is using his immense power to support the far right in Europe.
And his money comes from Tesla cars.
Well, I've got this message from Mr. Musk.
We've crushed fascism before.
And we'll crush it again.
So let's go.
Shall
we?
It starts like a lawnmower.
And he fires up the tank and he drives over at Tesla.
I mean, God, I love the English so much.
All of that.
I mean, that man, that man fought against Hitler.
Maybe one of the most, I don't like using the word lightly, evil.
horrible people who ever traversed this globe.
So to see what's happening now happening again, less than a hundred years after he fought, all the rage he must be feeling encapsulating a tiny English man, shall we?
He's 98 years old and he still drives that tank like he's a young man.
I mean, it's it's pretty amazing We will include the link so you can watch the video because there is a video Element involved with this again the guys 98 years old and this was sponsored by a group called I'm trying to find it here led by donkeys
It is an anti-fascism protest group originally formed to campaign against Britain's conservative party.
So that is the group that sponsored Ken, 98 years old, World War II veteran, still knows how to drive a tank.
Jane, shall we?
I just love that he said that.
Shall
we?
I just, oh.
Take a look at it.
We'll get it in the show notes after the show is over.
That wraps up today's episode of.
This shouldn't be a thing
if you ever have a thing you think should not be as always send it into Greg and me at Jane says at civicmedia.us J A N E S A Y S Jane says
at civicmedia.us and you still got two minutes.
Text in the word play.
Well done, Ann Marie from Brookfield.
She got it right.
The word is play.
P-L-A-Y playing for a four pack of tickets to see the Brewers.
Thank you, Greg and Calvin and all of our engineers and everyone at Civic Media without you.
Nothing works.
And thank you most of all for calling and for texting and for listening.
It means the world.
I hope you find some joy over the weekend and you get the chance to share it.
News is coming up next, so stay here.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
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We'll see you on Monday.
Good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Buck and Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us.
Call or text.
The number is the same 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter busy show coming up for you today.
is going to be joining us.
She owns a child care center.
She also belongs to the Main Street Alliance, and they have been having events across the state talking about how critically important child care is.
And we're on the cliff.
We're really on the cliff as far as extra aid going to help keeping these child care centers open when that money runs out.
And so Corrine's gonna be joining us.
They had a meeting last night.
They're gonna be having one again next week.
So give you a little heads up if you wanna try and make plans to attend that.
Corrine Hendrickson joining us after the 9.30 news.
Next hour, Darren Van Ruden, the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Association is gonna be joining us to talk all things Wisconsin farmers.
He's actually in Washington, D.C.
Yeah.
For a Farmers Union event,
probably lobbying, I guess.
I would imagine so.
So we're going to talk to him about that, who they're going to be meeting with.
Should be fun.
Yeah.
And who
they're
not meeting with.
And who they're not meeting with and who might just meet with them and be rude and yell at them and walk away.
I don't know.
We'll have to see.
And then we'll wrap up the show as we always do with this.
It shouldn't be a thing.
Today it is the Raccoon Gone Bad Edition.
There's a.
picture that comes with it, too.
I think Walter White from Breaking Bad.
Oh boy.
Stick around for that.
That's at the very end of the show, coming up around 1051.
Wanted to start off with, though, our yelliest, one of our yelliest lawmakers.
I would say he's
Wisconsin's yelliest.
Yelliest.
Yeah, definitely.
It's gotta be way up there.
No,
yeah, actually, when it comes to Wisconsin, yes.
Top of the
heap.
U.S.
Representative Derek Van Orden, now.
says he is against Republican efforts that would change the SNAP program, which is known more commonly as food stamps.
He's against cutting these benefits, even though he did vote for the GOP authored federal budget blueprint that calls for slashing programs like SNAP up to the tune of $200 billion.
His exact words were, your SNAP benefits will not go down a nickel.
Maybe and he appears to be serious about that ish Well again, I'm not sure why you would vote in favor of this budget that does call for more than 200 million billion dollars in cuts to programs including snap and then author a different Piece that says no, I don't want you're not gonna touch that.
Well, I think I see where the you know
He tells the story of being a poor kid single mom and having to be relying upon food stamps.
He says that food stamps
government cheese
things of that nature free free breakfast programs free food programs for kids, right?
Those are all great programs.
They're there for a reason and he's And he says in that in that video clip that we played a while ago that it will not go down and nickel I Think and I think you say it right here is that he says those things out loud
Snap benefits won't go down a nickel.
They won't they're they're safe with me.
They're
sacred.
Do not worry But at the end of the day, he's gonna vote for something that's gonna have to and he'll shrug his shoulders ago Cuts had to be made so he can still look like he was in favor of them even though he's gonna vote against them eventually Even if he tries to make it seem like an
indirect way of voting against them Do you think this is China kind of a posture for him?
So he will look like the good guy when they do ultimately vote to cut snap.
Yeah, because I'll say this right now
I believe Derek Van Orden when he says he doesn't want to cut stamp benefits.
I do believe him.
But that doesn't mean he's going to not vote against his own interests, because they do it, all the, all politicians do it all the time.
That's true.
Both sides do
it.
Yes.
I think that, I think there's going to be a matter of, well, we had to make the tough cuts and I didn't want to do it, but here we go.
And sorry, you don't get this free breakfast program or your food stamps, your WIC benefits are cut.
We'll try again in two years.
Dearing Van Orton does sit on the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP.
The committee has been considering a proposal that would, for the first time, pass on some of the cost of operating it onto the states while also adding work requirements and implementing methods to limit future increases to benefits.
This is from the Wisconsin Examiner and this is just kind of jumped out at me last week Van Orden walked out of a Republican House ag briefing and yelled an insult at staff So he's an equal opportunity insulter.
He doesn't like it.
I don't think he really likes anybody He sure doesn't seem to know he has there.
I don't know.
I'm not gonna get into the Psychological
anger issues.
No, I'm not going to do that That's that's for him to talk to a therapist about and I mean I'm being serious when I say that but
He just always, he's the kind of guy, and I'm saying guy for a reason, because it's a lot of this in men who believe, I know it's best, never question me, and how dare you even ask me that?
I know
what I'm talking about.
But there's a lot of that going around.
How dare you even ask me that?
And I think that starts from the top.
And that starts with Donald Trump.
I agree.
I think that they've always had that attitude.
But before Trump, there had to be diplomatic ways of addressing those frustrations.
Now, I mean, that...
I think it was with the Ohio Senator who called a guy a clown to his face because they fired him from his federal job.
He said, you look like you probably deserve to be fired.
Oh, to his
face.
To his face.
And he said it with like, what are you going to do?
And I'm like, dude, what are you doing right now?
So I think that, yeah, I think all that, you know, the felonious president has done is given them license to act like the biggest piles of junk they want to act like with no consequences, by the
way, either.
Not so far.
None.
Snap.
Right now helps feed more than 40 million low income Americans.
A previous proposal that the ag committee was looking at would have seen states share of costs reach 25% by the end of 10 years.
And this does seem to be a big part of what the Republicans are planning.
A lot of these federal programs, they want to push back off onto the states.
Now they're doing that with FEMA.
Now they're saying, let's just get rid of FEMA.
And then the states are going to pick this up.
Talk to the people in Western North Carolina and find out how that's going for them.
Well, also, I don't know if I'm right on this one.
So please chalk it up to my ignorance.
But we live in Wisconsin right now.
We do.
And we have currently as legislators who sit on a $4 billion budget surplus.
We're sitting on Pifa money, school money, hospital money.
That's been approved.
Yeah, so if the federal government wants to push FEMA or snap benefits onto us, that money is probably, well, that means that we have to authorize money somewhere.
which means it will never happen because this current government in Madison, Robin Voss and his minions, do not believe in doing any of those things.
So those programs will never be funded.
So even though they're pushing them on to us as the state, we'll never fund them because people like Robin Voss will say, we don't need to do that.
We're fine.
So I know people will be like, well, that's my tax dollars.
Don't worry.
They'll never approve it to be
funded in the first place.
But this is going to have major ramifications.
Even just talking about FEMA.
Jane, I don't know if you know this, but Robin Voss, don't tell anyone.
He doesn't care.
Well, and those ramifications don't really affect him.
No, until they do affect him.
And hopefully it's not a tornado or a flood or a fire or something.
And I don't, I'm not saying I want, I don't
want anything.
I don't wish that on anyone.
Nobody, but I'm tired of people reacting, and as it said, of being proactive.
And if the federal government is going to push the spending onto us,
We should be spending, we have the money.
We have that money sitting there in a bank account, but that's not what's gonna happen.
Join finance committee's been sitting on that money for how long now?
Two years?
How long have we been on the air?
Well, yeah, we've been talking about now almost since the beginning of this show.
Representative Van Orden was not the only one who recently walked out of this meeting.
He was along with Don Bacon from Nebraska and David Volado.
of California, Van Orden walking out of an agriculture panel GOP briefing last week, slinging an insult at staff before he left.
So at least I guess he's consistent.
I mean, that's just...
It's just bad behavior.
It's absolutely bad behavior It is it is unbecoming and it shouldn't be rewarded and that's the problem too is that people like yeah, you tell well What is he telling him?
I
don't know.
I just like when they get mad.
Well, what happened to the days of being the bigger person and and making your point and That being your stance as opposed to insulting people and screeching at people
Insulting, screeching, and being mean to people is what gets you attention, love, and clicks, and news stories, and we're talking about it right now.
And I
just wanted to clarify, it was Senator Jim Banks of Indiana who told a fired federal worker that he was a clown and probably deserved to have his job taken from him, said that to a voter's face.
So yeah, we read we we I think we may have we might not be in the darkest timeline right now But we're certainly traveling there at light speed
Talking about snap benefits Derek van Orden now says he opposes cuts to snap which he did say in At least one meeting that we have him on record for he got very very testy about that However, he did vote for the Republican budget blueprint.
So we'll see again if as you said he's just kind of
Placing himself in a spot that says look I didn't mean to I was against this but you know, they all passed it without me.
I can't not vote for the budget It's the budget everybody cuts must be made Sacrifices must be had and you all have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps There's only one bootstrap now.
We can only afford one bootstrap Cassandra on the live stream says I am so angry that I spent an entire day at the joint finance committee the town hall meeting last week over nine hours and they still were they're still refusing to
fund the things everyone is asking for.
And
that's red and blue sides.
It's all sides.
There are shockingly things in Wisconsin that we all agree
on.
Yeah, I'm just wondering.
I just would like to know when the impossibly inactive GOP of Wisconsin are going to do something to people who support them to make them go, maybe this isn't the right thing.
Maybe this.
I needed that program.
I needed that.
We're gonna talk about it more and Pat talked about 612 things they want to strip out of the state budget and They're not they're not tax breaks for millionaires.
Oh Oh, no.
Yeah.
Yeah, the job creators.
Yeah, are you kidding me?
I know I'm a crazy what I was listening to you I'm Pat on the way in this morning and when they were talking about the Republicans again want to strip over 600 measures from from governor Evers budget Essentially all they're leaving in the budget is the word though.
Yeah
Pretty much that's all you got.
I
don't want to anger, but I want to see more people angry about this.
I want to see more people on both sides.
That's the thing that's
frustrating.
And for Cassandra and other people who have gone to those joint finance committee meetings.
What an insult that this is obviously just performative.
Oh, absolutely.
They do this just to say, look, we, you know, we sit and we listen to our constituents and we hear people's concerns and then we leave and then we completely ignore everything that all those people said for nine hours.
Yup.
And their hotel rooms, their travel, their lunch, their per diem, that is my, your, everyone else's money in the state.
We pay for this clown show to tour the state and not listen to people and their very valid concerns.
It was four stops.
Four.
They did four.
That probably is going to cost.
few grand because I'm sure they're not staying at a roadway in or a motel.
They're staying with friends.
Yeah.
All right.
When we return, our long, long nightmare is finally over.
All the details on the other side.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Good
morning and welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach.
Dr. Slide on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can join us.
Call or text the number is the same 855-752-4842.
You can leave a comment as well if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
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Baseball, baby.
We got your tickets.
Oh, I like that.
Baseball, baby.
And there's me like, we got your tickets.
Oh, we're going to
make that a thing.
Todd Michaels, if you're listening, there's another.
Here's another
thing to put
on your list of 900 things you
have to do today.
The
voice
of
Todd.
The voice of Todd and the voice of Civic Media.
All right, our long nightmare is finally over.
The boat that was left along Milwaukee's lakefront is finally gone.
Crews worked all of yesterday to remove the boat called Deep Thought that had been stuck there for months and months and months
and months and months.
This took a
long time.
It got it got a grounded or what was what would be the official title?
It went a ground.
Yeah, sure boating terms in October,
right?
So yeah, we're looking at
seven months seven months It's been sitting there and it has become a hazard because people are jump climbing on it and defacing it and putting graffiti all over it But the whole removal process of deep thought started yesterday morning at 9 a.m
They got it over the rock wall and onto the rocks just before 4 p.m.
They finally got it into a flatbed around 7 o'clock last night The boat's weight briefly stopped the send-off around 8 o'clock when the tow truck got stuck in the street What a process it eventually worked its way down North Lincoln Memorial Drive the boat arrived at
All city towing just before 9 30 last night, they started at nine o'clock in the morning.
Okay.
I mean, you want to do I we're not, we don't do this as for a living.
No, I do this for a living.
Are you kidding me?
That's hard work.
I'd be like, no, thank you.
But it's not like they have to save it because it's going to get refurbished.
Right.
If.
Okay, Jane, let's be honest.
If someone doesn't auction this thing, we what country do we even live in?
Do you think someone's going to try and make money off of it?
I think there is sell pieces of deep thought.
Oh, God, there is there is at least 10 Bayview hipsters who would buy that thing wholesale, chop it up pieces and put it as a statue in their backyard next to their bird feeders.
Absolutely without a doubt.
That's not a bad idea.
Thank you very
much.
Well, then we see if that happens, then they should pay this company that stepped up and did this.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, well, and they said that Lincoln Memorial Boulevard was shut down most of the day.
Just to get this boat out of there.
I don't understand why I had to head, but I'm smarter people, smarter people, Greg.
Well, see, and again, that's my question.
You couldn't just chainsaw the thing apart.
It's not like it's gonna, we're not taking it back out on the water anytime
soon.
That's a thing, that's a great point.
Like, all right, you hire two people with chainsaw.
Like, it was there for seven months.
Say, we want it out in a month to two months.
easily every day.
You just chainsaw a little bit.
Up here's part of the hall.
There you go.
There's the poop deck.
And then there you know, it's gone.
But no, now it's this
event.
Well, it was quite a thing.
Milwaukee County Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman said in a news release, the boat has been an eyesore and a hazard for far too long.
The county taking action for the advice of council.
And because we can't wait any longer in addition to taking to action taking place on the beach, we are pursuing every legal avenue
to ensure taxpayers aren't left footing the bill for someone else's negligence.
I jumped pretty hard on the owners of this boat.
They are.
You did.
I did.
No, I did.
It was a valid question because it just seemed like they had left town and there was no follow up.
And they were off the
hook.
Yeah.
But it does sound like they spent a lot of money.
This was going to be their retirement
plan,
which did not go well.
And so I don't know how we expect them to come up with the money to get it out of there.
So we had at least two people
who
donated money.
20 grand to help get it out of there.
But again, thank you to the company that finally stepped up and did this and I'm glad it's gone.
And I'm glad nobody got hurt
because
seriously someone, and that would have been a lawsuit against the city and the county.
So
it's a good thing that deep thought is finally
gone.
deep thought the story that never was really news in the first place this is i think part five of our coverage wba are you listening maybe
the guys who made hundreds of beavers can make a
film out of
deep thought in some way shape or form ones of boat
that's the name of the movie
we have news coming up next when we return we're to talk with koreen hendrickson
about childcare in Wisconsin.
They had an event last night.
There's one coming up next week if you would like to attend.
So stay close.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Good morning and welcome.
Welcome to Matt and Air on Air.
Jane Matt and Air, Greg Box, Sweet Calbee on the board, coming to you from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text, no matter where you are.
No matter where?
In Oshkosh, listening on WISS perhaps.
You can always call us or text us.
The number is the same at 855-752-4842.
Or leave a comment if you're watching on the livestream, on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter next hour at this time.
As we always do, we indulge in a little audio sorbet.
Little cleansing for your ears.
We get away from politics and things like that and talk about lighter things So next hour at this time we want to know what social media do you?
Accounts do you follow that make you happy there you go that make you feel better
I got a good feeling inside just thinking about the ones I do follow like like a genuine like breath of like oh wow
you check them every day even if it's just for two minutes you check this social media account just to see what silly thing they're doing we could all use a little bit more of that in our lives so we start thinking about it now what social media accounts do you follow just because they make you happy or they make you laugh we'll talk about that next hour at this time right now excited to have her back Corrine Hendrickson is here
She owns a daycare center.
She's a member of the small main street alliance here in Wisconsin.
And Corinne, you guys had a big meeting last night in Mount Horrib about childcare.
So can you tell us a little bit about how that went?
Yeah, so we had another community conversation.
Thanks for having me on before.
Ashland won.
And this time though, we had the raging grannies pick us off, which was pretty bad.
Nice.
I uploaded the video of the song that's about childcare onto our event, the Brick Cider event, if anybody wants to watch that.
I highly recommend them.
So that was super fun and a great way to kick it off.
And then Matt, who owns Brick Cider, spoke a lot about how as an employer, it's imperative for him to be able to have people that can work, that have reliable childcare.
And as a small business owner, restaurant industry, very small margin of profit, he can't afford to, you know,
offer it as a benefit for his employees because it's so expensive.
It's too much.
And also, how do you justify giving one employee basically a $2,000 a month bonus with against other ones?
And that's not fair either.
It affects all of us.
So he really is interested in something like a payroll tax like Vermont did, where it's 0.05%, which FYI, that would double what our manufacturers and ag pay in state income taxes because they only pay 0.05% right now.
So 0.05% is what they did in Vermont.
I haven't crunched the numbers for our state specifically.
However, what that did is it doubled the amount of revenue that the program's got per check because it increased the amount of money that was coming into the program.
And it's been wildly successful.
It started in April of last year.
Vermont is tiny.
They have fewer than a million children.
They actually have increased the number of slots by a thousand, which would be like 10,000 here.
They have increased the number of regulated family childcare by 50.
and group centers by another like 75 and 300 more people are in the field.
In seven months, you know, this report came out in February.
It's been like seven months and the affordability, the amount the parents were paying out of pocket dropped.
And so all these parents now, you know, they're no longer having the employer crunch, employee crunch that we were having.
They're no longer having the demographic issues.
We're about the same as far as age and everything.
And they are actually increasing their birth rate.
Weird.
Amazing what happens when people feel financially secure and they're able to go to their small businesses and spend money because if you're not spending the same amount on your mortgage as you are on childcare, all of a sudden you have all this money in your pocket to go to the restaurants and to go to the small businesses and just buy things that you can do with your family and go to the state parks and just do this.
It seems
like what you're
saying is that these programs wouldn't be so much as an entitled mentor.
for the takers, it's more like an investment.
It sounds like an investment with an ROI,
with a return.
Yes, a return on investment.
So speaking of that, old traditional return on investment studies have said between $7 and $14 for every single dollar spent in child care.
However, some newer ones have come out.
Washington DC has done a pay equity fund, which is kind of what we're asking for here in Wisconsin, increased the wages by about $5 an hour.
They've gotten 23% back.
$23 are back for every dollar they've spent.
Because weird, people have more money, the state's getting more income taxes.
The teachers are no longer relying on the public service, public goods, subsidy, Medicaid, food stamps, housing to stay in the field.
They're able to pay for that themselves.
So that starts to diminish as well.
And then Canada went to $10 a day universal childcare about two years ago, and they've seen an increase in their gross domestic product of 1%.
just from that, 1%.
Wow.
But as you said, it's how you sell it, right?
Because the Republicans, it's a tax increase.
We can't have any more tax increases instead of saying this is an investment in the future.
This is an investment essentially in business and certainly for small businesses.
And we've talked a lot about this yesterday, how crucially important small businesses are to the economy.
And one of the reasons why Wisconsin fared pretty well going through the pandemic was because Governor Evers focused so much attention on keeping small businesses going.
And if you don't help them and if you don't support them, that's kind of like they're part of the foundation and you don't support that.
And that's when the foundation starts crumbling.
Right.
And what part of that investment was increasing our wages from 10, 66 an hour to 12, 66 an hour.
By the way, we allocated the COVID relief fund.
Other states didn't do that.
The states that allocated the funds to every regulated program and wanted it and supported it and required, which we get audited.
It's a requirement.
This is not money that we're not accountable for.
We get audited.
That we have to prove we're spending it, how we say.
And the requirement was half the money had to go to the judges.
And so we did it.
And those states that did that fared better.
Those states that did that across the board are now investing state dollars.
Our state, as of tomorrow, if the Omnibus gets, you know, passed in the joint finance committee at one o'clock, child care counts is, that means, and I haven't heard any plan.
I reached out to Senator Mark Lange's office, he is my senator, and I specifically asked, what is your plan then?
What do you have as an option?
What's your, you know, what's your idea?
Because we do, we did say child care counts likely won't make it.
And that's why we've used the term childcare investment.
That's why we've said we want it to go to the wages, but they're not responding.
So that tells me that I very worried that it's going to be deregulation.
It's going to be 16 year olds.
Our insurance companies, West Bend is one of them.
They're sending out letters for non-renewal right now to everybody because they want to get out of the business because deregulation is causing more children to die and get hurt and increases the risk.
And so they want to get out of it, which I don't blame them.
But come on, insurance lobbyists, do your job and tell these people this is the problem.
Like, come on.
Seriously.
Help us out.
Yeah.
So, Corrine, just so I make sure I'm understanding this correctly, their answer, the Republicans' answer to the child care crisis in Wisconsin is to deregulate it so we have younger people who are working at these centers overseeing even more children.
Correct.
Correct.
That has been the only thing that I have seen as options.
I have not seen a single thing about a single dollar being invested.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Senator Marklein, you can email me.
You have my number.
Senator Marklein, you can call us
right
now.
855-752-48.
We'll take you.
We'll wait.
Sure.
So I have a question for you is, we've talked about this topic a lot on the show.
Apocalyptic version as always we want they want to do this.
So women just stay home have babies quote-unquote know their role as mothers for the family that kind of talk but Take that out of the equation.
I Don't like the version of this where it's working longer hours 16 year olds take it doesn't it's not something you can take and I'm talking from a political standpoint like campaigning It's not something you can take back to your constituents and campaign on to me
increasing funding for childcare, which last time I checked, Republicans and Democrats both require childcare, regardless of who you vote for.
I believe so, yes.
So if you make it easier for them, that's a good in a social version, good for the heart, but for your campaigning, that's also good to take back to your district and say, hey, we did this, we took care of you because we care.
I don't understand why they just cannot, why it is everything and...
digging your heels and saying, no, we're going to do it this way.
Because we know it's the correct way or it's the better way.
Instead of a, what did you say the increase would be?
How much of a percent?
Well, if it's like Washington DC, we're talking 23% return on investment.
Yeah.
But the, but the increase in taxes, it was like 0.05.
It's
negligible.
Yeah, and that's all nonprofits, all of our government services.
Everybody would be eligible as part of that, where if you do a employer tax credit, which is taxpayer dollars being used, because credits are still taxpayer dollars, then only your big businesses, only your for-profits are going to even be able to access taxpayer if they can find a spot.
And so this way, it builds up the entire system and allows every single part of our economy to actually work, which is kind of a neat tool.
So yeah, and like you said, Greg, it doesn't make sense because I don't
foresee very many people being able to go campaign on, you know, that deregulation and 16 year olds should be taking care of seven two year olds in the classroom by themselves.
And that's the other thing.
Brooke Legler, my colleague and co-founder of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action, needed did do the rounds and met with several Republican offices.
And we told Representative Boss's office, the person we met with, you know, you Republicans could be the heroes.
I mean, if you did this, you'd be the hero.
Yep.
Versus we reminded them that some of those senators like Balwig and Strobel who made a lot of comments about how they once Strobel said that women should just stay home and Balwig would claim that she was supporting childcare, but then voted against it.
We reminded them that we have to get them out.
We reminded them that we talked to our families and we talked to our community members.
We are respected people.
We are trusted with their children and we informed them, hey, FYI, Senator Balwig voted against childcare counts 10 times.
who's running is saying that she supports childcare investment and you can talk to her and here's her information.
And so we're not going to stop and we're not going to not do it this next time in 2026.
What was his reaction when you dealt him that?
It wasn't him.
It was one of his... Of course.
He was his policy person.
But her reaction was kind of like...
And then she goes, well, there's no money.
Where do you get the money from?
And then we said, well, we spent 2.5 billion in prison systems.
I feel like there's a little there we could take and reallocate and use to keep people from going down that road because the preschool prenatal to prison pipeline is real.
And if you want to reduce crime, if you want all the things that every single person was talking about at those JFC hearings,
Foundationally, it comes back to taking care of our families and our children and our communities, and childcare and housing are the biggest pieces of that.
Don't we have a pile of money sitting in Wisconsin?
$4 billion that we could use this?
To say there's no money is factually inaccurate and just ignorant.
Or you're a liar.
Yeah.
Agreed.
Point
made.
Tough to argue with that.
Kareen Hendrickson is our guest.
She is a child care provider.
She also belongs to the Main Street Alliance.
They had a meeting last night in Mount Horab and there is another one coming up next week that you can attend.
We're going to talk more about that on the other side.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We will be right back.
Good morning.
Welcome back to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calvin Aider on the board coming to you from our studio, rather.
In the radio park in Racine, that's where we are.
We're at my house in Kenosha hanging out.
Racine, you can call us at 855-752-4842 or leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.
Karine Hendrickson is our guest.
She's got a childcare center.
She belongs to the Main Street Alliance.
And you have an event coming up next week, Karine, that people can attend.
And again, we're talking about
Just how important childcare is in Wisconsin.
And before we get going on this, I just, it blows my mind when Republicans talk about how much they want Americans to have more babies.
We need to increase, you know, the fertility rate and we need to have more kids.
But when it comes to actually funding programs that parents need, then it's like, yeah, well, you're on your own.
Sorry, I don't know what we're going to do about that.
Yep.
It
makes
no sense.
It just
doesn't make
any sense.
It doesn't.
And so that's why we're doing the National Day Without Child Care.
This is the fourth annual one.
It started during COVID, 2021, I guess, would have been the first year.
And it was a reminder, hey, you begged us to stay open.
We were essential.
We're still essential.
COVID didn't start these issues.
We lost.
60% of our child care between 2010 and 2019.
6,000 programs closed.
They're down to 4,500 right now.
If they do this and they don't replace those dollars with state dollars, you're looking at 25% closing.
Green County, where I live, we're looking at 50%.
I am likely going to be one of them.
My rates are going to have to go up another $30 a week.
I don't think all my families can afford it.
I don't think I can replace them.
So even those families who can afford the extra money every week because they have better jobs, you know, a little bit older, whatever, they're going to lose me because I can't stay open.
If I can't keep, you know, 75, 80% of my kids here, I can't stay open and I'm not about to lose my house.
Not about to go bankrupt because of that.
I have other options.
And so that's what is really disheartening.
If you're going to force a business that's been stable, a pillar of its community, done great things, got one award, blah, blah, blah, because you choose not to invest.
18 years I've been in business.
This is small business week.
This is teacher appreciation week.
This is provider appreciation day on Friday.
And you're telling me tomorrow at one o'clock that I'm not worth it.
That's what you're saying to me.
And I don't need to stick around for that and neither do my colleagues.
Five years, we're tired.
We're done.
Like, this is it.
We're looking at our books and we're not going to go in the hole.
It doesn't make sense.
And so we're doing this day without childcare, again, nationally, but Wisconsin, we're pushing really hard because of the budget.
We have 10 on the map, which means that those are open to the public and people are putting it on the map.
But I know we have at least 20, 30, 40 more programs that are going to be doing.
And so Nouglares, Wisconsin, we have one of our biggest ones, Brooke and I are the co-founders of We Can.
So that's why we're doing a big one here.
We have Secretary of State Gavusti.
We have Deputy Undersecretary Tom McCarthy.
We have WEDC Office of Rural Prosperity, Beth Eskavik, if I said that right, is coming.
We have Representative Jacobson coming.
Senator Marklein hasn't let me know yet his plan.
He's been invited.
And our Green County Child Care Network has actually had invited both Representative Jacobson and Marklein then to tour the programs that are staying open that day, then, and meet with parents.
Representative Jacobson took us up on the offer, and she's visiting several.
Again, I'm waiting for Senator Mark White.
And so what we do is we talk about what would happen, what it would look like if we didn't have childcare.
But we also talk about what could it be?
It doesn't have to be this way.
So what can we do to change the system?
And with I love all the protests, I love all the people, you know, speaking out against things, but we also need to participate in democracy by saying what we want and what we need and talk to our reps that way.
So that's what this event is all about.
There's another big one and one key.
at the park there.
Representative George is going to be there.
Senator Husslebein and Secretary for Department of Children and Families, Jeff Pirtle will be there.
We're doing big ones in Milwaukee.
There's one up in Ashland.
There's one in Eau Claire.
And then actually I'm running to Platteville to do another presentation down there at the bank that evening at six o'clock.
And they're all open to the public and all free.
We're going to include all of the contacts and all of this stuff in our show notes so that people can find it and head out there and join you if they can.
You said how many daycare centers have closed since this has been going on?
So since between 2010 and 2019, 6,000 child care programs closed.
A lot of that was because of the recession and we weren't invested in.
And so when COVID hit, they took that and were like, oh, we can't do this again.
And so they invested in us.
And now our state is going to be one of six that's choosing not to put any dollars in state dollars.
So when you talk to your representatives, especially Republicans, they'll try and claim that we
Our state invested more money in the last budget show.
That is factually true.
They took the federal dollars that we fought for and got an increase from Senator Tammy Baldwin and Representative Mark Polkan, who are on key committees to get that extra money into our state.
And they accepted it and they've appropriated it, but our state does zero.
Oh, so they're claiming money.
They're claiming credit for money that actually came from the Fed, but they're claiming it came from the state.
Well, this would be good to know if you would like to perhaps call.
You're representative.
And if you don't know that number, how do they do that?
They go to my vote.wi.gov.
And all you have to do is put in your address and every single phone number from all of your elected officials will come up and you could call them.
I asked the question.
I'll make it very, very quick is because again, I'm looking at it from a point of view of campaigning.
You are going to not you them.
They are going to be people who you can say.
Thousands of businesses went out because of your inaction and your apathy towards a massive problem.
Thousands upon thousands of small businesses, which by the way, politicians love to bloviate on how they're the backbone of America.
But you had no problem with allowing thousands of thousands of small businesses to go under because you
didn't act.
Go take a walk this afternoon, take along your phone, make a couple phone calls when you're going for a little walk and please be polite because you're going to talk to some young person who it's not their fault.
Colleen Corrine Anderson has been our guest.
Thank you so very much.
Thank you for staying on for a second segment.
My bad.
I screwed up.
Go do what you got to do.
Thank you so much, Corrine.
And good luck next week.
I hope you get big turnout.
We have news coming up next.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
