Budgets And A Garden Of Heroes (Hour 1)

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Friday is the 4th of July.

It is?

It is the 4th of July.

So we will be off.

All three of us will be off.

We have a specially curated show I'll put together for you.

We have some of our favorite.

prior segments, if you're looking for some company on Friday the 4th of July.

But Dan Schaefer normally joins us on Fridays.

He will be here today instead, so we can do some recombobulation, because some recombobulating, not that there's anything going on.

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like, get team from like

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They're taking on it with the Washington Senators.

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So yes, free ticket Friday, even though we're doing a specially curated show for you on Friday, we will continue with free ticket Fridays.

So anyway, Dan Schaffer is going to be here after the 9 30 news so we can recombobulate.

It is the first Wednesday of July.

Oh, yes, it is.

So Darren Von Ruden will be here in our number two.

I love when he's here.

I do too.

And he is a farmer in Wisconsin.

We're going to talk tariffs.

We're going to talk the state budget.

We'll talk the federal budget, snap cuts, all those things.

Darren Van Ruden here after 10 o'clock.

And then we didn't get around to it yesterday for our audio sorbet after 1030.

We had planned something and then the budget was breaking in Wisconsin and Senator Calderoy's called in.

So we kind of had a bail on that.

Today we will go back to the worst ice cream.

because we didn't get to finish it yesterday.

So start thinking about it now.

What is your worst ice cream?

And we

will read the responses we did get yesterday.

Some people did

Texas and thank you very much.

Those will

be

read on the show today.

That's coming up after 10.30 and then we'll wrap up the show as we always do.

With this shouldn't be a thing.

Today it is the Snake on a Plain edition.

Oh, I wonder whatever this could be.

It's got a lot of licks, it sounds.

So yeah, stick around for that.

That's at the very end of the show, around 1051.

Wanted to start off with some breaking news.

From this morning, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinels, Molly Beck reporting, Wisconsin Supreme Court invalidates the state's strict 1849 abortion ban.

Women in Wisconsin will continue to have access to abortion services under a new ruling from the High Court.

which invalidates a 176-year-old state law which had banned abortions in practically every situation.

The ruling was four to three, a liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court, affirming the lower court decision that had overturned this law from the 1800s.

Yeah,

yeah.

And I think if I'm not mistaken, one of the big problems was it didn't also just, it didn't define anything in that because

back in those days they weren't going for nuance in the description within the law it was just what

and the amount of what they knew about yeah just women's health

in 1849 was considerably different than it is now.

I would not say that much compared to our leadership around the country.

I

feel like they really go on an 1849 basis of their thoughts on women's health and bodily autonomy and things of that nature.

I expect the good old days.

Yeah.

1850s were great.

Back

when the ladies were property.

And knew their place.

Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallett said the Wisconsin state legislature had effectively repealed

that 1849 law when it enacted additional laws regulating abortion access.

So again, this is where we are right now.

This is good news.

This is this is good news for for women's health because abortion is health care.

And also this is excuse me, this is good for everyone.

As we spoke into Dr. Hanks and Dr. Lierly, access to abortion care.

Access to health care is something which affects everyone it affects the women who are giving birth it affects the men who are it affects everyone because when they try to When they try to take away certain rights it starts with one group and then it can go with another group and then so on and so forth and before you know it We're being told what is and what is in health care and not your doctor, but but legislators

and some lawmakers.

So this is good for everyone.

Absolutely

It absolutely is.

Again, if you are just joining us, Wisconsin Supreme Court has invalidated the state's strict 1849 abortion ban.

So women in Wisconsin can once again access abortion services under this new ruling.

And I also think, and we've talked to Dr. Hanks about Dr. Lierly about this, if we want more doctors to move here, they have to be able to practice medicine.

Yep.

Yeah, this is happening in other states.

They are losing OBGYNs.

Yes, they are because of laws like this So this is this is good.

Yeah, this is one of the things, you know from a from a Economic standpoint we can look at it and say, you know

I know that Robin Boss has talked a lot about both attracting and retaining people in the state.

And I'll just give you a very personal example.

My sister has told me many times.

She was born and raised here.

She loves Wisconsin.

She doesn't want to move here because of the way they

treat

women.

The politics.

The way they treat women, the way the laws harm women.

And I'm not saying that I'm going to go back to her now and say, look, come on in.

This is a step in the right direction, in my opinion.

We want young families to move here.

Yes.

It's tough to tell them, come, move to Wisconsin, increase the size of your family, have more children, except if you have problems with your pregnancy, then you probably don't want to be here.

No,

exactly.

Yeah, that's not good.

No, and I don't know.

Now we just have to get them to work on the stoppage of closures of hospitals.

and maybe help open a few and help people in the

rural area, because they vote too.

Yeah, they do.

Ben from Richland Center, texting in, listening on WRCE.

Just asks, for people who oppose abortion, I want to ask, if you stop a woman who's a thousand miles away from having an abortion, how does that make your life happier or better?

They feel that I really do believe that for people who are very adamant on one side of this issue They believe they are saving a life.

Yes, they do

and they also generally I don't want to make assumptions, but it's pretty much a given that it is also tied to a divine sort of mission so for them they see it being a an intervention of Divinity like like they're they're doing the good work of God now.

I'm not going to

Not gonna get in that aspect.

I can't tell you what God thinks because we don't talk that much but That's the thing.

It doesn't it doesn't come down to it doesn't come down to a I Don't want to say a logic.

I don't want to insult anybody but if somebody doesn't get an abortion Who's a thousand miles away because of a law or whatever?

They feel like they're part of a victory and that makes them feel good and I don't like that it makes them feel good because I feel like other people are suffering because of it

But I think the question is, how does that make them feel good?

It's just, it's not as simple.

It's not just like, they're not evil.

They're not being, they don't think they're evil.

And I get that.

We just thoroughly disagree.

But again, as of today, this is where we are right now.

So that 1849 abortion ban in Wisconsin is gone.

And women can once again access healthcare.

This still falls under from what I understand because this just broke as we were coming on the air There are still plenty of restrictions.

It's not like you can go in.

I believe there's still a waiting period I still believe you still have to get ultrasounds and all of those things so it's not like All all barriers have been removed.

Yeah, but again at least now our doctors and people women who are seeking health care because it is health care Don't have to worry about I don't know go into prison

And I don't want to be the person who excuse me.

I don't want to be the person who snuffs the light out in this story because it is a good story.

It's good news.

We still have a legislature that probably could

put this on a ballot and make people vote.

I mean, it's, this is far from being solved.

Yeah.

Well, it's interesting looking at some of the comments on social media, some who are on the opposite side of the issue are like, yeah, well, you know, maybe now we can stop campaigning on this because it's a losing issue for them.

I mean, the best example of all of this is when they tried to, they tried to pass a total abortion ban in Kansas, not

Not California, not New York, not

Massachusetts, not

hippie-dippy west coast, or yeah, or the liberal elite educated east coast, Kansas.

And it failed because people realized that abortion is health care, abortion access is health care, and having access to that health care is important, even if it's not something you would do yourself.

Just makes sense.

And we're seeing examples out of various states, Texas, a lot that

Now we are just literally turning women into incubators.

And

that didn't stand for Kansas.

Yeah, well, because they put that they put it on a referendum.

Yes.

And Kansas massively voted against, you know, permanently banning abortions.

And now they just want to stop.

constituents for me able to put anything on a referendum.

That's how to get around that.

They change the rules when they lose.

Exactly.

We don't like what they did and they were successful in this, so let's just make sure they can never do that again.

Yep.

Yeah.

Sounds like democracy to me.

Doesn't it though?

Change the rules in the middle of the game.

In other news, what a shock.

Gee, let me sit down.

After weeks of opposition, Ron Johnson falls in line with a yes vote on Trump's budget bill.

Say it's not so.

Does Ronald Johnson not stand for the people of Wisconsin anymore?

But Ron was so easy there to protect our children and our grandchildren and our grandchildren's children's future.

By not increasing the deficit and not increasing the debt Greg and now it's like yeah, that's never mind

cuz he remembered Oh wait a minute cuz he didn't talk about other people He talked about his children and his grandchildren then he realized one day he woke up in a cold sweat going oh wait a minute My kids my grandkids my grant my great-grandkids and so on they're gonna be fine.

I'm very rich and I'm a senator They said it's a yes vote for me

I'm good.

I'm good.

Go ahead and vote.

Let's, uh, let's tax them, pours and cut Medicaid.

All right.

Yeah.

So members of the house now after the Senate passed the budget bill yesterday, now members of the house are scrambling to get back to Washington DC.

I've seen a number of them because there's bad weather apparently along the Eastern seaboard.

So a whole bunch of flights have been canceled.

So we have a bunch of house members now who are doing road trips, trying to get back to Washington in time so they can cast their votes on this.

I'm

never watching that movie.

A

congressional road trip, where everyone comes together and learns.

Oh, wow.

That would be something.

Did you see the videos on the clips of Senator Federman just whining about, like, I want to get this done because it's vacation

time.

He's missing his beach time.

Yeah.

He's missing his beach time.

Pennsylvania, you got sold a bill

of goods.

Yeah.

I think his health problems have gone deeper than people realized.

But yes, Rojo is not like, yep, we're good.

He got promises.

He got assurances that they're going to deal with his issues down the road.

Two weeks.

I think in two weeks.

They're going to deal with it in two weeks.

I'm pretty sure it's in two weeks.

Two weeks will take care of the whole thing.

When we return, we're going to have a little update for you on this $40 million stretch garden of heroes.

Garden of heroes.

Never heard of

it.

You're about

to.

This is what we're paying for in this budget.

We're fiscally responsible.

Are you listening to Matt Nair on air?

On the Civic Media Radio Network, we'll be right back.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

Jane Matt and air Greg Bach.

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She really, she's involved with our music show on weekends, Max Inc., which has won all kinds of awards in Madison and around the state.

And Terry also does a great, great job in our news department.

And so if you miss things from our show, sometimes she'll grab a story that we did like earlier this week.

We talked to Matt from We Got This Garden.

And she took a little Alex from We Got This Garden.

And it's a program in Milwaukee that helps inner city kids, kids get involved with gardening and they get paid for it.

And it's a really great program.

But she grabbed that and then she turns it into a news story and puts it on her website.

Terry does great.

The woman's won Emmys.

Yeah.

That's another one of those individuals here at the company.

We're like, Hey, when do

you sleep?

Seriously, she is involved in so much stuff.

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Go to civicmedia.us and click on news.

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yeah.

So shout out to everybody and shout out to Terry.

Thank you so much for that.

Hey, we mentioned this yesterday very briefly because some of the things they got snuck into this budget bill that's no one seems to be aware of.

Yeah.

And how did it get there?

We don't know.

It was just air dropped in there.

Someone put it in the budget.

Nobody's claiming it.

Well, when we went to bed.

Then the magical elves came out and started writing proposals.

And put things in this budget.

And then all of our shoes were fixed, too.

And then we woke up and they were gone.

And

we had new

heels.

It was amazing.

Yes.

Yeah.

So we mentioned this, this Garden of Heroes.

Yeah.

Garden of Heroes.

$40 million of taxpayer money.

We're going to shell out for a sculpture garden.

Representative Joe Ngoosi was questioning one of the Trump administration's officials about this yesterday.

Calvin, I believe we have that clip.

Can you play that, please?

What about the Garden of Heroes?

$40 million for President Trump's Garden of Heroes.

Can't we?

Why not just say, you know what?

We've got a huge deficit.

Yeah.

And that's probably not the most prudent way to spend our taxpayer dollars.

Let's just...

reallocate that $40 million.

That's a bridge too far for you?

Well, I think there's not a bill that I've read and reviewed since I've been a member of Congress, certainly since I've been the budget chair, that I felt lived up perfectly to what I thought we ought to do in stewardship of tax dollars.

And what I

thought was consistent with the constitutional scope of

this federal government.

I hear your chair, Jim, but I think you could understand our struggle because, as I said,

Last seven weeks, you've testified a few times here.

Every time you testify, this bill gets more expensive, and the answer is always, well, down the road, you know, of course, we could address this and there are ways in which we can try to identify potential places where funding, you know, where potential cuts can be identified and so on and so forth.

Here is an example, right in front of you, $40 million, you could take care of that today.

There's an amendment, I believe that was submitted, you could

You could rule that in order and say, you know what, we're going to put that $40 million towards deficit reduction.

Something.

If you're serious about wanting to, uh, wanting to address the fiscal health of the country.

Yeah.

Yeah.

40 million.

Uh, we

could,

we could

use that someplace

else.

And he was speaking to, uh, congressman Jody Arrington from Texas, who is the chair of the budget committee.

Yeah.

And I love that.

Like this is, this seems like a, this seems like a no brainer to me.

$40 million for 250 statues and it's going in the.

the White House, right?

No, I believe it's going to go somewhere in South Dakota.

Politico says the plan is to unveil 250 life-sized statues in time for America's 250th birthday next year on the 4th of July.

How are they going to get all those made?

Well, that's kind of a problem because apparently we don't have enough sculptors in this country to get this done.

Again, gaming out the idea.

Here's the thought.

What will happen if we do this?

How will we make this happen?

Where's it going to go?

Who's going to sculpt them?

How are we going to get a main?

How's this going to happen?

Yeah, no, it's just like we want $40 million for a statue garden.

It'll be great.

You had 249 years

to plan this.

You could have done it a long time ago, but they could have been building them up to making them up to this point.

Also, what do you want to bet they're going to farm some of these statues out to other countries?

China, maybe China.

We'll find out more in two weeks what the plan is because but it goes back to that notion of.

Do you think we can get rid of it?

Do you think it's a problem that we have deficits bending and you want to spend 40 million dollars on a garden of heroes?

I'm gonna say that again gardens of heroes, which sounds like a something you wrote of a Thor movie Can't say yes or no to it can't say yeah, it's great.

I love it.

Let's do it.

Let's make two of them It can't say no can't say yeah, you're right.

This is a ridiculous

waste of money.

I don't know why you can't say no.

You can, but they can't.

The plan calls for a suitable space to be identified, which has yet to happen, although South Dakota is offered a spot near Mount Rushmore, because that's what he wants.

We don't need enough time to make one statue, everybody.

We got news coming up next and then some recombobulating on the other side with Dan Schaffer.

Stay with us.

You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Bye.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt and air on air.

Jane that near Greg box.

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You can always join us.

Call or text at eight five five seven five two four eight four two.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter coming up later on today two to four.

The Todd Alba show.

He will be joined by Pat.

Crite Low, host of Mornings with Pat Crite Low.

Also, Trig V. Olsen, senior advisor at the Lincoln Project, talking about not just the state budget, but the federal budget.

In second hour with Todd, what's worse, Summer Street Edition.

Summer Street Event

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Todd, today from two to four p.m.

Delighted to be joined by Civic Media's political editor and the creator of a multi-multi-multi-multi-award-winning recombobulation area.

Dan Schaefer is here.

I bet you've been busy the last couple of days.

You know, as someone who lives at the intersection of state national politics and NBA basketball, it's been a it's been a very newsworthy couple of days.

Very I'm a little discombobulated, I must say.

Well, we're going to we're going to talk about your new best friend a little bit later on.

We'll save that.

We'll we'll leave that little tease out there.

Dan Schaefer is a new fan.

Yeah,

I know.

He's got some pull.

Something like that.

Something like that.

We'll talk about that in a little bit.

Let's talk, though, about budgets.

We can start with the Wisconsin State budget.

We did talk to Senator Calderoy's yesterday who called in towards the end of our show.

And now, and all the Democrats are happy with these compromises that have been made.

Yeah, I think there is some division within the Democratic Party in Wisconsin among assembly representatives and state senators who are not sure what to make of this budget deal.

The budget deal announced 5 a.m.

yesterday by Tony Evers and legislative Republicans, also included Senate Democrats.

And I think that

to me is really standing out as one of the most interesting pieces of this.

The fact that Diane Hesselebein, Senate Democratic Minority Leader, was invited to the table because I don't know what kind of budget would have been signed if they did not.

step to the table late last week when there was kind of this impasse and they realized that the Republicans realized that they were not going to be able to pass a budget with only Republican votes.

So I think that really gave, you know, Senate Democrats some certain level of leverage.

They were able to notch some certain wins.

But you're right, there is some disagreement about among Democrats about this bill.

I got a press release this morning from a coal

of groups led by Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Education Association Council, Wisconsin Public Education Network, and WeCan, Korean Hendrickson from WeCan, who

I know has

been on the show a number of times, all encouraging state senators and representatives to vote against the budget and encouraging Tony Evers to veto the budget.

So there is clearly, I think the public education piece is one that has people most fired up.

against this budget, but there are a number of issues that people are looking for, hoping for more wins in this budget.

A rare moment that Democrats had some measure of leverage and they got some things, but did they get enough?

I think that's the big question right now.

I'll say it out loud.

At the risk of looking completely stupid, when the news came out yesterday, it was announced by Governor Evers and the Republicans,

press release from the Main Street Alliance that praised the compromise.

And it seemed like, oh, well, because when we talked about yesterday on the show, we're like, does this feel like a win?

I feel like this is a win.

This feels like good stuff.

And then

Chris Larson comes out while we're on the air yesterday and says he's going to vote no.

I saw something from Francesca Hong, who's an assembly member from Madison.

Kelda Roy is when she, if you listen back, I didn't expect to hear, like she was not thrilled with it.

And so it sort of took me for a loop to say like, oh, is this bad?

I feel like what the Republicans were proposing.

versus what was agreed upon yesterday is far and away not what I expected like I was like this doesn't see this seems like a trick to me like this seems too good

because again if they hadn't come to a deal we would have reverted to the previous budget

right right we would have gone to the previous budget and that

introduces a number of questions as the state is kind of planning things out, particularly for schools wanting to know what level of funding they're going to be able to plan for this fall.

There are a number of temporary workers across Wisconsin that wouldn't have funding for it.

So it makes sense to pass a budget.

Part of this process that has really frustrated me is how much of it has happened behind closed doors.

I get that they need to negotiate.

But so much of this has happened behind closed doors and then like basically 48 hours after we see the deal

less than 48 hours after we see the deal from announced from Governor Evers, we're going to have people voting on it.

That just doesn't, I don't think that gives the enough time for public to react to a really complicated, detailed piece of legislation.

It's a, you know, 111 billion, whatever the numbers on the budget are, it's a huge budget.

And I think you need to have a little bit more time for people to process it and see if there needs to be some, some final improvements and all of that.

But to get back to the point that you were making, Greg,

I think the wins that they were able to have in this budget for childcare, for the UW system, for a number of other capital projects, I think is pretty significant.

And

I

think, again, what I've been hearing as I've been talking to people about this negotiation is that Diane Hesselbein, the state...

Senate Democratic minority leader Really did a terrific job in the negotiations once she was finally brought to the table

and that's the that's the big worry I have is like I don't I don't have a problem with any of these reps having a problem with it And I have no problem with them saying we want more because I think that if Tony Evers had his druthers he would have way more in this in his budget, but It's a two-part question one.

Do you really think Tony Evers is gonna veto this thing and to know?

Do the does the budget is the budget at risk of losing things if the if the Democrats come up and start making noise and saying, well, we want more.

And the Republicans just say, well, to heck with you, we're going to take out this stuff.

We're going back to the drawing board and too bad.

So sad.

We thought we had a deal.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and again, I think there is some different dynamics from of the assembly versus the Senate and the assembly Republicans can pass a budget with only Republican votes, you know So so assembly Democrats can make a lot of noise talking about what was missed in this budget, but you know

They are not going to be, you know, they're kind of out of the process for this to a certain extent, right?

Because Robin Foss and assembly Republicans have the votes to pass this with only Republican votes.

I do think I do wonder if there's more they could have gotten if Hesselbein was at the table for this earlier, because as we've been we've been talking about this for weeks that they Steve Nass and Chris Kappenga, if we have the pronunciations on that correct, have been no votes.

And so it's been the case for weeks

that Senate Democrats were needed to come to the table.

And as I reported last week on civic media, she was brought into negotiations, I believe, on Thursday.

And then things happen quickly once she was brought to negotiations.

And so I think she's going to be in favor of it.

And there are a number of more swing seat Democrats who are going to be in favor of this,

too.

So some of the people who have expressed support include Jody Habers-Sinneken, Kristen Alfheim,

and Sarah Kieske.

Well, those are three state senators who won tough races on new maps last fall.

So I think it is significant that, you know, some of those who are in closer, more competitive districts are saying, like, let's take the win here and we can celebrate that.

If you're just joining us, we have Dan Schaefer here.

He is the political editor of Civic Media, as well as the founder and creator of the multi-award winning Reconpopulation.

Reconpopulating with us.

early this week, because we're not going to be here on Friday.

And Dan, the thing I have to say is, you know, at the risk of looking, well, you know what?

I don't really care about parties right now.

I care about Wisconsin and democracy and the good stuff for good people.

This is kind of what we always talk about, though, right?

We talk about Republicans and Democrats coming together in a room, having a conversation, hashing out the problems, finding solutions, and not everyone's going to get everything they want.

And the fact that they wanted to last week,

or a week and a half ago, cut $87 million from the UW system.

And now I think how much is in that between capital improvement and just funding the UW system?

Hundreds

of millions.

Hundreds of millions of dollars.

This is a compromise is not a bad word.

It's a good thing.

And I'm not trying to invalidate the feelings of the senators and the assembly members who have a problem with this.

But if we can make this one work here,

What about in two years the conversations we can have in two years and you know, it's not perfect agreed, but This is better than we were looking at a week ago

Absolutely, you're absolutely right about that and I think some of the people some of the things that people are upset with is not they're not being new funding for public education

And I think there are some groups that are just going to be dug in on that.

And it's say that like we need to increase for public education.

And you know, I don't know what the status of this budget would be had things not changed last week with the Senate Democrats.

And I

think that to me, and you go back to all the conversations that we've had about fair maps,

all the

conversations that we had last fall about these tough districts in the state Senate.

Well, we had fair maps for the first time.

Half of the state Senate was up.

Democrats won all five of the five most closely competitive seats in that.

And it is because of that is because the people of Wisconsin in those districts spoke with their votes and made a difference.

That is the reason that this is different, because otherwise we're just looking at the same dynamic between Evers and Vost.

Exactly.

That

we've seen for the past three budget cycles.

The only different thing here is the fact that they needed some votes from state Senate Democrats and state Senate Democrats were invited to the table.

made a real difference for Wisconsinites in this budget.

Don't ever let anybody tell you your vote doesn't count.

Correct.

Absolutely.

This is the perfect example of it.

And I would actually, I would, I would argue the point that this was not, it wasn't just the last three budget cycles, but the current one, because up until last week it was the same old Vossen Evers don't like each other.

And, and, and I'm, I'm not trying, no, I don't care.

They, the, the, both sides were gone.

There was nothing happening.

We were, we had, we had the, we had the threat of

going back.

They're gonna walk away.

Yeah.

And I'm throwing all my love and support to Diane Hesselbein for walking in the room and probably slamming a piece of paper down and saying, we're going to fix this right now because we look like fools.

And it got done.

And that is the power of just having those discussions, having the conversation.

And that helps us.

And you're right, Dan, there are funding measures that were not met.

And there are things that were not put into the budget that need to.

They believe her in more money for public education, but still need it still still not expanding Medicaid here in

the budget, which is like there are some misses for sure

sanity to me, but that's we will probably keep talking about that forever.

But it just it kind of it just irks me a little bit that we are not seeing we're not counting this as a win.

And I know there's listeners probably saying you're wrong, Greg.

And that's fine.

Why are we fighting harder?

Why are we fighting harder?

Well, we're fighting harder after the agreements been made.

And unfortunately, assembly members weren't brought to the table.

But Diane Hezlebine was, and she got in

there,

and she got things done.

And that is fantastic.

I count this as a good start.

It's a start.

Yeah, I would agree with you.

And we don't have a lot of time before we go to the breakdown, but I just want to say, isn't it by design that we push these budgets through so quickly so that no one actually knows everything that's in there?

We were talking about the federal budget before you joined us and this $40 million for this statue of heroes, this Garden of Heroes.

That's the stuff they don't want the public to know about.

So let's just vote on it and get it done.

Let's just get it done.

I always hate that part of the process.

Get the public involved.

Have these negotiations in public.

You don't need to be behind closed doors all the time.

If you're so embarrassed, you don't want to talk about it in public, that should be a sign.

We're going to continue our conversation with Dan Schaefer.

He is a new best friend.

All the details on the other side.

Stay with us.

You're listening to Matt Nair on the air on the vast statewide, countrywide, pick us up globally on the app, Civic Media Radio Network.

Come by me and thank me.

you

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matynair on air.

Jane Matynair, Greg Box, Sweet Calbee on the board, coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

Join us.

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We are going on a road trip, baby.

Nat,

Nair on air in the top all by show hitting the road this summer.

Join us on our summer road trip.

We're going to stop in Oshkosh in Butternut and Hayward.

Every word to talk about the EAA air venture.

There's Packers training camp going on.

There's lumberjacks.

In a word, you're going to get recruited.

You know that.

Oh, and you're going to find out just how quickly I would, how

I would die in the woods immediately.

Join us as we are on the road, Matt and Aaron here and Todd Alba show, July 16th, 17th and 18th.

If you're going to be around the area, I hope you will step out and say hello.

We are hitting the road summer 2025.

Right now we're joined by Civic Media's political editor and the creator of the Reconpopulation Area.

Dan Schaefer is here talking about the state budget before we went to the break.

Where do we go from here?

Is it a done, I mean, are we still, it's done, isn't it?

Or they're still, no, they're still voting.

They're still voting today.

I believe there are floor sessions for the Assembly and the Senate.

today to vote on the state budget.

But I would, I'm expecting it to pass.

I

mean, especially after, you know, Governor Evers got behind it, legislative Republicans got behind it and enough Democratic state senators are behind it.

I'm expecting this, expecting this budget to pass pretty comfortably.

And is this his statement

on a third term?

He said he would let us know after the budget is done.

And this is a pretty gutsy budget like if the way it was going I was like, I don't know and and now I mean this is not the work of him to specifically but Senate Senate Democrats So but is this a declaration do you think Dan

Dan Schaffer?

Do you think?

That's a good question.

You know, I obviously, you know where I stand.

Yeah, when it comes to Evers running for a third term, I wrote a very extended piece on why I think he should not run for a third term.

Go check that one out at the reconbibulation area, drop the paywall on it if you wanted to read the whole thing.

But I do think I'm expecting him to to announce for a third term.

Yeah, I do think it's probably going to happen.

I think he has what is it like 10 days to review the budget for line item vetoes?

Part of the part of the

budget agreement that he would not touch any of the areas that they agreed upon with those line item vetoes.

Republicans are pretty spooked after what he pulled two years

ago.

They're

very stung.

For sure.

And so, you know, he's going to have some, I'm sure there will be something though that he will partial veto, maybe that was outside of the agreement, whatever it might be.

So I expect that to come over the next few days and for.

you know, the announcement probably to come shortly thereafter.

Somebody I saw Jesse Appoian from the Journal Sentinel mentioned the other day that that in 2015, 10 years ago now, Scott Walker signed his budget.

I think it was also kind of a similar timeline a little bit late into July.

But then he right at the day after signing the budget, he announced he would be running for president.

So I wonder if that is a little bit of

you know, past his prologue

here.

That's interesting though, because when I think of Scott Walker in the 4th of July, I think of Scott Walker and the Republicans' efforts to gut the open records law while everybody was going off on vacation.

Just kind of assuming that no one was gonna notice this and we could just pass this on the holiday weekend Yeah, that didn't happen nice try though.

Yeah, but you know, it's great to see lost in the primary and then he got booted out of office So you know quick to double whammy win for Wisconsin

pretty quick.

All right.

We got about two and a half minutes left you had been retweeted by someone in very very particular

Yeah, I got I got retweeted by Yanisadeta Kumo

How about that that's amazing?

I'm the

honest adjacent

So on Monday night there was a free agency started for the NBA and Brooke Lopez one of my favorite all-time

Milwaukee Bucks was signed by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Not a big surprise that he was going to be moving on after his contract ended, signed a two-year deal with the Clippers.

Congrats to Brooke.

But I was just posting some memories of Brooke Lopez, and I said that Brooke Lopez should have his jersey retired in Milwaukee when it's all sudden done.

And Yanis Quote tweeted it and said, 1 million percent.

We're all on board.

We're getting Brooke Lopez's number 11 hanging from the rafters in Pfizer form.

If Yanis and I have

anything to

say about it.

When you saw that come through, when you saw the notification, did you drop?

I've had moments where people I really respect and love have either responded, retweeted, or in ultimate things.

Followed Missy Elliot followed me and I will I will throw my phone across the room and be like well I can't say anything anymore because now they're sort of in my life and I can't Everything else just be dumb

You reach like the pinnacle of Twitter

Dan now.

Yeah, I mean the greatest

greatest basketball player of all time.

You know, I was thinking, how many, how many people are in this club who have been retweeted by Yannis Adedicumbo and Julie Louis-Dreyfus?

Is it just me?

Am I, is this the exclusive club here?

I think in research of this question, we found it's a very specific parameter you've set for yourself.

There's room for a poster behind you that says just that retweeted by Yannis and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

I'll frame the, I'll frame it right

over here.

There you

go.

President, vice president and treasurer of the.

Julie Louis-Dreyfus, Jonas Retweet Club.

Congratulations, that's very exciting.

Thank you, thank you.

And a big day for the Milwaukee Bucks.

I was just going to ask.

Making a whole lot of moves, my

goodness.

I, you might catch me watching a game or two next season.

I'm interested to see what they're doing is this new kid from Serbia, this 19 year old, um,

um,

and, and some

good training yesterday was Miles Turner taking, it's signing him away from, uh, the emerging rival, Indiana Pacers.

So the now, now the bucks have another, a great replacement for Brooke Lopez.

It's going to be a fun season.

Dan Schaefer, our political editor and creator of the recon population area.

Make sure you subscribe.

It is fantastic.

Thank you so much, my friend.

We will see you next week.

Thanks for having me.

Stay with us.

Happy 4th.

Happy 4th.

News coming up next.

Keep it here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air.

Greg Bach, 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.

You can leave a comment as well if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter coming up.

After the 1030 news we attempted to get to this yesterday part of our audio Sorbet.

What is the worst ice cream?

That is the question for today's audio sorbet the worst ice cream We were started talking about it yesterday and then a state senator kelderoy is called in because she is important And we were talking about the state budget so this is important to Jane it's less important So we'll be talking about your least favorite ice cream after the 1030 news and audio sorbet And then we'll wrap up the show as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing Today it is the snake on a plane edition.

Yep.

That's pretty much what it sounds like.

Yep

Snake on a Plain Edition, Tisbeth coming up around 10.51.

He joins us on the first Wednesday of every month, the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, Darren Von Ruden is here.

Good morning, Darren.

Thanks so much for joining us.

How you doing?

Good morning, Jane.

Thanks for having me.

And I'm doing rather well, just trying not to melt in the humidity outside.

Boy, I can't imagine when it's like working outside when we have dew points in the 60s and 70s.

That's just got to be miserable.

If the clouds are out, it's not as bad, but when that sun shines on you, it gets

a little

unbearable.

Yeah, a little steamy, a little steamy.

So Darren, nothing's going on, right?

Everything is hunky door.

There's, you know,

let's

talk recipes.

Yeah,

exactly.

Ice cream.

You love ice cream.

You do dairy stuff.

But so let's just start right at the state budget with the announcement of the tentative state budget.

How is it looking for you?

How is it looking for farmers?

What are you hearing from your colleagues and from people within the Wisconsin Farmers Union?

Yeah, so certainly happy that the budget's getting passed.

There's a bunch of WFUs priorities have been included in the budget, but one big one that did not get is the LFPA program funding or local farmers, local consumer advocates working together to make sure that they

consume that product a lot closer to where it's produced versus having to send it, you know, to another state to be processed and come back and then charge for all that transportation in between.

And, you know, we were really hoping that that gap would have been able to get those funds in there.

It's not.

So Senator Pathe and Senator Jacobson, I believe, or Representative Jacobson, I believe are

working on a bill now going forward to hopefully get some funding for that.

You know, as we see, we have a surplus here in the state and we're trying to find two to three million dollars to keep that program running and keep

building

it because it's been very successful the two years that it was in existence.

So, you know, if we can't get the dollars from the federal government, let's have the state do that and keep it working.

And there's other states that have participated in that program too where

also in that same boat of trying to get the state governments to continue

funding that so that the program continues to grow.

Yeah, so the LFPA program, Local Foods Purchase Assistance Program actually pays farmers before they put the produce in the ground and then when the produce is ready, they provide it to the distributor that then takes it to food pantries, institutions.

The Tribal Elder Box has been a big part of that program too to make sure that our

Native Americans have a program that's getting high quality food into their stomachs too.

So, you know, it's been something that for every dollar that's been spent on it, there's been I think six dollars and something sent that's really been a benefit to it looking at what's going on across the state.

And just so I'm correct, this was a federal program and the money is being cut.

So you're looking for state funding to keep the program going.

Yes, yes as part of one of many the many president Trump Executive orders the funding for that program was cut and no longer available Even though the contracts have been signed and everything was ready to go for 2025 They got cut and it's no longer available.

So I'm looking at what's happened here in the States and really the infrastructure that has been built over the last two years

it would make sense that the state government then steps in and funds it.

And you know, it sounds like that's something that the federal government wants states to do with the nutrition program too.

So it's going to be a budget issue for a lot of states though.

You know, Wisconsin, we're in a unique situation because we do have a surplus here, but looking at other states that have this program, probably aren't going to be able to fund it because they don't have the dollars available in their state budgets.

I mean, Darren, there's so many things I can say on this.

I mean, you're talking about a program where we're paying farmers to provide food to food pantries to feed people.

Elderly people.

I don't know, if you believe in a multiverse, I don't know what earth this is a bad idea personally, but also the fear that I have for you, and I feel like I'm just being a big old, not fun guy today, but.

We have a $4.3 billion surplus here in the state and also two to $3 million.

I'm sorry, but in the terms of budget spending, whether it's state or federal, that is nothing compared to what we spend on so many other things.

But we don't see our assembly members and GOP members, those houses controlled by Republicans, wanting to spend any of that surplus money on anything.

So it makes me nervous.

It almost feels like what they're doing right now is having to make

specific legislation that says this will be a project project that is funded for one to however many years.

Yeah, yeah, you know, and just looking at the, you know, the mentality there too is, let's give tax breaks to the taxpayers.

Well, the people that this program are supporting the vast majority of them don't pay taxes because they don't make enough money.

Right, right.

And

Most of them also don't have enough income to really go out and buy those high quality nutritious foods that they really need to, you know, make them good quality citizens here in the state.

So this was something that was going to be a benefit to every community around the state and making sure that that high quality food gets into and they become, you know, a more productive citizen that way too.

And so giving tax breaks to, you know, mostly people that have dollars that can afford

more and taking food away from the ones that can't afford it, you know, it just doesn't make any sense to me.

Well, and I, it almost feels, and this is wildly speculative on my part, but it almost feels, Darren, when, when our lawmakers do this, they kind of throw farmers out there to it's like, yeah, well, farmers don't want to help, you know, food pantries and things like that.

That's not the case.

Farmers don't have any problems at all with, with helping these programs.

Right, we've actually been trying to get some legislation passed over the past many about half a dozen years at least, I suppose I've been working on it.

So that farmers could actually donate those seconds the vegetable fruits and vegetables that the canneries know a lot or Grocery stores know a lot that have a blimey shot on them, but the fruits

fine

and be able to get see some kind of tax incentive to actually donate that That's been turned down year after year or two.

So, you know

what's wrong with giving and being able to have some kind of an incentive to make sure that you are being rewarded for what you're doing.

If you're just joining us, Darren Von Ruden is our guest.

He's the president of the Wisconsin's Farmers Union, and he joins us the first Wednesday of every month.

I think that also speaks greatly to Americans who can afford food.

looking at a piece of fruit going, oh, it's got a bruise on it.

I don't want it when it's a perfectly good piece of food that someone will happily eat.

But I feel like we could talk about that program for an hour.

Darren, is there anything else in the state budget that is either making you celebrate a little bit or giving you some pause?

Well, certainly looking at DAC-CAPs funding, there's some unfunded mandates there that the DAC-CAPs can have to do.

I'm trying to find the dollars for those looking at local governments, the unfunded mandates that are there too.

They're not as bad this time around when I'm seeing right now, but certainly any unfunded mandate is not good because then the local and county officials

have to find the funds to make that happen.

The only way to do that is to raise your local taxes, which, you know, most local taxpayers aren't happy with where those taxes are at this point.

So, you know, it really causes some friction between the members of your local communities and the local leaders.

Well, and this is a, this is a statewide issue.

This is for

red cities and blue cities and independent cities and everything.

When we have the legislature, the lawmakers in Madison who are hanging onto these dollars and won't give them out to anybody, this affects all of us.

Yeah, and certainly looking at the dollars that JFC is, you know,

held on to for longer and they should have over the past couple years you know that programs suffered from that and in those programs some of them died some of them are still limping along but you know they they should be getting that funding because the governor signed the the budget and for JFC to hold those funds hostage more or less you know isn't the right way to be governing

and it's yeah

We've talked about that endlessly on this show.

And I don't say that as, as people need to remember that whether we're talking about clean water, we're talking about rural hospitals, whether we're talking about education.

I know they released a 10 million of $50 million, but

This money is all being held onto on top of it throw that money on top of four point three billion dollars of a surplus that is being planned to spend on nothing I have an idea Jane and Darren for a new state constitution No mandates can come from the state house unless they are fully funded no unfunded mandates.

You can't you cannot punish municipalities When you tell people you have to do these things.

Well, how are we gonna pay for it?

That's your out.

No, figure it out.

You're the one who said it

You're

the one

requiring it.

You must make it work, whether it's partnership with the Fed, the state, or local government.

But you can't just throw it on, you can't throw it on education when you're saying, well, it's a new reading program, $50 million, you make it work, because you're already buying your own school supplies.

So yeah, I think that's a wonderful constitutional amendment.

No unfunded mandates.

I'm curious too, Darren.

You know, when Trump first came in and he froze all of these grants that a lot of farmers had applied for, either for infrastructure improvements or maybe water systems and things like that, what is the status of that?

Do we know?

So the vast majority of them have been now cleared and are being funded.

Good.

There still is some across the country that are not doing that.

We've, in the last week or now, I heard from a lady from Montana that they're not funding anything that says to women or socially disadvantaged.

And she's got a program in there or an application in that was signed by Secretary Bilsack and the former administration.

and should be getting those dollars because it's a contract that should be viable.

But it's DEI now.

Now

they won't do it, right?

You

know, then

DEI farmers, there's that's a group you can't trust right there.

The lady farmers, my God, my God.

Really quick question before we go to break for you.

We saw a lot of farmers, we saw a lot of people who were being harmed by these pauses and cancellations of contracts.

But what we've heard

from some people is that now that they're going through, people seem to be like, oh, they're fine.

The group is, the administration's great.

I got paid.

Are you seeing that?

Or are people still holding onto that trepidation of like, all right, I got my money, but this isn't a good mode of doing business.

Certainly the farmers and businessmen that have been Republicans all their lives are, it's great.

Everything's good.

The Democrats and the folks that are on the

on the fence more or less.

We got to remember this because this is not a good practice for any government to do.

We're going to continue our conversation with Darren Von Ruden, the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union.

Stay with us.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Don't go away.

Good morning and welcome back to Matt Nair on air.

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Join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.

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He joins us on the first Wednesday of every month.

The president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, Darren Von Ruden, is our guest.

So we were talking earlier about the state budget.

Let's move on to the federal budget, which we has not totally 100% passed at this point, but it did last night pass the Senate tied with the vice president having to cast the final vote.

Right.

Shocking.

What are your thoughts on that as well?

I'm sure there's plenty in there that, once again, gives you pause.

Yeah, you know lots of concerns number one because part of that process they're really overstepping on the farm bill process so a bunch of funds are going to be administered to take care of like crop insurance and of course cutting nutrition snap program benefits is part of that bill too.

So really looking down the road the farm bill what's going to be left of it.

Do we need to do a lot of work?

Is there anything that we can really do at that point in time?

You know, there's still be some conservation programs that maybe need to be looked at and taken care of under the farm bill, but you know, just looking at the total amount that it's going to cost the cost the American taxpayers over the next 10 years to, you know, for the GOP being so fiscally conservative to pass the

federal budget that's going to add 3.1 trillion or 2.9 trillion, whatever that dollar amount is to the federal deficit, doesn't sound like a very fiscally responsible thing to do.

We were on our phones and emails with Senator Johnson hoping to get him to vote no on it, to make sure it goes back and get some of that.

Physically responsive with stuff that done that he wants wanted done and that didn't happen.

So, you know going forward You know, can we really trust the the people that are saying they're gonna do one thing and do the total opposite?

Well, and I think too and we were talking about this with Dan Schaefer before you joined us here and that it is this rush to get these things through I don't know why we can't take a pause and take a breath and look at

I'm sorry all 940 pages of it who passes things and you don't read the whole thing that makes no sense to me But it's this rush rush rush Ron Johnson said this morning.

He of course was I'm not gonna vote for this.

It's terrible We're leveraging our children and our grandchildren's future and then he voted yes for it of course Because he says he got a guarantee down the road

that they're going to look at going back to pre-pandemic spending levels.

Oh, okay.

He got the guarantee that they'll look.

Yeah, we'll talk about it maybe in a whatever.

Two weeks.

We'll talk about in two weeks.

Right.

Everything is in two weeks.

And you brought up SNAP benefits, Darren, and I want to just, and I'm going to keep bringing this up until someone gets mad at me, but I don't really care that sitting representative Derek Van Orden, which very hard when we talk about both your names, Derek Van Orden in

public on tape said that SNAP benefits will not go down a nickel.

His words, a nickel.

And he is voting for a program that is going, he's going to vote for a budget that is going to cut that program and it's going to cut SNAP benefits for people.

And I'm just going to say it right now.

The moment it goes through, cause I don't know what could happen now cause it's a back in the house.

He

could come

out and say something.

I don't know.

The moment it's voted on and the moment we, liar, he is a liar and a hypocrite.

Yeah, yeah, and he called me a liar one day in his office on something on some publicity that I had done which was actually true So, you know, yes, you're you're right on spot there, Greg You know, he needs to stand up for his true values And if his true values are protecting those most in need in the third congressional district The only vote he should have is a no vote on this budget bill

Yeah, he has a real interesting way of showing his support for the for his constituents.

I'm sorry, but he does He

is a and for those who don't know because we know not everyone it's not maybe your life But Derek van Orton sits on the ag committee.

He is from the north of Wisconsin and he lives there He is the representative and in that same speech

He talks about growing up as a poor kid, relying on what back then would be the equivalent of snap benefits, government cheese, food stamps, things of that nature.

So he knows that life.

He's lived that life and he is actively turning his back on two groups of people.

claims to stand up for

well and let's not forget when there was a he had a meltdown during a hearing when he was called out about the cuts to snap the same thing it's the same thing he I mean we can put that in the show notes too if you haven't seen this I thought he was gonna self-combust it was like

yeah yeah

and and now he's been caught lying yeah it was a lie yes

and I don't I don't want I want him to stand up for that's the thing is

I don't want America to lose.

Darren, I don't want you to lose.

I don't want,

I want us to win.

And I want Darren, Derek, darn it, really, Mr. Van Orden.

I'm going to just say that.

DVO is easy.

DVO to really just stand up.

And I don't say this often, but be a man about it.

Just do

it.

Yeah.

Just cracked one statement you said there, Greg, too, is he's actually from Southwest Wisconsin.

So it's the third congressional.

Oh, you're

right.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Western Wisconsin.

Yeah.

At this point, flat malaria still.

I get very, very.

They don't want

to own him.

He's yours.

You

take him.

You take it.

Darin Von

Ruden is the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, and he joins us on the first Wednesday of every month.

Thank you so very much, Darin.

Try and stay cool out there real quickly.

Darin, I know this is a con.

controversial question.

You work in the dairy industry and I don't want to present a conflict of interest or get you in trouble.

What is your least favorite ice cream?

What's the ice cream you're going to say?

No, thank you too.

Well, I'm not a big fan of pecans.

So there you go.

The apple pecan pie might be the ice cream I don't like, but every other one is delicious.

There you go.

He has to say

that.

He's an expert.

He's an

expert in dairy.

Exactly.

He knows.

He knows.

Thank you so much, Darren.

We'll see you next month.

Thank you, Jane and Greg.

Take care.

Stay with us.

News is coming up next when we return.

Audio, Sorbet!

You are listening to Matin' Air on Air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air.

Greg Buck.

Dr. Slide on the Board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us.

Call or text at 855-752-4842.

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We are taking the show on the road.

Matt and Air on Air.

teaming up with Todd all about to hit the road in a couple of weeks.

We're going to be stopping in Oshkosh, in Butternut, and in Hayward on July 16th, 17th, and 18th.

We're going to have a preview of the EAA.

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