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This is Up North News Radio.
Now, live from our Lake WSOTA studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News at
Brightlaw.
It is so nice to be back in the Lake WSOTA studio.
Welcome back to Up North News Radio brought to you by Courier Newsroom, carried by our friends on the Civic Media Radio Network at 7.06 on a Monday morning, April 14th.
And coming up later this hour, we're going to be talking again about the
Perpetual rollercoaster of trade and tariffs from Trump, what it all means for rural Wisconsin.
We'll talk to the chief economist from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, coming up in just a little bit.
But first off, we already have our full house on Mondays with Up North News reporter Selena Heller.
Greg Bach is here.
Dr. Kristen Leirle is here.
If you missed it over the weekend, head over to Civic Media and listen to the first edition of the Dr. Kirsten Lirely Show.
You can hear that Saturday afternoons at three.
And meteorologist Brittany Merleau is here.
And Brittany, thanks
for... Good weekend.
Did you have a good weekend?
I did.
Sorry, I'm back home and I'm
trying to remember where all the buttons are.
And it's really not that much
different than my
computer, my other computer, but apparently.
I'm having a little difficulty with the buttons.
There we go.
Uh, I was away for a week and to be back here and see the sun coming up that much earlier over the lake and everything, temperatures are, let's see, what is it?
45 here now.
So it's better than 25.
You
won't hear me
catarwalling again today about temperatures in the twenties.
So how are we looking to start the week?
It's, you know, looking very nice outside this morning.
I left my windows open last night because we didn't get that cold overnight.
So it's nice and refreshing.
I mean, we're waking up to temperatures at 54 degrees in Green Bay this morning.
Also into Wapaka, Milwaukee.
You're already in those mid fifties.
Some upper thirties into Solon Springs is the coldest we're feeling this morning, but some clouds are hanging around up north.
A lot of sun shine down south and today is going to be a windy day.
I'm talking about gusts around 40 miles per hour.
So it's just going to whip us.
It's going to actually bring some wind chills when our highs today are reaching the upper forties north to low sixties south, which is kind of crazy to think about wind chills on top of a 60 degree temperature, but
It is happening and we have a winter weather advisory going into effect this evening into iron county where they're going to look around six inches of snowfall as we go through tonight and some of that snow could stretch into our eastern and southern areas of the state tonight.
So what's going to be happening as a cold front is moving through actually a big low pressure system is over Lake Superior.
That's why it's going to be so windy today and then of course those winds are going to shift from out of the west.
to out of the north and it's going to hit us with some colder temperatures tonight and that cold front is going to spark up some light rain around midnight and it could switch to a few flurries, especially up north and towards Green Bay, potentially into ports of Milwaukee could see a few flurries early tomorrow morning.
But the accumulations, don't worry, they are staying to Iron County solely pretty much.
And the snow belt, the snow belt could see about two to four inches as well.
But everybody else through the state, just to trace, you can take a breath, it'll be all right.
And we are going to be warming tomorrow.
And I don't see any more snow in the forecast, at least until potentially next Tuesday, we might do a repeat of what's happening tonight.
I like how you anticipated that I was going to blow up at the mere mention of flurries and accumulation.
It's going to be all right.
It's going to
be all right.
Calm down, everybody.
We're going to be OK.
uh going to go around the room and ask everybody what they like best about the Milwaukee area because today is 414 day for the area code uh it being April 14th and in our newsletter today all about 414 day all about Milwaukee some of the most famous people in history to emerge from the cream city uh how to spend 37
in Milwaukee, according to the New York Times Travel Section, just a lot there in honor of 414 Day.
And I say that as somebody who loves all the places I've lived, Chippewa Falls and Rice Lake and all kinds of other places, big and small.
And that includes, you know, the four years that we spent in Milwaukee.
And I get all
Worked up when people try to make Milwaukee out to be like the bad guy because Milwaukee is a gorgeous city It's got these beautiful things to do people places all of that and I really want People from from both ends the smallest communities and the biggest cities to go visit each other a lot more so I try to be that kind of
what ambassador for lack of a better term.
Greg, you get the automatic answer because you've got, you know, the best comedy club in the state right there in Milwaukee.
Well, thank you.
I would say the comedy scene is my favorite thing about the city.
There you go.
Kristen.
Summer Fest, baby.
There you go.
All right.
How about you, Brittany?
Anything with Lake Michigan?
I mean, the beaches, the outdoor scenes and stuff like that is so beautiful and gorgeous and the skyscrapers and the steeples just against the look of the lake.
Gorgeous.
And this is where Selena says she's never been to Milwaukee.
She's only been to Black River Falls and Eau Claire.
Eau Claire's as big as it gets for this Jackson County girl, so.
Yes, a beautiful place to be.
So happy 414 day to Milwaukee.
Brittany, we're still trying to make 715 day a thing.
Across more of the area code.
So we have an assignment between now and July 15th.
We
have
to work on 715 day.
Thank you, Brittany.
Have a great
day.
Thank you.
You
too.
And a reminder that you can learn more about what's in today's newsletter by heading over to UpNorthNewsWI.com and clicking subscribe in the top banner.
We also had our Sunday morning newsletter, which focuses on Wisconsin political news.
And then there's always a question of the week, which I'm going to spring on Greg and Kristen and Selena right now as well.
And in my case, when in writing it up, nobody's been talking about this topic, but it's state budget time.
And so everybody's looking for, you know, revenue or tax ideas or whatever.
And invariably, somebody's going to mention toll roads because with with more electric cars and hybrids, you know, they're not paying gas tax, but they still chew up the roads.
And so there's all this discussion about how do we keep up the funds that that build and maintain a road.
So I simply asked for question of the week.
Where are you on toll roads?
Is it still like, don't even bring it up.
I want no part of it.
Is it, you know, I'm skeptical, but I'm willing to learn more.
Or three was like, I support it, but only at the border.
We don't want any internal, you know, toll boots.
And then the other was other states have it, we can have it too.
I'm totally good with it.
So Kristen, as somebody who's run for office and no doubt gets asked about a million different things, what are your thoughts on toll roads?
I don't love them.
I'm skeptical, but I'm willing to learn more.
Okay, very open-minded over there.
Greg, you're closer to the border where the toll booths are, just over the way in Illinois.
Absolutely not.
I don't want them.
They're already charging EV cars for more registration.
You can use that money for what they need, but we don't need toll rows.
They're not.
No, thank you.
And this is where Selena tells us that there's already full boots Jackson at the Jackson County line only so many people can get in
Is that right?
Oh, that's that's it.
That's a good tidbit.
I could have put in the weekend newsletter.
you go.
I really got to make that thing more of a collaborative process here.
All right.
So again, the weekend newsletter, you can sign up over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Selena has brought a story this week about the the frustrations in health care.
And obviously, Dr. Lirely talks to us about that all the time as well.
But you were
at an event not too long ago, where again, you could you could just sense the frustration about this whole anti science, anti vax thing.
And it's not all Robert Kennedy Jr.
But it doesn't help matters at all.
No, this, this doctor from Wisconsin, she was talking about, you know, the appointment of RFK first and foremost to the department to which I was also just learning now there are
The things that are the latest kind of round and everything stop the effort to collect data on everything from cancer rates in firefighters For mothers for to baby transmission of HIV to cases of carbon monoxide poisoning So those are the latest things going on and as we all know we've heard of those that this was kind of alarming to me the cancer rates and firefighters because kind of we hear those cases quite often
However, this doctor was just was talking about kind of the frustrations going on within her colleagues, one of them who kind of shifted her job to get out of having to deal with talks of vaccinations.
And here's her kind of frustrations about that.
We have a colleague, my friend, Joanna here would probably know her.
who was a pediatrician and she now works just in the hospital.
We were talking one night on a shift and I said, why did you leave the clinic?
We loved having you in the clinic and she said, I just couldn't take it anymore.
Having to fight back against all these vaccine, you know, hesitant people when this has been the most studied thing that we've ever had to keep kids healthy.
She's like, I just couldn't take it anymore and now I just do hospital medicine and you know, refer them back to their pediatrician and have those conversations.
but it's frustrating because now I feel like that vaccine hesitancy is going to be worse, but we're also seeing like interference with development of vaccines.
So the thing that I get from from Dr. Krightlow as well as Dr. Lyrely is that yes, it sometimes gets a little frustrating, but that
you're always happy to say, well, no, let me, let me answer your questions, et cetera.
But Kristen, you can totally see where some other folks would be like, no, I'm out.
I cannot take any more of this attitude.
Yeah, because it's happening more and more.
And the thing that I find really crushing right now as I'm watching the number of measles cases rise across the country is that I know how under vaccinated we are in Wisconsin with the second least vaccinated state.
when it comes to measles and I know that little kids are going to die because of this and we've got all of the information and all of the evidence to protect ourselves but it's this disinformation and the political machine that is spreading it that is taking advantage of us and of the most vulnerable people in our society it's so hard to watch because I see it coming and I just want people to be okay.
Well, that's exactly why you have those conversations, why Sherry does with her patients and everything.
And at the same time, for people that say, I just can't anymore, it's tough to argue with them.
That's what you're hearing.
Anything else about that, Selina, about the topic?
Again, I could hear a lot of frustration there.
Yeah, she had kind of a whole list of things and she had another person with her who worked at the hospital too.
They're talking about, you know, just the short-sightedness of cutting the funds for the CDC and all these other organizations and we're at the forefront of medical research and all that's going to change and just a whole host of things.
I
should mention, so upcoming on my show, I'm going to have Dr. Pat McBride on and we are going to talk about exactly this.
Pat McBride is a preventive cardiologist.
He's the former Dean of
at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
And we are gonna address all these research issues, the anti-vax issue.
It's gonna be a great episode coming up in two weeks, I think.
In a couple of weeks, okay.
And a wonderful book that he, I hope you talk about the book too.
We will definitely talk about Wisconsin sports.
Yeah.
Good.
We'll continue things here.
Robin Tigerton.
I dropped the ball.
We're going to find out the latest from Tigerton coming up.
A little sports and more right after this.
Up North News Radio Live from Lake Wasota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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Here's one more from today's history lesson.
It was on this day in 1987 that Fleetwood Mac released the album Tango in the Night with singles like Big Love, Little Lies, and Seven Wonders.
It's a 721 here on a Monday morning, April 14th on Up North News Radio, and yes, Rob, you're here.
I was otherwise distracted with 414 a day, but back up into the 920.
Good morning from Tigerton.
It is sunny, 51 degrees.
The winds are starting to pick up.
This is the seventh anniversary of the 2018 snowstorm when Tigerton got 34 inches of snow.
Wow.
He says he's getting writer's cramp working on his snow plowing bills.
It's worse than the plowing, being both the treasurer and secretary, Mrs. Mom, because she would always help out with the paperwork.
Saturday took a walk in Big Falls in Northern Wapaka County.
the smallest incorporated village in Wisconsin with a population of 61.
Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the Palm Sunday tornadoes that hit Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
He was watching YouTube videos to learn more about tornadoes.
And for the Tigerton Main Street program, I volunteer $1,000 worth of snow plowing bills work.
And it's a great feeling to help with volunteering.
I love Kristen's show listening on my walk around.
So there you go.
Rob is such a good guy and he's a weather spotter.
Yes, he is.
Yep.
Really important.
Yes.
So I in sports, the Brewers went three and three on the road trip.
They dropped two of three in Arizona losing yesterday.
Again, they had the two run home run by William Contreras, but nothing else from the Brewers hitters.
And so they lost five to two.
They will be back home starting tonight for a three game series against the Detroit Tigers.
Game time 605 is the broadcast pregame on several civic media radio stations the bucks defeated Detroit 140 to 133 and overtime yesterday to wrap up the regular season The bucks and the season on an eight game winning streak.
They're the number five seed They will play the number four seed Indiana Pacers in the playoffs starting on Saturday or Sunday after the goofiness of the play-in brackets that will take place this week and
I will say with great pride that the College Men's Hockey season is over with the Western Michigan Broncos defeating Boston University to win
their
first ever national title.
So congrats.
It was very, very fun to watch my daughter and the two little ones that seats right up on the glass there near the Western Michigan bench.
and watch the kids get all jazzed up.
I mean, they've been to many hockey games by now.
There's six and three, and they are hockey veterans.
But for the six-year-old, being able to be out on the ice for the post-games celebration, and you hear them on one of the videos going, can I meet Buster now?
And getting over to meet Buster Bronco was a pretty big deal.
And Kristen, of course, a former Goldie Gopher can relate to when the little kids want to come over and meet the mascot.
That's a big deal.
It's the sweetest thing.
I mean, that's what you're there for, right?
You're a symbol.
You're
a
symbol of love for your team.
That's right.
But is it, again, having never been a mascot, but your field of vision in
one
of those outfits,
what I'm saying
is a little kid could come running up right in your blind spot and you'd never see it.
Next thing you know, something's attached around your leg, you know, giving you a big hug or something.
And you're like, okay, good thing I didn't trip over this tiny person.
You just have to be ready
for
everything.
I mean, Bucky looks out of his mouth.
You can't.
I've had that head on.
You cannot see anything around you.
That's.
Yes, it's you need a handler.
Yeah.
Yeah.
up that high.
Like I had it on your shoulders.
Yeah.
Can you do it?
You know, Bango can do everything, though.
Yes.
Yeah.
Bango is like all over the place.
That's a far different costume than your traditional suit of honor, a suit of armor type of thing.
I'd also
like to point out that when Bucky does pushups, his nose is so long that he barely has to bend his elbows.
I should have expected Goldie Gopher to take a shot at the badger.
Oh, so we got we got sports taken care of and the mascots and Rob.
And so that leaves me left with talking about the bear coming through our neighborhood once again and asking Selena if she ever had that issue on the farm in Jackson County.
But apparently not not so much, you know,
And and by my deer stand so that freaked me out when I would go out there in the dark in the morning You know and it's dark and I didn't want to walk in the woods and my brothers wouldn't you know Drive me out there on like the four-wheeler something.
I'm like there are bears and it's really dark.
Thanks
I don't know that we have ever talked about Selena Heller as deer hunter before What's your record
know
old were you?
How long ago was
Okay
No, that's that's wonderful.
Good for you.
I mean, you could have done it as a 12 year old in Depeer.
They have a program where you can go out and bow hunt a bear in middle school.
But yeah, that's real.
Oh, no.
And of course, I've shared my story before about being what was it, 12 or 13 years old and being invited by my dad to go back and wait in the truck because I couldn't stay quiet.
Weird.
Hard to believe, huh?
Yes.
Kristen, we'll close on a news note the topic today about legislation that's used to distract from other more pressing economic issues.
We've got an assembly committee that heard a bill late last week that would require the Department of Health Services to check every six months to make sure those on Medicaid programs are still eligible for benefits.
So instead of investing in the benefits and getting people back on their feet and working, we're doing more to make
what, more hoops, more bureaucracy for people to jump through?
Every six months, that's great.
Why not every month?
How about every week?
How about every time they show up?
This is just, it's barrier after barrier.
People need more healthcare, not less.
Yes, but look, if you thought that was one bill that maybe they could use their time in other ways, there was also the State Affairs Committee that worked on a bill that would ban gay pride flags or even flags celebrating Donald Trump from being flown at state and local government buildings.
So again, we're working on the hard-hitting issues out there at the Capitol.
Kristen Lyrely, thank you so much.
Have a wonderful week.
We'll catch you show next weekend.
Selena, thank you.
Have a wonderful day.
do.
We'll talk all about the tariff impact on World Wisconsin after this.
You're up
north.
Welcome back to Up North News Radio 734 on this Monday morning.
It's April 14th and that's Vince Gill.
He turned 68.
over the weekend.
We have been speaking at length about the new administration and the trade war decisions that have an impact on pretty much everybody in Wisconsin, consumers, farmers, small businesses, exporters, you name it, but rather than just
hearing from the politicians and other folks close to them that deal with this, we wanted to hear as well from people who study these issues and can tell us a bit more about the impact on Wisconsin and other parts of the country.
And it's for that reason that we are happy to welcome to the program, Benga Ajalori, who is the chief economist from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and joins us now to talk a bit about the trade war and the tariff impact, especially as it relates to rural Wisconsin.
Benga, good morning.
Thank you for being with us today.
Thank you for having
me.
Can you let's start first with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
It's a group that I have so often relied on for information, statistics, things like that.
Can you tell us a bit more about your position and the CBPP?
I guess I can.
So the Center, we basically focus on budget issues and things that impact Americans more broadly.
So we look at some of the
issues like budget resolutions, we talk about Medicaid, SNAP, housing programs, things like that, and basically try to advocate for inclusive economic growth.
My job as a chief economist is to kind of oversee a lot of
politics along the analysis and kind of provide advice to our colleagues and then also to do what I'm doing today, do some of the public outreach and to kind of talk about, you know, the politics that are happening, the policies that are happening and kind of make it real for the public.
And we appreciate that very much.
And so in your area of looking primarily at
rural America and what you've seen in the early weeks of the administration so far.
I mean, you're certainly aware of what all the political chatter has been like, and you're well aware that, again, there's volatility.
Some days the tariffs are on, some days the tariffs are off.
So it's not the fairest question I can ask you, but at this point in the administration, from a 30,000 foot perspective,
What has just this current environment done for, you know, the confidence and the stability of the rural American economy?
It has been very difficult.
And so prior to my job here as chief economist on the center, I was a senior advisor at the Rural Development Missionary at USDA.
So did a lot of work on trying to reach out and try to help with rural prosperity.
And so some of the things that I'm seeing and one of the biggest focuses is the doge cuts and, you know, tackling all the so-called waste, fraud and abuse, which is not the case.
And, you know, and I think especially for rural areas, especially rural Wisconsin.
I think this is where they get hit hard.
Think about at Rural Development, we had our state office and a lot of field offices.
And these were the people who are working with the community directly, whether it was our single family housing programs, whether it was our business programs, energy, high speed internet, things like that.
And I was just talking to some of my former colleagues in Wisconsin, and they were talking about how the field office staff went from 62 to 28.
And that's a huge, huge.
loss for the communities in rural Wisconsin.
And so you put that together with, well, why are they cutting all these jobs?
Why are they so-called trying to cut spending?
Is to basically pay for a wealthy tax cut for the wealthy.
And so go
ahead.
We are no strangers to hearing about real development here.
We spoke frequently with Julie Lassa, my former colleague in the Wisconsin legislature, who headed up real development for as the state director for Wisconsin for the USDA.
And we talked quite frequently about the things that, again, so many people take for granted.
They hear USDA and they think, you know, crop.
you know, loans and price supports and not all of the world development that goes on for housing, for business, for infrastructure.
And so I know that, obviously, Julie had to move on with the change in administration.
So to hear that any field office like this has gone from 62 to 28 people.
Yeah, you hear the, you know, the doge folks will say, yep, look at all that fat that we cut.
But, uh, this was not fat when it came to
you know, what, what was being invested into the rural Wisconsin economy, right?
Oh, no, not at all.
I mean, these were, and it's not just about like housing and business programs, but it's even, I think about the clean energy.
I think about, you know, innovation and technological advancement.
And that's where the field office was helpful.
And, you know, when I was in the national office, but working a lot with, you know, people like Julie and other state directors and other fields that is that, you know, you would have these projects and, you know, a lot of it is about the capacity.
you know, the federal government provides a lot of resources, but it's through grants, it's through loans, and you have to apply for that.
That stuff is really difficult, and so that's where the field staff comes in and helps out, and you know, you know, kind of walks hand in hand, and it's about, you know, figuring out what the community wanted, and then be able to kind of, you know, connect them with the federal government.
But not just the federal government, they're philanthropic.
groups, there were private sector resources that we would connect and then, you know, I'm probably familiar with the Rural Partners Network where we did a lot of, you know, connecting with outside partners and providing, you know, that, you know, normally that rope places just don't get the kind of access to that they were able to provide and cutting all that is going to, you know, limit that opportunity for a lot of people in rural Wisconsin.
We're talking to Benga Agilore, chief economist for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities about the impact of the Trump trade war on agriculture and on the rural economy overall.
And when there was that real whip saw the other day about the tariffs are on, then a couple of days later after Wall Street cratered, then the tariffs are off.
But they weren't really off, especially when it came to China.
And
Even if this even if this was all only just about China take away Mexico Canada the EU if this was just China We certainly learned during the first term that Trump was in office Just what an impact that can have on if you look look at soybeans alone for Wisconsin farmers So the fact that he's still keeping a high tariff in place What can we take from that for what may be the impact on Wisconsin soybean farmers this time around?
this is going to have a huge impact.
So as you mentioned before in his first term that he had the tariffs trade war with China and soybean producers across the country lost 70% of their production because what is happening is that you put a tariff and then they have a retaliatory tariff on us and then what they're going to do is they're just going to go to a different and so they a lot of it went to Brazil for soybeans and so the same thing but the thing is you have to think about not only just the volatility
and the on again, off again, even over the weekend, things were changing.
But you have to look at the magnitude.
So last time the tariffs went from like 3% to like 19%, we're talking about tariffs of 145%, which I almost can't even comprehend.
It's such a huge number.
And then China's retaliating with the 125% tariff, where it's just boggles the mind.
Well, and on top of that, yes, the last time around, China was able to go to Brazil and get soybeans from there.
Now, I have no idea how much of that came back to American export markets by the time things all settled down.
But under the under the heading once bitten twice shy, it certainly does make one wonder if we will get some of that traffic back ever when this is resolved having
been able to go to Brazil once, now to Brazil a second time, I don't think you'd find a lot of people predicting that 100% of Wisconsin's export markets are going to come back when this is all over.
That's not going to happen.
And part of it is it's a trust factor where can not just China, but now as you mentioned, there's there's been tariffs on Canada.
tariffs on Mexico, tariffs on the EU, and then there was the quote-unquote liberation day where we tariff over 70 countries with 10%.
And as you mentioned, even though the pause, you said the pause tariffs, there are tariffs still all across the board of at least 10%, which is a huge number.
And that's going to, you know, we're going to see that in our pocketbook.
And businesses are going to see that in their input costs.
And so even if we, you know, tomorrow miraculously got rid of all tariffs, do countries trust us to keep that?
And do countries trust us to be certain about things and sustainable and consistent?
And they can't.
Is there something to be said as well, and forgive the speculation here, but if this latest Trump trade war drives more small family producers out of business and we continue to grow the amount of corporate farming that is out there, we already hear
right now from family farmers and from consumer groups about the lack of competition, the increased monopoly power that is out there in the marketplace.
If this trade war continues to push smaller egg producers out of business, it's hard to see how the consumer isn't hurt by this in the long run if we're increasing the lack of competition out there.
Very much so.
And that's been a huge problem, not just now in the last couple of years, but for decades, where they're going to be able to have that pricing power.
So what's going to happen is that with the tariffs that's going to raise costs, costs to businesses too, but even businesses that aren't directly impacted by trade, they're going to see that their competitors prices have gone up.
And they're going to be able to take advantage of that because they're a monopoly.
They know there's not going to be any sort of competition that's going to force them to keep their prices lower.
So all across the board, we're going to be seeing a rise in prices, which we know over the last couple of years that consumers really do not like and really harm them.
I would imagine if I look deeper, that perhaps the center on budget and policy priorities has already done something with this.
But my question is along the lines of the way that President Trump admires
President William McKinley and has talked openly about replacing the income tax with a regime of tariffs claiming that it would lead to some kind of prosperity.
Actually did anything but, you know, the times that it was tried in the past.
So I think I'm making a safe assumption that the CBPP is among the many groups that would say
that the president's desire to move away from an income tax and more toward a tariff style of funding government does not hold a lot of potential for success.
It does not at all.
And the thing about tariffs is that it's a very regressive tax, you know, tax on consumers.
And the things that get taxed are going to be things that, you know, low and medium income families spend a lot of money on.
And so when I think about
the president's admiring of McKinley talking about how there was a great period of time, I think about that's the time that they called the Gilded Age.
So your Vanderbilt, your Morgans, your Carnegie's that all did really well, but so many people were suffering then.
You think about the steel mills, you think about the small farmers that were getting crushed then, and it's like he wants to go back to that time.
And that's very scary.
We spoke about China for a little bit here, but can I ask you about, you know, our two closest neighbors and trading partners, Canada and Mexico.
We've talked about the, you know, the soybean market for China, but Wisconsin, again, does so much of its trading.
Well, about half of its trading is done with all three of these countries, but you put Canada and Mexico into the mix.
And again, if you just isolate that, you
I imagine would see a tremendous impact on Wisconsin exports, which would then translate into manufacturing and consumer prices, right?
Yeah.
So we talked about China, Canada, Mexico.
These are the three biggest export markets for American agriculture.
And so you put high tariffs on them.
And again, these are, you know, talking about 25%, these are really high tariffs.
And these are our partners.
These are our allies.
In fact, I think about, you know,
The first term is complaining about NAFTA and replaced it with the USMCA.
And so over the last couple of years, a lot of businesses have been working together with plants in Canada, plants in Mexico, and worked on creating these efficient supply chains that have been supporting us.
And now you're putting tears on that and trying to break that up.
That's just going to be counterproductive and harmful to consumers and businesses.
I hate to close on a puzzling question because I doubt you have the answer but I'm going to ask anyway.
Here's a president who in his first term negotiated this USMCA which replaced NAFTA and yet now he's saying it's the USMCA that doesn't work and so that's why there have to be these tariffs.
Have people forgotten that he's the one that negotiated and signed the USMCA, the very thing he's arguing against right now?
It just boggles me that more people don't seem to recognize that.
It is confusing, but I think that shows the importance of a cabinet and who do you have around you.
And the people in this first term are very much more about free trade than is the group here.
Oh, without it out there.
It's a very different supporting cast and not one that bodes well for us here.
Benga Jallori is the Chief Economist from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Thank you very much for your time and your expertise.
Appreciate it.
I hope we can touch base again soon and get an update.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
All right.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
When we come back, we will wrap things up here talking to Jane Matten Airball, what's coming up on her show throughout the course of the week.
This is Up North News Radio, live from Chippewa Falls on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
All right, Jane, Matt Nair is here with us along with Greg Bach.
Matt Nair on air.
Mornings from 10 to noon for a few more days.
Exactly.
And then when Up North News expands from six to nine AM, Jane and Greg will be around from nine to 11 AM.
And Jane, I think you get the same question that I get most often about this is, is, is, is there
too much, Greg Bach to go around with two shows back to back.
Can there be too much, Greg Bach?
There can never be too much, Greg Bach.
I just think, you know, with his with his time being so precious now, we might just have to stretch him out.
I'm thinking like a like eight feet, like
stretch arms, make you taller.
I think, you know, at least I'll be at my ideal weight.
Yeah.
You're not overweight, you're under tall.
That's what I've always lived by.
But Greg is going to be a busy man.
CPAP machine is helping.
Yeah, the CPAP machine is clearly working that we can stretch him to this degree, which I don't think I asked you this morning.
How are things now?
You've been on it for two weeks now?
Yeah, about a week and a half.
Everything is going really well so far.
Jane, are you noticing a difference at all as he has become even more enjoyable to work with?
He is definitely perkier.
Yeah, I don't
shut up.
Which is a good thing.
A good sleep is so important.
It is life changing.
It really is.
If you get a good night, if you if you have insomnia and you already know this, but for those of us who do get good night's sleep, it's a gift.
There are so many people who don't.
And that's just life
changing.
Yeah, it really is.
I mean, I've mentioned before that.
last week being in Idaho and doing the show from 5 a.m.
to 7 a.m.
mountain time.
Oh, yeah And then and then of course staying up late with the grandsons because they're you know, it's a joy to be around them But I got home over the weekend and I
I don't know that I've ever crashed like that
where,
you know, we always joke about men of a certain age having to get up and go to the bathroom and everything.
If you're tired enough, no, you'll sleep right through, you know.
And we need that.
Oh my gosh.
Six uninterrupted hours last night, which for most people would be maybe hell on earth.
And for me, it was heaven sent.
I'm like six uninterrupted hours.
Are you kidding me?
Oh, that's a gift.
That's a wonderful, wonderful
thing.
Yep, take that every time.
And then you run to the bathroom.
It's been way too long.
What do you have coming up on the program this week?
Emily Cephos is going to be joining
us today
to talk about the Haitians in New London who are now under threat by the Trump administration.
They are here under humanitarian visas and
As it is with this current administration, that doesn't seem to matter.
So we're going to be talking to Emily Zephos.
The community came out in big support for these immigrants.
So we'll talk to Emily Zephos about that.
We have Deb Cronmiller from the League of Women Voters is going to join us tomorrow.
There are a lot of questions in particular about the SAVE Act.
And if you are a married woman and you
didn't go to court to change your name when you got married and therefore your driver's license does not match your birth certificate.
What do you do?
What coops are you going to have to jump through?
We also got an email from a woman who's, uh, who's got questions about if you have your name and your married name.
Yes.
And look, we, for all the talk about project 2025 last year, uh, it, it didn't get talked about nearly enough that there were people
who were part of that project, who said things much like J.D.
Vance once said that maybe households without children should only get one vote.
Well, who would get that vote?
I wonder.
Don't tell me.
It wouldn't be the woman.
Yeah, it's very frightening, actually.
And what I think a lot of people may not realize is that a lot of Republican women are going to be affected by this, too.
Yes.
This isn't just going after Democratic women.
There are a lot of Republican women who took their husband's names who may not have gone to court to go through that process.
This is going to have widespread ramifications.
You know, Pat, can't we just make women stay home and in the kitchen?
That would
alleviate so many problems in the world.
That gets us back to the child care issue and the legislators who have actually said, you know, maybe if more moms would just stay home, you know, we wouldn't have this child care issue in the state.
And thank goodness, Kareen Hendrickson was on last week to
to put it so well that she's she and the other daycare providers are tired of being called hysterical and that they should be doing this for free because you know that's what moms do and I cannot believe in the year of our lord 2025 we are still having conversations like this but we are
It's not
just childcare.
Now it's voting.
It's voting.
Now it's voting.
I've got a suggestion for those lawmakers who think that women should just do childcare for free.
Why don't you do your job for free?
And we'll see how that plays out and how well you like that.
You want to be in public service, you want to serve the public, then if you really wanted to genuinely service, you should do it for
nothing.
Yes.
Well, but although I will put this caveat in, there are people who say, Oh yeah, I will do it for nothing because you know, I'm a billionaire.
And so I'll do it.
And it's like, look, if the people that say they would do this work for free, or either billionaires or ideologues, and you want to, that's why I've often said for a lot of these political positions, as much as we, we don't like the work that politicians do.
We might have to raise the salary on those so that we can at least attract a few more normal people who could afford to do these jobs.
Not that they'd want to given how much money you have to raise nowadays, but at least they wouldn't lose money on the income side of
it.
Well, you make a really interesting point, Pat, because again, for most of us, $174,000 sounds like a pretty darn
good
salary.
Think we would do OK.
Yeah, I think we
do OK.
But again, if they have to be flying back and forth and they have to have two residences and there's there's a lot involved in that.
But you make a really good point about.
The barriers to people running for office and money is certainly
the biggest one.
I mean, here at Civic Media, the only ones who get something like that are like Calvin.
He gets that kind of a pay, because who would do that role otherwise on your show,
as Mr. Butenhof does.
That's right.
Jane, thank you.
Have a wonderful week of shows.
And Greg will be back in two hours as part of it.
Thanks, Pat.
Have a great
day.
All right.
And you all have a great day as well.
Thanks for joining us back here on Lake Wysota for Up North News Radio.
For this Monday morning, we will see you at 6 a.m.
Central Time.
Feels good to say that.
Tomorrow morning, here up north.
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