Best Of Mornings: Hendrickson, Velasquez, Garcia, Breitenmoser (Hour 2)

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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Critello, powered by Up North News.

Now, from our Laquasota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello.

Hey, good morning.

Welcome back.

Nice to have you here on this holiday.

Some best of favorite clips from the past few weeks that we wanted to share.

So this next one focuses on a very current problem, though it was for an event that happened a couple of weeks back called The Day Without Childcare.

It was basically to talk about a problem that is very real.

It's been building for some time.

It's no mystery.

The mystery is why so few politicians on one side of the aisle don't want to take seriously the daycare crisis in our state.

So we talked to Karine Hendrickson from Nuclaris about what the day without child care was all about, why it was organized, how this could be helped in the state budget as well.

Let's start with that, the 30,000 foot view.

What is it?

How did it come to be?

So four years ago, the day without childcare began with the Child Care Changemakers Community Change Organization.

And it really was because before COVID, there was already an issue already across the country, half of family child care flow in the last decade.

And so during COVID, it was our opportunity to really

like you're begging begging us to stay open and without us, you cannot work.

It doesn't matter if there's a health issue or not.

It doesn't matter what's going on.

child care is always necessary needed.

And so this is something that my colleague Brooke Allegler and I have really helped push in our entire state.

We have had the most events across the country in our state the last four years running right now.

We're behind by a couple.

So we're asking our colleagues who are planning events to put it on the map.

So there's a childcarechangemakers.org and you can go to the map and you can find out what events are close to you to attend and all of them are open to the public.

So some of these are events designed to highlight the problem, to educate people about the problem, but there will be providers that are either not going to be open that day or making some other accommodations to essentially illustrate how bad things could get, right?

Oh, absolutely.

So some of us are closing and having community events.

Some of us are staying open and having elected representatives come in and have conversations with their parents and their teachers.

Some of us are staying open and having parents before they can leave their child for the day right to their elected representatives, especially with the budget season, asking for that $480 million investment.

We also have some stickers that parents can wear and we're asking all parents whether they have

care that they pay for or that they have a family friend, neighbor, the other parent is home while they work to make stickers or buttons and wear them.

And that says without childcare, I couldn't be here today because we keep hearing from people that I don't have young kids that does an effect.

Well, if every single person who relies on care.

is wearing a sticker when people are going around that day.

They're going to realize how many people they interact require that care and how it does impact them and why it's important that we as a state finally invest a single dollar into the child care system instead of relying on federal dollars.

I'm really glad that in the historical overview, you brought it back to the pandemic notion of essential workers.

It

helped us understand just how vital certain parts of the economy are.

Not that every job isn't important, but at its bare roots, even in a pandemic, there are things that still need to operate, but can operate if people aren't working there and people aren't working there, if there's not child care centers.

And it really, in my mind,

shows the difference between what you're asking for from the legislature as an investment in the economy in the workforce versus the way other people describe it as some kind of a handout.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I appreciate you bringing that up.

Yeah, COVID revealed the issues, the structural issues that were happening and gave us an opportunity to use that federal funding that all of us on the ground advocated really hard for and to use that in ways to show that it really truly is about the wages for the teachers.

If we cannot pay our teachers more than $13 an hour, who is going to work for us?

And what quality are you going to have?

Because they're going to be stressed and burnt out because if you're only making 13 an hour, you're not taking care of yourself or your family appropriately.

and you're working multiple jobs and then you're supposed to be, you know, happy and excited and meet the needs of four infants who are crying because they're hungry or need to be held or rocked or want attention.

It's just absurd that we expect people to do this and have continued to expect people to do this because for some reason women are just supposed to be kind and caring and giving and, you know, some of us just deserve to like be paid in hugs and love, I guess.

And really, apart from

you know, the the provider themselves again, the nice ladies who do it out of the goodness of their heart.

I think it's worth mentioning.

I mean, there are so many different figures involved in this.

There's the provider, but there's also maybe the provider has an employer of a center.

So you've got those two right there.

Then you've got the parent as as a third important building block, but that fourth block

the workplace that depends on having these folks and who suffer when a parent usually but not always a mom says we can't find or keep affordable daycare and so that business loses some very valued employees and like you said we knew this was going on before COVID just from a demographic standpoint it's only getting worse and calling out for some kind of an attention.

Oh, absolutely.

And it's one of those things where a lot more employers are starting to take notice again.

I've had employers calling me asking if I have space.

And I always am like, no, and your person called me as well.

But they're having difficulties finding care.

And they're trying finding care for their employees so that their employee can get to work.

And so they're trying to do things.

So that's a valuable time that the HR is spending doing something that's not really part of the business, but it asks.

absolute integral part of the business.

Because if you don't have people that can come, then you don't have employees.

And another thing is we keep hearing from people that, you know, people just don't want to work.

Well, we keep pushing back on that.

We're like, no, people want to work.

They can't get there.

Why can't they get there?

They don't have affordable housing.

They don't have reliable transportation.

They don't have care for their child.

And really getting those conversations to be more curious and deeper and having a conversation instead of judging and assuming that people just don't want to work because they're lazy.

Let's get into the specific policy that the legislature should be working on.

And as I covered a minute ago, they seem to be focused on other things right now.

But what is the best case scenario coming out of this state budget that the legislature and the governor could potentially reach agreement on?

Well, the best case scenario was that we get at least $480 million in state investment and that money would then be able to go toward wages so that we can increase wages for our educators without having to increase prices for two.

Without any funding, we actually all will be losing about 15% of our revenue and that costs will have to be pushed onto the parents in order for us to stay open.

And there was a survey that just came out in April that we had kind of talked about.

And 25% of us are looking at probably closing.

We won't close right away necessarily.

Some definitely will.

Others will close after they raise their rates and not enough families continue to afford them.

And then they end up closing because they can't pay their teachers.

Family child care will close because we can't pay our mortgage and aren't about to let ourselves go bankrupt and lose our homes.

We'll find a different job.

So at the end of the day, those of us in the field will likely be OK.

Those of us with young children will have a little harder time, but those of us in the field will be okay.

We can get other jobs, but the parents and their children, they're not going to be okay.

Our community, they're not going to be okay.

And so, you know, really making sure that we get that investment is imperative.

Right.

And you're like, I mean, you note here, Green County, for example, is looking at a loss of up to 50% of their regulated child care programs.

44% predict at least closing a room due to a loss of teachers.

And then of course, you know, an average increase per child of 26 bucks on top of what it already costs now, which is just downright shocking for those of us who haven't had kids and daycare for a very long time.

But I want to seize on that one word there in that sentence, losing the amount of regulated child care programs.

And for folks who say, well, you know, I was raised by my aunt and uncle and I was just fine.

There's a whole reason why we've we've been moving over time toward child care centers that are licensed, inspected, underscore healthy and safe that I imagine you can tell people about.

Yeah, so regulated care is we have basic health and safety standards.

So, you know, even people who are only watching one or two children, they can be certified and they can get that base level of education so that they understand what it is that they're doing because 90% of that brain development happens in these first five years.

So along with the fact that children died or were injured, that was part of why the regulation came.

But then all the other part was because we learned how much important.

the important brain matter and brain development was happening and how that happens.

And that's really those close relationships with a consistent caregiver.

So even people like who can have neighbors and family, if that child isn't going to the same person consistently, they don't know where they are, what they're doing.

They're interacting with different people.

They don't know what the expectations are.

And so that

impede their development and that sets them up on a trajectory of a lifetime of difficulty that's completely unnecessary and so really looking at it as you know making sure we have the health and safety making sure that the people doing the work understand the importance of the work and that includes parents who choose to and can stay home we need to have opportunities for them to interact with people we need to have you know

places for them to go so they understand how to play with their child or what's going on developmentally so that if something is happening that maybe they could use a little bit extra support for, they know how to talk to versus three.

They know how to talk to the school district.

And so really looking at it as a whole system of, you know, we need to make sure that our children are cared for and educated from the earliest possible moment.

And most of that comes from a high loving quality relationship.

Tony notes on YouTube, speaking as the dad of a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a two-month-old, this is not okay, the situation that we have right now, which is completely understandable.

So when people look at this and obviously there is this

idea to go through the state budget and provide support that way.

And I'm not going to set that aside.

This is not an either or.

But people are looking at other creative ways of addressing this problem.

We have had reports of how school districts have looked to open up their own child care centers because they feel like they're the only ones who can be the provider in their small community.

Employers have sometimes tried to band together and try to work out something.

So this is more than just a line item in a state.

budget bill.

Karine, we're talking that this is a time for outside the box thinking on how to preserve, save and affordable child care.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

But looking at it in a way to make sure that every child has opportunities, we cannot rely on school districts who have property tax owners who are willing and able to spend more money.

We cannot look at employers who have the profit margin necessary and needed in order to open up a child care for their

employees children or for them to be able to contract with those of us outside.

So if we really want to make a system that every single child has an opportunity with every single employer having the ability to have high quality care for their employees, especially nonprofits, especially our sheriff and our fire and our EMS and all the rest government entities that don't have the capabilities of doing that, they don't have the funding, we really need to look at a systemic change.

So whether that's a sales interest.

sales tax increase, whether that is a capital gains tax increase, whether that employers do a 0.05% or something like that payroll tax like Vermont has done very, very successfully.

I might add because what that does is it adds revenue.

Whatever it is, we have to have something that's going to add revenue without it being on the parents to pay for.

Other than that, there's just no way it'll work.

Kareen Hendrickson here from Cassandra on YouTube.

While we were on a waiting list, our kids went to an unlicensed person and I know it contributed to my youngest speech delay.

Also had to emergently pull our son out of that house because he had fallen off a scooter twice with no helmet and more that resulted from it.

It was just not a good situation compared to a regulated childcare center, which is what we're all fighting for here.

Kareen, thank you again for the time so much.

I know how busy you are organizing this and we wish you all the best.

Thanks for getting up early with us today.

Well, since that interview, Democratic lawmakers have drafted a bill that would properly fund child care with the $480 million that Republicans stripped from the 2025 state budget.

Now there's no chance Republicans are going to put that in, but they should have to take a vote on it and let the people of Wisconsin know

Do they support a healthy childcare industry that would be good for the Wisconsin economy or not?

I'm Pat Crightlow from Chippewa Falls.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

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Let's talk a bit more about what is being proposed by congressional Republicans, President Trump, Elon Musk and others who and I cannot say this enough times.

are making massive spending cuts that are not designed to offset harm to the national debt.

They're not designed to put money back into the pocket of middle class Americans.

Because if either one of those things were happening, there might be more public support for them.

But they're not.

All of these cuts that are being made are gonna help pay for more tax cuts for the very wealthy and blow up the debt and the budget deficit.

So, what's it going to do to real folks?

Michelle Velasquez joins us now from Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin.

Michelle, hello, how are you?

Good morning.

I'm okay, all things considered.

Yes,

exactly.

Well, when you look at, you know, the totality, I mean, the numbers are staggering in terms of, you know, what would be

the number of people that would be losing Medicaid, who'd lose coverage under the Affordable Care Act, so many other things from a Planned Parenthood health care standpoint.

I know you're certainly running the numbers on how harmful this would be.

Absolutely.

There is actually a specific provision in this bill that would defund Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and all Planned Parenthoods who provide abortion care around the country in places where it has remained legal.

And that is because there is a provision that specifically would prohibit Medicaid reimbursement for health services, although unrelated to abortion.

prohibit that reimbursement to nonprofit family planning providers that also provide abortion care.

So in Wisconsin, that would really jeopardize Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin's ability to continue to provide the extensive care that it currently does to about 50 to 60,000 patients annually at 21 health centers across the state.

And that is a point that really needs to be made.

I think repeatedly is that one, because so many people have tried to equate Planned Parenthood with only abortion services, that there is so much more to it and that the federal funds that we're talking about here are not, they're not, it doesn't sound to me like they're going to stop one abortion, that this is all about all of the other healthcare services that Planned Parenthood provides.

Absolutely.

Federal and state Medicaid dollars in Wisconsin already do not fund abortion.

So those dollars are never used to reimburse for abortion care.

However, what they are used for is to ensure that people across the state in rural communities, in underserved communities, communities without access to affordable quality health care can get birth control, STI testing and treatment.

cancer screenings, well-women's visits, all of the sort of what I would consider basic health care that everybody deserves to have access to.

And that's really what's at stake here.

And this isn't just women as well that receive basic health care services from Planned Parenthood?

Absolutely.

All people, men, women, non-binary people, people from all communities, all walks of life are always welcome at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and they receive

excellent, high quality expert care in sexual reproductive health.

And in fact, defunding Planned Parenthood would save no money to the federal government and would actually end up costing the federal government more money.

And the reason is because people will go without health care, they'd go without birth control.

So there would be

potentially STIs that would go and treated that need more extensive treatment down the road or that lead to other health issues.

There would be unplanned pregnancies that people would then be forced to continue because they don't have access to abortion care or they didn't have access to birth control.

And now there are additional costs, of course, related to those types of things, cancers that go undetected and then need more treatment.

People going to emergency rooms or urgent care departments rather than

seeking those health care services at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin where they're currently receiving that care.

Now, people who think of Planned Parenthood as just these urban clinics in a few city centers, we know what the rural health care crisis is like.

And I would make a safe bet that your patient base is not restricted to folks who live in the cities where your clinics are located.

That's absolutely correct.

We have Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin has 21 health centers across the state.

There's a health center in Eau Claire, La Crosse, Green Bay, a few in the Fox Valley, Wisconsin Rapids.

And there's a virtual health center so people can access quite a lot of care through telehealth services.

So the reach is very, very wide across the state.

We were talking to Michelle Velazquez from Planned Parenthood Advocates about the punishing cuts that are being put in place and how they would impact things like Medicaid and services that are provided.

And again, we're talking about this from a Wisconsin standpoint, but you would know that Planned Parenthood services nationwide.

I mean, it's just got to be a staggering number of people who would be impacted if this current budget were to pass as is.

Absolutely.

There's nearly 200 health centers operated by various Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country.

And this defund would result in more than a million people losing access to health care.

Michelle, this is something that is not new to Planned Parenthood in terms of providing basic health care.

This is something you've been doing for decades.

Absolutely.

Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin has been around for 90 years.

And this is certainly not the first time that it has faced attacks.

And it's still standing 90 years later, and certainly we intend to fight every single day and work really hard to continue to be able to provide all of these essential health services that really help communities thrive.

I mean, people need these really basic health care to live.

healthy lives to be able to pursue their passions in life, whatever it is that they want to do.

So things like birth control and cancer screenings and just being able to remain healthy is really an essential part of a healthy community.

And so while these attacks would be absolutely devastating to that infrastructure,

I know that Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is not going anywhere, but the extents of the care that we can provide may have to look really different.

Chief Strategy Officer Michelle Velasquez, good to talk to you.

Thank you so much for the update.

We appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

From the heart of America's Up North on Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Krightlow and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Let's talk and check in now with William Garcia, candidate for state Democratic Party chair, who joins us from, I'm sure, beautiful La Crosse County, I'm guessing.

Absolutely.

Hey, good

morning.

It's gorgeous.

Thank you for being here.

Always appreciate it.

How goes the run?

What's your view of how things are going so far?

Well, I think things are going great.

I've had an amazing time.

Going to all of the county.

going to all the CD conventions, talking to people about what I want to do with the party, where I think the party needs to go, and I'm hearing a lot of support.

In fact, I'm actually really proud that both of the other candidates have kind of altered their platform somewhat to be a little more aligned with mine because of what I've been saying.

how much it's how people are responding to it in terms of the need to strengthen and grow county parties.

That's now a part of kind of everyone's pitch and I'm really happy for that and I'm going to continue going forward and talking about the need to focus on our local county parties and our other local organizations in order to grow and build them because that is how we're going to bring in support for 2026.

I'm not in any way, shape, or form taking credit for what you're just saying there about county parties, only to say that I, like you, have been part of a chorus for the past, I don't know, how many years, talking about the need for the state democratic party in this case.

And again, the Republican Party has its own infrastructure debates like this, but that the state party needs to both listen.

It works both ways.

Listen to the people.

in those local county parties and also provide them with the resources they need rather than rather top down management of the party and so when you tell me that you know you're saying that and that you're hearing that from the other candidates as well I think that that only bodes well writ large for not just the entire Wisconsin Democratic Party but for you know voters who aren't just in the the big Democratic strongholds.

Yeah and that's what

The way that we are going to flip the assembly seats that we need to flip in order to get a majority in 2026.

The way that we're going to get the Senate seats and retain the governorship is by decreasing the margin of Republican support in smaller counties and rural areas.

This is the path to victory.

And that path is...

goes directly through county party organizations.

County parties need to be trusted that they know best how to organize in their neighborhood and how to talk to people in their county.

We need to start treating county party officials like the experts they are in their neighborhoods.

And that is really the basis behind my campaign.

I'm the only candidate who has worked as a county party chair.

I'm the only candidate who's a CD chair.

I'm the only candidate who's coming from this system.

And that means I'm really the only chair that knows exactly what the problems are with the kind of top-down DPW organization as it is right now and how to fix them.

Let's talk as well about the development this week.

We had Devin Remacher on Wednesday who had just received the endorsement from outgoing chair, Ben Wickler, Joseph Pecky reacted to it yesterday.

So let me ask your reaction as well to Ben Wickler deciding to make an endorsement in this race and doing so for Devin Remacher.

Sure.

I was kind of expecting it to be honest.

I think Ben and Devin have worked closely for many, many years and I think that's great.

The problem is, is that this lack of focus on the county parties is a problem that we've had for many, many years.

And so, as like I said, I really like Devin, but I am the person who's genuinely going to focus on county parties and maintaining and growing them because

I have experienced the problems that we're having over the last six years.

And I'm the one that can really come in and fix them.

I think Devin, I think Ben and rightly so Ben should be, Ben and Devin should be extraordinarily proud of the growth and the progress and the strength of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

I'm proud of it as well, but.

What needs to be fixed in this current moment is this refocusing on county parties and other local organizations like our caucuses like our young Democrat chapters and I am the person that can maintain everything that Devon and Ben have built while also fixing this one key issue.

It is an important thing about this race that we've all noticed is that obviously there are a lot of good things to say about Ben Wickler's tenure and certainly record, but that it wasn't perfect, that the party is not perfect.

So how do you both acknowledge what's good, but also, you know, shine a light on what it is that needs to be changed.

And go ahead, Willen.

Oh, I was just also going to say, I want to remind everyone that the Wisconsin Democrats are on the forefront in the country in terms of the strength of their party.

The Wisconsin Democrats are stronger and more active than just about any Democratic party in the country.

And what that means is, is that we're often the first to do things.

We are the vanguard.

We are out in front on everything.

And sometimes that means that we make mistakes because we don't have any examples to pull from.

And so in this wonderful growth that Ben Wickler and Devin have built, we have left the county parties behind a little bit.

And that's the thing that needs to be addressed right now.

I have to ask you about a hypothetical that may not come to be, but is going to be very important for the next chair if it does.

And that deals with Governor Tony Evers, who has not made a decision yet on running for a third term.

If he does not,

The the easiest guess to make that I'm about to make here is that much like in 2018 when he first ran it was him and more than a dozen other Democrats running for governor if if Tony Evers decides not to run for a third term there will almost certainly again be upwards of a dozen people running Not the worst problem to have having a deep bench of talent

But I mean, it's almost a logistical nightmare trying to be fair.

There's county chairs who are going to want to endorse somebody, but maybe they shouldn't, either because of county rules or state rules.

I mean, let's face it, whether you get elected or not, if you stay active in the party, that is a bit of a minefield that Democrats have to be looking at if the governor decides not to run for reelection.

Well, and honestly, it's a minefield that I've experienced already, because here are the third congressional districts.

We have had strong, robust primaries with multiple candidates the last three cycles.

So I am experienced with working on that.

My preference is always.

And in fact, what I will be arguing and mandating as chair is that the state party should be providing

resources and the infrastructure that helps every one of the candidates who wants to run for governor speak directly to voters without preference towards any one of them.

I do not want a party that puts its finger on the scale in terms of trying to decide before the voter gets to decide who's going to win that primary.

It's up to the voters.

that kind of primary, it motivates our base, it brings out the best vision for the moment, and that's what a lot of primaries are.

Primaries are not about which candidate do I, you know, really love or whatever.

It's about, because they're all great.

It's about who is present.

We're talking to William Garcia.

He's a candidate for State Democratic Party Chair.

That decision will be made in Wisconsin-Dell's middle of next month at the State Democratic Party Convention, where, as the party announced yesterday, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock will be the keynote speaker on the first night of the convention.

And I'm sure William, you agree that that's a pretty good get for a party that is plenty motivated, but wouldn't mind hearing from Senator Warnock as well.

It's a wonderful get.

I've been lucky enough to hear Senator Warnock speak in the past.

He's an incredible speaker.

Makes me a little excited as well because that means I'll actually be sharing a stage with Senator Raphael Warnock because all three of the candidates also give small speeches at night in support for their campaigns.

So I'll get to present with Senator Warnock.

The big news this week in terms of 2026 politics was that appeals court judge Chris Taylor is getting into the race for a state Supreme Court.

We of course have to acknowledge that there may be more candidates.

It is very early yet, but if this were to be the field with appeals court judge Taylor versus Justice Rebecca Bradley, you know, from the far right end of the Supreme Court bench, that is a.

I guess all I'm saying is that would be a competitive race and that's really what you're looking for is a competitive race against a well-tenured state Supreme Court justice

a competitive race against also the most extreme conservative candidate on the bench that is That's what we need to be thinking about this race is not going to be the hundred million dollar race that we had last year because

it is not going to flip the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court, like the last two Supreme Court elections have done.

And that means that we need to be, again, my plan, focusing on growing and strengthening county parties, because our county party volunteers and our county party officials are gonna be vital in getting the message out about Chris Taylor, because again,

the money that is that poured into Wisconsin the last two Supreme Court cycles will not be replicated because the ideological makeup of the bench is not at stake.

We are talking to William Garcia.

He's candidate for State Democratic Party Chair.

There are three candidates in the race and that decision will be made by delegates at the State Democratic Party Convention next month in Wisconsin Dells.

William, I kind of jumped into the state of the race and everything.

And so for folks who might have missed it in the first go round of interviews, I just want to ask the straight up why you're running question 101, William Garcia.

There are three candidates in this race.

What makes you the best choice to be State Democratic Party Chair?

I'm running on a three-word platform.

Grow, persist, resist.

And what that means is grow.

I want to focus on

growing and strengthening county parties and other local organizations like our young Democrat groups, our college Democrat groups, as well as our DPW caucuses.

I think in the explosive growth of wisdoms over the last six years, these groups have been left behind a bit and they need a lot more support, not just financial, but also in terms of infrastructure, communications, digital assistance.

They're all sorts of things that county parties and these other local groups need.

I especially want to focus on young Democrats of Wisconsin.

Here in the third congressional district, we have more college students at any other congressional district in the state.

And I've worked very closely with our college dims to grow and expand their chapters.

Here in La Crosse, we also have the only official chapter right now of young Democrats of Wisconsin.

And I want to make sure that we have young Democrats chapters across the state because

That's how we're going to bring young people in by empowering them and letting them just talk about their issues and organize in ways that make sense to them.

Pursist means we're going to persist doing all the things DPW does wonderfully.

The fundraising juggernaut that DPW is, we're going to keep going with that.

Keeping a national media focus on Wisconsin.

which drives our fundraising as well as motivates our volunteers.

And this really strong connection between the governor, the assembly Democrats, the state Democrats, and DPW.

So we're all working closely together to win that trifecta in 2026.

And resist means that as chair, I will be the loudest voice in the room against the Trump agenda and Republican policies hurting Wisconsin families.

I've been very disappointed in the lackluster response by national Democrats to the existential threat that is Trump.

And as chair,

I will spend every day calling out Republicans for the harm they're doing us and explaining to people why Democrats have a better way forward.

William Garcia, candidate for state Democratic Party Chair.

It's really great to touch base with you again, William Safe Travels as you continue campaigning on your way to Wisconsin Dells next month and we'll check in again real soon.

That sounds great.

Have a great day everybody.

We'll be back with more after this.

You're up north.

You're listening to Civic Media.

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Again, nice to be back.

Good to be catching up with folks like Greg Bakken, Radio Park, and Hans Brighton Moser, who joins us from up in Lincoln County.

One very busy...

farmer this time of year.

How is Hans doing today?

Good morning.

Good morning.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I just just refilled the corn planter again.

So so the guy that plants my corn can try and get a few more acres pounded in before it starts raining.

And all that work is keeping folks from maybe paying attention to other things like politics, you know, tuning tuning things out where where applicable.

But that would then mean missing out on some of the action, like for example, the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday night last week.

moved out a piece of its budget package on a party line vote.

And so again, you had people like Congressman Derek Van Orden who are on the House Agriculture Committee saying, well, I'm gonna fight against these things like big cuts to SNAP or Medicaid or the VA.

And in the case of the agricultural provisions, you had Derek Van Orden voting right along with all the other Republicans.

Now for the farmers,

And this is from a story at aginfo.net.

It says, farmers would see better reference prices, a broader band of protection levels under commodity and insurance programs, and see the payment limit for farm programs increased.

However, the bill would also shift food assistance spending to the states to make up for coming federal cuts to those programs like SNAP and others.

And so Hans, I look at that.

And my first thought is that.

some folks in the farm community are gonna say, well, I guess as long as my payments or my prices are okay, they're gonna do what they're gonna do, but, you know, big cuts in SNAP, that's not gonna be good for farmers, not to mention all the families that rely upon it.

Yeah, well, and you gotta remember that, you know, as more and more...

poor public policy comes out of Washington.

You're going to have more rural areas struggling.

And some of the people who are the beneficiaries of SNAP and so forth do live in rural areas.

So this affects our friends and neighbors.

And historically, the farm bill was this marriage between urban and rural consumer and producer.

And that's how the legislation got done.

And I'm not suggesting that it wasn't cumbersome and tedious and messy sometimes.

it got done.

And now we've got politicians that can't manage to even, you know, produce anything for a couple of years past time when it's supposed to be produced.

So again, I just keep coming back to, you know, Washington is only as good as its participants.

And we've got some real dandy smoke there these days.

That's definitely one way to put it.

And again, far from a done deal, because you had in the house version, you're looking at some

$290 billion in snap cuts.

But over on the Senate side, Republicans there, their initial plan cuts only $1 billion from the snap program.

Now again, a billion is still, you know, a big number, but a billion in cuts versus $290 billion in cuts.

There's still a lot of room there for disagreement.

So all of this is far from a done deal.

But I bring it up.

People say, well, then why are we talking about this?

The notion that we have people in Congress right now that think that we're not going to notice cutting $290 billion from food assistance and that that's not money going into any American's pocket unless you're a billionaire.

This isn't like some kind of savings.

This is all to pay for tax cuts for the very rich.

Unless Hans, and we've seen this before, if you can give just enough of a temporary tax cut to farmers and others in the middle class to make them feel like, oh, I guess I'm a winner out of this, when it's not, it's all about paying for tax cuts for billionaires.

Exactly.

And that's the problem.

And, you know, we've had this conversation before.

I think a lot of farmers and small business owners

sort of put themselves in the same bucket as the billionaires that are getting these tax cuts and so forth.

And we're just not.

I mean, we're just not.

We have way more in common with the people who we employ and our neighbors in our own community than we do with the billionaires who are actually benefiting from this.

And you talk about 290 billion.

I mean, some of these numbers are so far beyond a normal person's ability to comprehend, but isn't it interesting that that number is

in the same neighborhood as the net worth of the richest man in the world who also has influence on our politics these days.

I mean, if that doesn't scream, this system is broken and needs to have some change and have different people in these offices to call this BS out, then I don't know what does.

here's the thing, the ranking member on the committee is Angie Craig from Minnesota.

And she notes that set aside the $90 billion and everything about oh, we've got to we've got to make all these cuts because people are milking the system.

The average snap benefit is $6 a day.

And for $6 a day, you're talking about rolling back

the largest anti-hunger program in national history, something that has worked, but to again say, well, some people are cheating on it.

Again, we're throwing the baby out with the bathwater to say that a few people that are cheating on the program means you throw out this thing that has

done more to alleviate hunger in this country while also helping the producers of food, the farmers, than anything else out there.

Angie Craig said, you don't build a life on snap.

You build a bridge to the next paycheck, the next opportunity, the next moment of stability.

That's what this is supposed to be about.

And that spirit of that has completely been lost in Washington these days, Hans.

Absolutely.

And what's troubling to me is that, you know, when the right comes out with this nonsense about all this waste and fraud, waste and fraud, waste and fraud, then the mainstream media picks up on it and everybody picks up on it as if it's the truth.

And so, and it's once again, it's the big lie.

Let's create a problem that doesn't exist and then go after and attack it.

And it's just nonsense when all it comes down to is providing another tax break to people who just don't need them.

And it's going

to have an impact on rural economies.

When you change programs like that, it is going to have an impact, especially in light of the fact that some of the people who are, you know, losing their jobs over with these USDA cuts and so forth, they're, they're going to be the newly poor that are going to be relying on some of these benefits.

So I just don't understand what problem are we trying to solve here?

Because waste and fraud, while there might be some, it's very, very small compared to what they're saying.

That's Hans Brighton, Moser, and I'm Pat Quitelow, and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.

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