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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Rosota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Hey, good morning.
It's 806.
Nice to have you back here up north on this Tuesday morning, July 8th.
Parker Olson standing by in Madison Studio A2 meteorologist Brittany Merleau will be along in just a sec and a reminder that coming up later this hour, Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area, the state budget is done and it was quite the whirlwind to get there.
So Dan Schaefer will talk about
how we got there, what all happened, what you might have missed, and what happens next.
Especially when it comes to Governor Evers making up his mind on a run for a third term or not.
So a lot to cover with Dan Shafer coming up yet this hour on these mornings powered by UpNorth News here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Brittany Merleau's got the forecast and I'm hearing from Robin Tigerton who says getting some light rain and thunder in the Tigerton area in the last 10 minutes or so as part of that
what Brittany relatively thin line of those thunder showers that I see coming through there right now from northeastern down to central Wisconsin.
Yeah, yeah.
So he's got a little piece of that.
You can see it kind of going along I 39 moving in towards the Fox Valley.
We're still looking at a few showers just north of Milwaukee and Madison as well.
So pretty much in that central Wisconsin area is where we're seeing those spark up this morning.
Now they're not strong.
Like Rob said, it's some light rain moving through, nothing to worry about.
Just maybe want that umbrella or something.
Otherwise, this afternoon, we are going to see spots of sunshine.
There are clouds mixed in, of course, as well, because we've got this low pressure system that is moving its way through the state today.
So these showers this morning are sparking up because of a warm front, which means today's highs are going to go to the upper 70s and northern parts of the state, 80s for most of us, and even some mid to upper 80s far southwest today.
more comfortable temperatures.
The humidity is not too, too bad, but it is rising because we are going to see that rain moving in this afternoon, the cold front sweeps through.
So as that moves in, probably around four or five o'clock or so, we're going to start to see more thunderstorms to barking up.
And those could be a little bit stronger, not looking at severe, but I'm talking a little bit more rainfall with those and maybe some gusty winds.
So those will move through.
Late this afternoon, early this evening, they'll be done by midnight, probably a tenth of an inch to a quarter inch of rainfall.
And we've got a nice high pressure system that settles in.
I always call it a happy high pressure because it makes people smile.
It brings a lot of sunshine, calm conditions.
That'll be tomorrow and Thursday before the next system hits.
That's going to move in late Thursday through our Friday and it could linger in places on Saturday and it's packing some heavy rainfall with it.
A happy high pressure system.
I
like that.
From Jim and Brookfield on the text line, the village of Elm Grove has been using goats the past couple of years to address buckthorn in a park area near water.
They pen them off in a select area and let them munch away for a couple of weeks.
The locals enjoy the goats and it's fun to bike by and see the activity.
Uh, very true.
We were talking about that.
Uh, if you missed it in the last segment with Mayor Jim Payne from, uh, superior where they're using goats, was saw you as Brittany knows, has used goats in the past to tackle
buckthorn.
They have the goats on the roof.
Well, they have the goats on the roof there.
Yeah.
On the thatched roof, uh, which is in itself, it's own unique tourist attraction.
And we, I, I saw, we talk about it all that one of these times we're going to end up, I'm going to become a goat farmer, a goat herder or something.
You should do it.
I've got, I've got an area back here that.
could really, really use it.
just see a little goat just munching away on there?
I believe on the text line we got for National Sunday Day.
By the way, why is that on a Tuesday?
Anyway, Michael
Michael Antosa says pineapple or butterscotch sundaes are my favorites.
So we're getting a very interesting variety.
And I am watching these scattered.
showers and you're saying they may spark up again this afternoon and I'm really hoping not.
I'm really hoping to avoid putting the top up on the Jeep before I have to go to an appointment this afternoon and when I do and I should I should have Greg Bakken here so he can cheer because tonight will be the first night with the new CPAP machine and so you'll have to watch for us to see if there's lines on my face from the mask you know having to wear this thing.
after
Thank you.
After weeks, nay, months of denial, I am ready for it.
I am ready to...
uh, feel like I'm, I've actually slept all the way through the night and not wake up every, every so often.
Um, I hear that this sleep is a good thing.
Yeah.
I'm hoping to enjoy more of it.
So Brittany, thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
Have a great day.
All right.
You too.
See you tomorrow and you can, of course, of course catch Brittany's local updates throughout the course of the day on your favorite civic media station.
Thursday here on the program, we will be talking to Congressman Mark Bocan.
He may have a thing or two to say about recent events in Washington with the the big bloated bill the mega bill that President Trump managed to get through so tune in Thursday for our monthly visit or so with Congressman Mark Pocan a couple of notes coming up ahead here first off on the civic media radio network How would you like to go road tripping?
especially with with Jane McNair and Greg Bach and Todd Alba.
Well, you can't you can't go with them, but you can listen as they go because McNair on air and the Todd Alba show are hitting the road with stops including Oshkosh, Butternut, Hayward.
You can join Jane and Todd and Greg as they share stories about what makes Wisconsin great.
And that is all after this week's road trip that Todd is making.
He'll be joining me here up north at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair in Chippewa Falls for Thursday and Fridays.
Todd, all the shows from two to four PM.
So catch all of these special road trip additions of Matt Nair on air and the Todd, all the show this week and next across the civic media radio network.
Meanwhile, over at Up North News, we encourage you to sign up for our newsletters, including that Sunday morning one that I put together about Wisconsin politics.
And of course, on our last issue, it was a recap of all of the crazy things that happened in the final 72 hours or so before votes were taken in Washington and Madison on new budget material, including the
comically impressive communication from Congressman Derek Van Orden about how much he likes the bill, but also felt the need to rush a letter off to Governor Evers to warn him about something bad in the bill that could hurt Wisconsin if they didn't act right away.
So our readers got to get to read about that on Sunday morning.
And we also asked our question of the week and it is about the midterm elections in 2026.
Typically, the party that has the White House, they win the White House in one cycle and they have a setback in the midterms.
They maybe lose some members of Congress.
They maybe lose the majority.
It happens almost.
all the time, not all the time, but almost all the time.
And we ask you, what's going to happen next year?
Will Republicans lose their majorities in Congress?
Will they break tradition and actually build on their majorities?
I believe I have an option in there as well that says, you think there are going to be elections in 2026?
That's adorable.
So we want to know your thoughts on that.
So that's why you'd want to sign up for that Sunday newsletter.
Head over to upnorthnewswi.com to learn more and become a subscriber.
There was some activity on the charges against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan.
You will recall that she has been accused of helping an undocumented immigrant exit her courtroom through a different door right into the hallway still where he was spotted, followed and eventually arrested.
Recall that Dugan was rightly peeved that immigration agents were using courthouse entrances as arrest traps.
disrupting other court cases, and making it less likely that witnesses will testify in future cases.
Well, a federal magistrate judge has said that Judge Dugan, her motion to have the obstruction charge against her dismissed should be rejected, that the obstruction charge should stay, despite her use of a defense that seems to work for President Donald Trump.
I mean, you remember, this is the guy that the right wing justices on the U.S.
Supreme Court said had immunity from things that he deems to be official acts.
Well, Duggan's legal team said that should apply here too, but the magistrate said no.
Although that only means the matter, the motion to dismiss the obstruction charge, returns now to the main federal judge on the case, Lynn Adelman, who has a hearing scheduled for tomorrow, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Now, while it's easy to paint the magistrates ruling as a setback for Judge Dugan, I think what it really does is underline what an obvious joke it was for the right wing Supreme Court justices to give Donald Trump a get out of jail free card.
It's political interference that has no place in the justice system.
And so it's not the worst thing in the world that it doesn't become the standard.
but Judge Duggan was right to pursue it.
And keep in mind that the ruling on dismissing the obstruction charge has nothing to do with the merits of Duggan's guilt or innocence in the main case.
And so we'll keep an eye on the main trial as well as this motion to dismiss.
Let's check a little sports here at 816 because hey, welcome to the Brewers.
Andrew Vaughn, the team's newest addition
hit a three run homer in his first plate appearance for the Milwaukee Brewers as they trounced the Los Angeles Dodgers Monday night at American Family Field, nine to one.
So here's the backstory on the Andrew Vaughn home run.
Do you remember starting pitcher Aaron Savali?
We got him from Tampa Bay about a year ago.
Did okay.
But last month he was pulled from the starting rotation in part to make room for rookie phenom Jacob Mizorowski.
But Savalli not wanting to be a relief pitcher, instead of taking that assignment to the bullpen, he wanted a trade to a team where he could continue to be a starter.
The brewers said, okay, and sent him to the lowly Chicago White Sox.
And the brewers got Andrew Vaughn in return, fast forward to Andrew Vaughn's three-run homer in his first plate appearance last night for the brewers.
There was also a two-run homer from Christian Yelich.
Milwaukee starter Freddie Peralta threw six shutout innings for the Brewers, struck out seven, allowed five hits and one walk.
But the Dodger starter, Yoshinobu Yamamoto lasted just two-thirds of an inning.
Imagine having your starting pitcher pulled and you can't even get out of the first inning.
But he'd already given up five runs at that point.
And again, the Brewers go on to win by a final score of 9-1.
There will be games again this evening and then tomorrow afternoon.
But let's talk about that game this evening.
Pre-game starts at 6-0-5 across several civic media radio stations and you can catch the game on any of those stations and you're going to want to.
Now, why?
because the aforementioned Jacob Mizorovsky is going to be pitching.
And he's not just taking on any old schlep over on the Dodgers.
That would be Clayton Kershaw, who's got now 3,000 strikeouts.
So maybe I promoted last, who is it that Jacob Mizorovsky was pitching against last week?
And we were, we were getting all excited
about that matchup.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Was that, was it Skeens?
Yeah.
I mean, I saw him play Skeens.
Yes, you did.
And yeah, it was, it was, it was good,
but now it's Clayton Kershaw.
So this could be, this could be really fun to watch.
Again, if you like pictures duels, which are, you know, me and about three other people at American Family Field
watch it.
No, I'm kidding.
Look, if they've got their stuff and this is one where I would actually say I would, I enjoy pictures dual.
watching on TV.
Because I mean, then you can you can really see the break of the ball and everything else.
And so it could be a lot of fun to watch this match up tonight.
And again, you can catch it on several civic media stations.
A local update is coming up next for some of you.
And when we're all back together in the next half hour, we will be talking to Dan Schaefer from the reconbobulation area.
From the heart of America's Up North Live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Boy oh boy you bring up goats and turns out to be some pretty popular stuff here looking at Facebook and There's the post from former Wausau mayor Katie Rosenberg the goats are back On the island in Wausau there eating the buckthorn there as well
Got to love a good goat story.
more goats.
More goats.
We are your official goat content station here.
Apparently, we're going to be that way for CPAP as well on the text line from Tom and Hartford.
Hi, Pat.
I have to wonder if you've had your nose and sinuses checked for good airflow to be able to get a good night's sleep.
Here in Milwaukee, there is a medical group that does great work.
I know from personal experience, they can make a positive difference.
And he leaves me the information there.
Todd, thank you very much for that.
Um, and yes, I recall that when Greg, uh, the same time that he was starting his CPAP machine, he was talking about having some work done with his sinuses and it was, it was going to make things worse for a little while and then make things better.
And I did ask him, uh, I think last week if that was the case and he said, yes, that he's, he's breathing better.
It's think of it as, uh, was it LASIK that they do for your eyes?
like, like LASIK for your sinuses and that in both cases,
the problem will eventually come back but for a while you get some relief and I've had that restricted airflow thing for quite a while and yet amazingly the same woman will sleep next to me for 39 years and put
up with that
anyway and the thing that helped most about that
is that she started snoring too.
Neither, neither one of us can cast
Yep.
You know, might be, might be why we're empty nesters.
Maybe the girls would have hung around except, except for the story.
The walls were shaking and they just couldn't
anymore.
Yep.
Yep.
And they just had to go.
Uh, we would normally have in the last segment have heard from, uh, Chad Holmes and I, I know I shared yesterday the story of, uh, his attempt to get into the world series of poker and that there was a, there was a snafu.
and that he could not go the way that he wanted to go, but that he hung around because there are plenty of other World Series poker tournaments that go on besides the main event.
And so, Parker, I know that we follow a lot of sports play by play.
Do you keep score baseball?
Do you know how to keep a scorecard on baseball?
So I'm wondering if how would you score this?
I'm going to read one of Chad's updates from yesterday.
OK.
He says, just imagine your little pencil and your little scorecard.
And you're keeping track of how Chad does here.
So Chad writes, a grind so far, 27,000 at the end of eight levels, had one great chance to build with pocket threes in a limped pot.
Four players with me last to act flopped a set of threes Three players all checked to me.
I checked two hoping to trap a second four on the turn gave me a full house Still no one bet checked again thinking someone might
get
something on the river again three checks I finally bet but three folds frustrating I shoved my whole stack three times the last level with an ace 10 for the first two times and an ace Queen suited the last
but all folded will look for a heater soon.
Did you get all that?
That's lovely.
That's great.
Yeah.
Tony writes on YouTube.
He's speaking in code.
Yes, he is.
He's communicating with the other liberal terrorists right now.
That's exactly what it is.
Um,
No, and he did the same thing later talking about a short stack had a super premium hand with King King Guy raises to 4,000 I go in he calls with an ace King Etc etc and again, I say all this out of admiration not mockery Let's let's be really clear.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, it does, the closest that I come to it is trying to learn sheep's head.
And I've been trying to learn sheep's head for 40 years from Sherry's family.
God.
Uh, that is a family tradition.
That is, that is an almost every Sunday afternoon thing where after church and after Sunday dinner and all that and people clean up and the, uh, people that hang around will play five handed sheep's head jack of diamonds partner.
And I have
tried and tried and tried to do it.
We know that Mr. Mathers loves it.
Luke Mathers was playing sheep's head.
He plays cribbage.
He's quite the, but the thing is, the reason I bring this up is much like Chad rattling off what he just did.
My father-in-law, who is now 85 years old, can still, he is still a card counter.
There is a supercomputer in his head that in virtually no time
knows what everybody has just by the first round of play, essentially.
It is amazing.
I mean, it doesn't mean he wins every hand because sometimes you just don't have the cards,
he knows because it is so easy to go, oh gosh, I still don't know who the partner is.
And then somebody will go, um, the jack of diamonds got thrown two rounds ago.
Where were you?
Like, totally missed it.
I don't know.
You
Yeah.
He's actually paying attention, whereas I'm kind of going, wait, what's the rule again?
It's it's club spades.
Hearts diamonds.
Is that the order?
What?
Which is that a trump card or is it not?
You know, and so I'm still asking myself all these questions while they're busy taking all of my nickels.
as we go through.
It's still a lot of fun.
Don't get me wrong, but Tony writes, you should have AI teach you.
It can make a whole lesson plan and walk you through it.
It can make me the lesson plan.
I don't know if it can make me smarter, but here's the thing.
I do have the one thing that got me where they will allow me to play now and then is getting the app.
There's an app for everything.
there is a Sheepshead game app.
So I will occasionally play a few rounds of sheepshead on my phone against, you know, four other computer players.
jab.
And I love my crib a jab too.
I mean, it's more fun to play.
You know, I play most evenings sharing I do, but that for all the technology that's out there.
That is one of the positive notes is it can teach you some new games and get you better at the ones that you already know.
And for the ones like Chad, who knows his poker, we hope it continues to go well for him.
Dan Schaefer from the Recon Population Area talking about the state budget and just a bit on our mornings powered by Up North News, live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We're continuing to watch a line of thundershowers that's stretching from Iron Mountain down through Kashina, Wittenberg, just past Wisconsin Dells and so forth.
So keep an eye on that.
There's another area of activity around Walpons.
So keep it tuned to your local Civic Media Station for your local forecasts as we go throughout the day today.
We were talking to Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12 a little bit earlier in the program.
And I mentioned off the top that we're still finding out about things in the Trump mega bill that are not necessarily good for Wisconsin or anybody for that matter.
And they include other things that the Trump administration has been trying to do.
Certainly we've talked about things like, you know, USAID and the National Weather Service and things like that.
And Dan brought one up about going after libraries and the things that help libraries and museums.
And sure enough, the Trump administration, according to the American Library Association, is trying to dismantle the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
That's IMLS, the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
and will allow the cuts to go on even as courts continue to consider appeals to stop the Trump administration.
IMLS is a nonpartisan independent agency dedicated to supporting and funding museums and libraries.
and the crucial community services they provide in every state across the country.
It was first created and funded by Congress in 1996 and has had bipartisan history because again, who's against libraries?
But it's one of the many things that is having an impact on library users in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
We're continuing to process and hopefully we'll hear from Dan Schaefer soon to hear more about the processing of the state budget bill.
Certainly Dan has once again re-upped his column now that the budget is done on whether Governor Evers should run for a third term or not.
He does not think that that's a great idea for the governor.
But in the meantime, he's been writing over at the Civic Media website about more of the reaction.
from state legislators, both Republicans and Democrats voting for and against the budget.
For those who voted for the budget, for example, they cite things like the big increase in reimbursement for special education costs that school districts will be getting from the state in this new budget.
Yes, that sounds like a good idea, but also there was no increase in
general aides to school districts.
And that really is not sitting well with a lot of educators who cannot believe that a first off that a legislature would provide zero increase for general state aides and second that there are Democrats who would support that.
And I'll be honest with you looking at some of the comments that elected Democratic legislators are getting
from people who are normally their allies does, does cause some concern about whether, especially if Governor Evers decides to run, will he receive, you know, enthusiastic support from the allies of public education?
Or will that support be tepid?
And if so, what does that mean?
Well, it means it probably would be a better year for Republicans than it should be.
And I say that from personal experience because, again, as a state legislator back in 2010 and working on the 2009 state budget, we had to make up a multi-billion dollar shortfall.
And so that included not being able to fund the things that were our highest priorities, like education.
And I got an earful and heard from people throughout the 2010 campaign saying, well, I don't know if I can support you or Democrats after what just happened.
And we would explain, as if it needed to be explained, that we were in a recession, the biggest recession since the Great Depression.
and that we were doing the best that we could and the way to continue to defend as much education investment as possible would be to continue to support us.
Well, instead, either people stayed home or some people even went so far as to support Scott Walker and other Republican candidates.
And about five weeks after Scott Walker and the Republicans took over in early 2011,
down comes the hammer that would become Act 10.
And it was, I mean, it was, and I told you so, of proportions that I can't believe didn't register on Richter scales.
I was so frankly angry at people who said, well, we don't really see any difference between you and the Republicans.
And then the Republicans did what they did act 10 and rigging the legislative maps.
and slashing funding for the universities of Wisconsin system.
And we have a binary system in this country.
You may not like it.
You may wish that there were, you know, third and fourth parties that had a snowball's chance of winning elections, and you can work toward that.
But we have a binary system right now.
And it means that sometimes the party you wish was even more supportive of your causes.
would go to the mats for you, even sacrificing their own political careers of need be to make the case for more spending or more taxes or whatever the case may be.
Or the other choice, and it's a choice, if you choose neither, if you choose neither party, if you choose neither candidate, if you choose not to participate, you are essentially voting for the one that wants to harm you.
And people do not like to hear that.
They do not.
They're like, well, then you are just taking me for granted, whoever the me is.
It might be somebody in education.
It might be a natural resources.
It might be in job training, whatever the case may be.
They feel like, you know, they're being forced to vote for you.
Well, nobody is forcing you to vote.
But if you end up not supporting the people who are with you, just not to the degree that you wish they were,
You're supporting the people that want to hurt you.
It really is that plane.
I you know, I can't make that any more clear to folks.
So Every year it's a binary choice and next year will be the same Now, I don't know who the Republican nominee will be.
They'll be real telegenic I'm sure or maybe they'll be more of a Trumpian, you know forceful speaker and all that But to actually support
that candidate and their party and their agenda the promises during the campaign are going to mean very little and exhibit a for that is What president Donald Trump just signed you think of all the times that he said he was not going to touch Medicaid or Medicare or Social Security and instead this makes punishing cuts to Medicaid and by extension it will harm
Medicare and Social Security.
And do a whole lot of other things that, you know, Trump said he wasn't going to do.
Much like in 2010, Scott Walker never said during the campaign that he was going to take away workers' rights, public union bargaining rights.
But he did.
And that was never going to happen under a Democratic administration.
So, you know, you can look at the campaign commercials all day long.
about what they say, but you'd really be better off looking at the track record.
And the track record may not be everything that you want it to be, but somebody's going to build upon that as opposed to somebody who's going to tear it down.
Now, I would cite, for example, Peggy Words Olson, president of WEAC, good person, strong ally, but calls the budget a complete betrayal of public schools.
the new special education reimbursement rate doesn't keep up with inflation and districts will still be forced to go to referendum.
And she is absolutely right in talking about this does not end the era of continuous referendums.
They will be with us for another cycle.
And that may very well be by design from Republican legislators who hope that voters next year
We'll see another hundred or more school districts go to referendum.
And those Republican candidates will make the case that all these school districts, they keep coming to you for higher taxes.
You need fiscal responsibility.
You need to vote for Republicans in the legislature.
But somebody else, especially Democrats, will have to do a better job of messaging that that's by design.
legislators are kicking the can they're passing the buck quite literally to local school boards and forcing them to ask voters to increase the property tax because they're putting zero dollars into increased general aid.
So Alicia says on YouTube something I will say is if Democrats had the majority in the legislature the budget would have been much better.
even as she and others are acknowledging that this is not everything that anybody would want that budget to be.
Frankly, the same goes for Republicans.
You know, the reason there were a couple of Republican holdouts is they wanted, you know, deeper cuts.
They wanted less spending.
That's the whole point of the budget process is that nobody's going to get everything that they want.
Now there are people who absolutely say that Democrats should have fought harder They should have used their leverage and that would have been the point that Dan Schaefer would have made here this morning is that Democrats had leverage Because there were these Republican holdouts who weren't gonna vote for the budget if Republican leadership wanted to pass a budget they
we're going to need democratic votes.
And so they brought Senator Diane Heselbine, the Democratic leader in for negotiations.
It led to things like the big increase in special education funding, the increase in funding for the UW system rather than a cut to the UW system, um, and more that the governor has pointed at.
But in terms of leverage, I feel like I should remind folks again that there were Republicans who it's not that they were going to vote no on a state budget bill.
It's that they didn't want.
a new state budget bill.
They wanted no budget.
They just wanted the old budget to carry over.
And to them, that was going to be fiscal conservatism.
That was going to be fiscal responsibility, which would have meant no change in the special education funding rate.
It would not have meant any additional dollars to the UW system.
And that's not a convenient excuse.
for Democrats not applying enough pressure.
I don't know the degree to which they applied pressure or not, use their leverage or not.
It's just that the leverage isn't as strong as it would be if government had to shut down without a state budget.
Because Republicans at the congressional level have tried that multiple times.
They've tried the government shutdown and say better that the government shut down.
And as you hear me say all the time, they always end up looking like Wiley Coyote.
in the Roadrunner cartoons, it blows up in their face every time.
Because, you know, again, when government shuts down, people want basic services and they will punish the people who don't provide those.
Alicia on YouTube will say it again, I don't think Republicans had a super urgency to pass a budget.
There indeed were Republicans who were okay with no new budget.
True.
So you cobble together what you're able to, what you can get a coalition for.
And then,
You come back and you fight another day.
But you're only going to fight another day if you fight side by side with the people who were your allies, even if they weren't your allies to the extent that you wish today, so that you have stronger allies tomorrow, or none.
A local update is next for some of you.
The rest, some final news and notes here from Lake WSOTA 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.
Hey, does politics feel more like entertainment, more like, you know, all-star wrestling?
Well, that's because it has become that way, and you can learn more about it in the Courier Newsroom series.
How is this better with Akilah Hughes?
She steps into the ring with a wrestler whose persona is the progressive liberal, along with author Josie Reisman and journalist and former WWE writer Dave Schilling.
to explore why politics today feels more like WWE than C-Span.
They look at the personas, the crowd work, the heels, the faces, and how both wrestling and politics rely on performance, polarization, and pandering to win over the crowd.
If you've ever wondered why politics feels more like a reality show than real life, looking at you, Sean Duffy, well then this is the episode for you.
You can watch how is this better on YouTube?
You can watch or listen on Spotify.
You can listen on Apple or you can watch right from the courier website couriernewsroom.com Coming up across civic media today, Matt Naranair is coming up next from 9 to 11.
Philippe Torres Medina, a comedian and writer, will be joining Jane and Greg just after 10 o'clock this morning.
On the Todd Alba show, he will be joined at 2.30 by Tom Kircher of Wisconsin Watch.
to talk about the state and federal budgets and try to separate fact from fiction.
On the Maggie Dawn Show today from four until six, Angela Lange is the co-guest host.
And just after five o'clock, she'll be talking to Lindsay Owens, a consumer advocate and executive director of the Economic Think Tank Groundwork Collaborative.
They will discuss the recent budget bill
It's projected economic impact on Americans and the state of economy more broadly.
So all of that coming up ahead here on the civic media radio network throughout the course of the day.
There was something else that really stuck with me about Republican reaction to the budget and the way that they worked so quickly to get something passed.
Once they understood that, you know, Medicaid funding
might be lost.
It's the kind of thing that, again, Derek Van Orden sent a letter to Governor Evers saying you need to sign the state budget so that you can basically take advantage of this federal funding because otherwise it's going to get lost.
And so I'm watching some of the local news here and realizing that
State Senator Jesse James was talking about the importance of passing that state budget before the feds changed their rules.
What they changed or what, yeah, what was changed was something called a hospital assessment, essentially a state tax on hospitals to help fund Medicaid.
And it's currently 1.8%.
It is
possible to raise it as high as uh six percent but that hasn't happened yet and the federal bill was going to prevent that from happening and so states had to move quickly so that they could raise six percent now you're saying well wait why would you tax hospitals you know why would you more than triple the tax on hospitals because the federal government matches those dollars and so
when you raise the assessment on the hospitals, remember, some of them are corporate owned by mega companies and things like that.
You're now attracting federal matching funds that were very important to states, especially for, you know, the Medicaid programs.
And one of the things that really kind of stuck out with me,
was a quote from State Senator Jesse James from Thorpe here up here in the Chippewa Valley area.
And he said to WEAU, the biggest ticket item was increasing the hospital assessment and access payments to the federal maximum and reinvesting that money back into the hospitals.
This untapped federal money is an additional pathway to support our hospitals.
Let me say that again.
He says, this untapped federal money is an additional pathway to help support our hospitals.
Well, buddy, what do you think Medicaid expansion is?
Medicaid expansion that you and the rest of the Republicans have ignored for years
has meant that we could not tap into literally billions of dollars in additional funding.
You made a conscious choice to leave that federal funding untapped until it was
politically convenient to get a state budget passed and now cite that untapped federal funding.
But it did not escape me.
As soon as I heard those words and I looked up on the screen and saw those words from Senator Jesse James on the TV screen, this untapped federal money is an additional pathway to help support our hospitals?
Well, I would like to be the first to congratulate State Senator Jesse James.
I believe he just became the first Republican to publicly endorse
accepting the Medicaid expansion and making healthcare in our state that much stronger.
Because at least finally, somebody in the Republican caucus understands the power of untapped federal funding and using our own tax dollars to take care of the healthcare of our people here in Wisconsin.
A reminder that on Thursday, we're gonna talk to Congressman Mark Pocan.
all about the federal budget plans of Donald Trump and all the ways that all of this Medicaid funding is otherwise going to be going not to tax savings, but to the very wealthy to help pay for additional tax breaks.
Congressman Pocano will have much to say about that.
That, of course, will be on Thursday.
Tomorrow, meanwhile, we will have some of our usual friends here, Jimmy Kuska, Earl Ingram, James Kelly, and of course, Melissa Kaye.
with Pigeon Quest.
At least we hope another edition of Pigeon Quest.
All joining us along with Melissa Baldoff with another climate check.
Remember, you can follow our team all day at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
UpNorth News is the Wisconsin home for a courier, a pro-democracy news network.
Follow us on social media as well and subscribe to this show by podcast.
I'm Pat Crightlow, hoping you have a great Tuesday.
We'll see you tomorrow morning, 6am here up north.
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