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Hey, good morning.
Welcome back.
8.06 on a Thursday morning.
It is December 11th.
Hopefully, talking in a bit here with Chad Holmes from 98.9 WXCO in Warsaw, then later Joseph Hecke, and we will be talking all about the entry into the governor's race of another candidate, a seventh Democratic candidate, Joel Brennan, who's getting into things here.
But first, it's time for true confessions of a not mechanical guy.
It's amazing I've been able to own this house for 30 years for what few mechanical skills that I have.
And as I mentioned, a snowblower that just conked out, it had been working great for three years and suddenly stopped.
And it became pretty clear from a neighbor and from Dr. Google that I probably had a carburetor issue that was going on.
And I know that Tony up in Ashland has put up here.
He said, I said, I was recommended that I use Seafoam, a fuel additive.
And Tony says, Seafoam is great.
He said, I had to take my snowblowers carburetor apart last year, never again.
Apparently, it's a very involved thing.
And then on the text line, Tom from Jackson trying to be very helpful here saying C foam only helps keep the carb clean.
If it starts out clean, the idea is to not let the inside get dirty.
If you run ethanol fuel, no matter what grade, ethanol will plug up the carburetor.
Within two years, if not sooner, you must either drain the fuel every season or add stable fuel stabilizer at the end of the snow season.
While I do that, which is why was surprised this happened.
They say, so only non ethanol premium should be used in any gas engine that is not run at least once every six months.
Try it and you will see.
So I'll give you an update on somehow my ability to keep things operating in this house.
Chad Holmes joins us now to either join non mechanical guys anonymous or to wag his finger at me and say, how did you not know this?
Chad, good morning.
How are you?
I will not be wagging my finger in this topic.
That's for sure.
I am useless.
Completely useless with anything mechanical.
You know what made it worse?
And I'm honestly not trying to sound sexist about this.
It's the note that yesterday was Sherry's day off.
And so I was doing the snow plowing with the snowblower, and she was doing the shoveling over by the front step and the front door and all that.
And this all happens right in front of her.
And she sees me looking useless.
And like I told her,
You know, my skills at computer technology and writing are absolutely useless in the wild.
I would be eaten by a bear in no time.
But, you know, we all have our talents, shall we say, just not with the engine in this case for me.
I certainly hope we have at least one or two talents.
I'm still looking, but we'll find
one.
We've all got her, but look, the couple of friends I reached out to have come to me for assistance with either writing something or with computer issues.
So we all help each other out, but it's still a little embarrassing when you have something like that happen.
But then I go ahead and I share it with a statewide radio audience.
I was going to say, there's no
courage there.
I'll give you
that much.
You know what?
some really good ideas that way as well though.
I've gotten some good information over the years from listeners and I appreciate that very much.
How's your Christmas prep coming along?
Do you do much or do you have much to do?
I am always a last minute
person
every year.
I, uh, it's like, oh, hey, you still got two weeks.
Oh, still got a week.
We got three days.
Yep.
I'll just do it tomorrow.
I am the worst at that.
I am, when you, when you go on the 23rd or the 24th
and
see those, those, those poor souls that are wandering stores, that's me.
I understand that.
I had the, I had one of the more unusual shopping prompts this time around.
And again, poor Sherry having to be stuck with me.
I still wasn't sure what to what to get her.
I mean, I had some concepts of a plan as they like to say, but it wasn't till I had to go to the post office to get a package and I could see where the packages from that I had an idea of, like, you know, that's probably for me.
And now I have an idea of, you know, how much she spent.
And so now I can think of things in that range.
And then I got online and I got it all taken care of right away.
But I kind of needed to know what was coming.
my way first because, you know, you get her a coffee mug with a photo of the grandkids and she gets you, you know, an iPad or something.
And it's, it's not the same, you know,
it reminds me of this old comedy bit I saw Norm McDonald do on Letterman show.
And he said that, yeah, I was, I was a coworker.
We were exchanging gifts and
I opened mine first and it was back then it was like a some sort of video recording equipment
long ago and he realizes at the time that the gift he had given, he goes, nice, I'm giving him a chia pet.
So he says, he says as the guy is opening up the gift and one other thing and he pulls out his checkbook, a check for $500.
No,
I have done me.
I have done the that's only the first gift the other one still hasn't arrived yet, you know It's in transit is being shipped or whatever Which is funny because I actually did get a gift for somebody last week and Well, it was for I can say it was for Judy Clark for her retirement party and I get this note back, you know from the place where I got it and It was it was gonna be this
wine glass, you know, that said retirement or something on there.
And they said, Well, it got broken in transit.
So we'll get you a new one, but it wouldn't arrive in time for the party.
Like, Oh, okay.
So things do happen.
But sometimes they're, they're made up.
Let's, let's not kid ourselves.
They are whatever gets us through the, the Christmas shopping season at this point.
So all right, so
you just yell at them though and say, Hey, it's for a party one day only.
Yep.
I
want it for
free right now.
Yeah, yeah, I would like to say that I could do that but chances are I was probably talking to an AI operator anyway.
Did you end up doing the long road trip last weekend for a couple of hockey games and did weather get in the way?
Yeah, no, it was actually Friday we left and it was actually snowing at the time and I go over.
to meet the bus and the bus driver.
You know, it was great to me.
I said, I said, number one, I sure glad I'm not driving here.
And number two,
wouldn't want to be you.
It's starting this road trip.
But no, we went down to the Milwaukee area and actually spent the night because the team was so kind to get a get a room for me as well.
We actually, and actually Saturday morning when we got up.
the senior class parents contacted me and said, Hey, would you be able to do a feature every game where, you know, cause a few years ago I did this where in the first intermission, we'd always have an interview with one of the senior class guys and the parents said, well, we'll make a donation to your, to the station for the broadcast.
I said, Oh, that's fine.
So I sat down and I put out nine consecutive interviews from the lobby in the hotel and there were people looking weird at me.
So
I think that's great.
One guy after another coming through and
Doing a short interview which was fun and but no, it was it's fun to hang out with all those hockey players and the coaches and and
no
arrests.
Well,
no No arrests because I've seen hockey teams when they stay at hotels It gets it can get a little crazy at times.
It was
funny though We get back Friday night after the first game and we're going we got back to the hotel and I'm just sort of waiting because we're
or getting some of the keys and stuff like that.
One of the players comes by and says, hey, you want to come and play some poker with us?
I said, don't, don't tempt me here.
Yeah.
Cause they, apparently they play a little poker before going to bed.
And it's like, uh, probably, probably not tonight.
I was really tired, but I thought, man.
And then the next one I said, yeah, I said, are you really in the poke?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not, not too much like, but we just started to do it for fun.
And I said, yeah, well,
did they have any idea that you would have like taken their shirts?
Okay.
Yeah.
No,
they knew that I kind of, and then I was,
telling the stories of me in Vegas and making my myself daydream to next summer.
So
I was gonna say, yeah, you've got until next summer to put something together.
That's right.
Okay, we're talking.
This is fun.
I mean, it's one of the fun parts of the job to be able to hang out with the guys and stuff like
that.
Oh, yes.
Oh, absolutely.
But then it was this week.
Did you have games that were put off by weather and then you did all the makeup games already?
Well, first, the game was postponed Tuesday because of the snow.
Big game, undefeated.
Weston Stevens pointed them.
Both are just outstanding.
Everyone's looking forward to it.
They said we're going to play it tomorrow, which was Wednesday.
So then I already had my guest lined up for my big high school sports show.
So all my guests up at AA, can we reschedule for next week, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then yesterday around noon, word comes down because Steven's point had canceled school that they couldn't play last night.
So then I have to get back on the horn and get these guys to come back into him last night.
And it was just crazy.
I mean, that's the way it is.
And what my co-host is, the athletic director at Wesley the ad, you know,
this time of year it's just crazy in terms of then trying to figure out what day works for both schools and it's like we only had like two days the rest of the season that really worked for for both teams and it's part of the job of AD is during the winter they hate snow days I'll say
oh yeah yeah well and I'm sure that occasionally maybe there's a conflict when it comes to basketball but I think especially for hockey I mean in some of those communities there's real competition for ice time
Yes, absolutely.
You got figure skating clubs and you got so many youth hockey teams around here
that,
you know, it's, it's funny because I did a game Friday night and walk a shop and the game gets done.
And then all of a sudden these people come out on the ice and they're just starting at 9 30 at night.
And, uh,
know, it's really is back to back to back.
I mean, when that schedule is set, there's very few holes in it, especially if you don't have a.
an ice sheet that's basically your own
and you're
basically using these community ice sheets.
Last time we were in Kalamazoo and our six-year-old grandson is, you know, on a, well, it's not, it is a hockey team or if it's just lessons to get you ready there.
Anyway, they had a Saturday practice or whatever and when we first walk into the gym at Western Michigan University, there's all these little players up against the glass and they're pounding the glass going, let us in, let us in as the Zambon
driver is making his way around there I'm like don't rush the Zamboni driver man you want you want good ice for this you know he's he's your friend you know
It's and it's so fun to watch these kids because at first, you know, with hockey, youth hockey, it looks like somebody just opened up a bag of squirrels, you know, and let them loose on the ice here.
You know, it's not really strategy or anything like that.
But the strides are much shorter when you're young, much shorter.
But I got it.
I got to say, it's not just, you know, my grandson, but just watching the development from
hardly being able to stand on the ice to some of the moves that that six year old is making right now that I don't even know that I could make once upon a time.
That's just it's it's fun to see that I'm sure you see that progression as well even in high school sports from you know the difference from a freshman to a senior is you know I think one of the more interesting parts of the job going I remember you and you were just a freshman who didn't know which way to hike the football.
Now look at
your, you know, I had a conversation like that last night on the show and because I had a Goldie from Everest that came in and he's been starting since he was a freshman, he's always senior and basically said to him, it's like, how have you changed?
And it's like so many changes.
I mean, because I mean, at that age, when you're a freshman and a senior, about four more inches, number one, and it's really amazing the amount of strides that they do make over those four years.
Okay.
So again, Chad's got the big high school sports show on Wednesday nights, most of the time, whether
Not withstanding.
And then Parker, over here, you've got your own make the call on Saturday mornings.
Yes.
Yes, we do.
Are you on this week, Chad?
I don't remember.
We're recording appearances live on here.
I know your name's up in the air.
You
will be.
I
know eventually I'll still.
My hectic schedule.
I was gonna say, I don't know if you can afford his guest fee for these radio appearances.
That's a good point, yes.
Right, we'll barely afford it.
Yes, I mean, my goodness, it's amazing we can afford to get this guy on as often as we do.
You can hear Chad on 98.9 WXCO as morning updates all throughout our program here.
And of course, current headlines, weather, sports at wxco.fm.
Chad, thanks very much.
We'll talk to you next week.
You bet, Pat.
All right.
Still ahead, we will be talking to Joseph Becky about the entry of Joel Brennan into the governor's race and where the field goes from here.
From Up North News, I'm Pat Krightlo.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
All right, now don't faint when I say this.
I think the Trump administration might have done something right when it comes to that Venezuelan oil tanker.
I know, I know.
My first thought was, what the heck is this?
And we'll get into that in just a second.
But first, our question of the day is about your property tax bills because they've been coming out this week and those numbers are higher, by and large.
Who's to blame?
It's a rhetorical question because I know the answer and I'm just making sure you all know as well.
And I want to know what are you going to do about it?
Because again, we had a state budget debate this year as we do every two years in the legislature to decide upon the level of state support for things like educating our children.
And while Governor Evers proposed $3 billion increase to make up for years and years and years of chronic underfunding that does not keep up with inflation,
the best that Republicans would do was a budget that they said, well, you know, we're not, we're not cutting education, but we are going to freeze state aid to K-12 public schools.
Well, inflation is still a thing.
As you know, the costs are still there.
And so where do you think that goes to help foot the bill?
It goes to the property taxpayers because the legislature has essentially passed the buck.
to local units of government, school boards included.
And so now you have seen a record number of school referendums with school boards asking people to raise their own property taxes and you see levies that are higher in part because the legislature again had a freeze on state aid.
So I just want folks to be aware that on your property tax bill, there's a line there for the county share of it.
There's a line there for your town or city or village share of it.
There's a line on there for your technical college district for their share of it.
And then there's a line for your school district share of it.
And I consider that school district line to be a typographical error.
I think that that needs to be changed.
It should not say school district on there.
It should say, here's the cost of 15 years of Republicans running the Wisconsin legislature.
and trying to kill off public education along the way, but just everything that they have done that have increased costs and increased the tax burden for people across the state that have four schools to talk about consolidating or even closing instead.
That's what we've had for these past 15 years along with the gerrymandered maps.
Now the maps are going to be more fair next year.
and maybe people can do something about what's happening with their property tax bills.
And that takes me to a reminder that I've got a story over on the Up North News website.
It's meant to be kind of a one-stop shop.
For all you need to know about Wisconsin elections in 2026 I make sure to outline what all is going to be on the ballots Ballots plural because there are four count them for election days in 2026 February April August and November and I explained the difference between all of them
And we talk about again all the big races that are at stake.
We talk a bit about the key issues as measured in the latest Marquette University Law School poll and how you can learn more about voting in 2026, especially after the first of the year when, you know, it would be a really good idea to check your voter registration status and make sure that you are, you know, on the voter rolls or, you know, maybe.
need to register.
Maybe you've moved, maybe something has changed, you know, name, address, whatever the case may be.
And so after the first of the year, you can head to myvote.wi.gov.
And by the way, while you're there, you can select an option that has all four of those election absentee ballots mailed to you.
one stop shopping for the whole year.
I mean, you can do it election by election by election by election to say, send me the next absentee ballot.
I know I'm going to be gone or I know there's some reason why I need an absentee ballot sent to me.
But they also give you the option that says, send me all of the absentee ballots as they come up throughout the course of the calendar year.
It's a great little hack that a lot of people don't know about.
So we'll make sure to remind you over at Up North News after the first of the year about that.
All right, I I have to fess up here on this notion of the US military seizing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela because Again, my first thought was this is just a naked attempt to ratchet up Conflict there that could eventually lead to military involvement directly in Venezuela For no good reason again.
This is just
something in this.
This is how, you know, Trump loves to talk tough, pick on somebody and then use the military against them, whether it's, you know, migrant laborers or just Americans protesting in the streets or another country.
And Venezuela calls this, quote, a barefaced robbery and an act of international piracy aimed at stripping the country of its oil wealth.
but that's where we get into the issue of Iran and that Venezuela and this tanker in particular has apparently been used at times to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran sometimes taking Iranian oil as far as Cuba and if that is indeed the case if Venezuela is trying to circumvent sanctions against Iran
and what remains against Cuba as well, then it's not as naked and baseless as I feared it might sound in the very beginning here.
And that only frustrated me more because, again, 2025 has been a year.
Frankly, it feels like much more than a year in just this year.
and of all of the craptastic things that have been done by this administration over the past 10, 11 months.
The cherry on top of this kind of dumb year would be the one thing that they do is actually something they do right, and that is to make sure that any country, not just Venezuela, but anybody else, doesn't go against sanctions on Iran or Russia.
Although I have a feeling if these were, if this was oil involving Russia, maybe we wouldn't see the Trump administration going after it so firmly.
But yeah, I told you, if I hear something I think might be the right thing to do, I'm gonna say so.
I didn't think I'd ever have to say so, but this one might, might just be one of those examples.
Joseph Pecky is on the way next.
I'm Pat Crightlow from Up North News.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
On the text line at 855-75 Civic from Bob in Eau Claire, he says, it's impossible for Trump to always do the wrong thing.
Eventually he will screw up and do the right thing, which...
might be the explanation for what happened with the Venezuelan tanker.
Meanwhile, as far as what this year has been like, Alicia puts on YouTube, I think I have aged 10 years with everything this administration and the state legislature have done so far this year.
In our newsletter, you can sign up for it up northnewswi.com.
We have an article in there about the new license plates, the new retro license plates, the yellow is coming back, and so is a blackout style, a black plate with the
white numbers.
You can see that along with another gorgeous picture.
This one from Joanne and Spring Green capturing just the magic of winter in Wisconsin.
Again, sign up for the newsletter at upnorthnewswi.com.
Time to bring in our friend Joseph Pecky to talk about political headlines in the state this week.
Of course, starting with this morning's announcement by Joel.
Hold
I was talking about that just yesterday with one of the guys in the neighborhood and he was talking about cross country skiing and all the things he likes to do.
And he's very happy that it's cold because it means the snowpack won't be melting in the bright sunshine.
And I told him about my favorite winter sport activity, which is walking out to the hot tub and then walking back in from the hot tub.
And there really wasn't much conversation after that because I too.
not the world's biggest fan of, you know, four degree weather.
And, and now it's going to be teams below zero this weekend.
So no, not, not a fan, but it makes for pretty photographs, I think is my
Yes.
That's a that's part of the theater seasons sometimes the preview of coming attractions is the coming attraction All right Well, let's let's look at the field for governor here Joel Brennan a former top official in Governor Evers cabinet announced that he is going to be running joining an already crowded Primary field and we spoke live with him about an hour and a half ago if you missed it Look us up as a podcast and listen back to the 7 a.m.
Hour
What does Joel Brennan's entry do for this field, apart from make it, you know, that much larger?
think
it.
I don't think there's anybody else that is kicking the tires and thinking about doing this.
Out of, so now I think we have like seven realistic candidates.
I think I can do them in alphabetical order.
Mandela Barnes, Joel Brennan, David Crowley, Francesca Hong.
Um, Missy Hughes, uh, Kelle Roy's and Sarah Rodriguez.
They were so close.
Rodriguez would have come before Roy's, but other, other than that.
Oh,
okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you know,
The thing is that there's also, though, a doubling up, if you will, in each of the various lanes, as I like to describe them.
You've got Francesca Hong and Keldoroy's as legislators.
You've now got Joel Brennan and Missy Hughes coming from a business experience standpoint.
You've got Sarah Rodriguez, the current Lieutenant Governor.
Mandela Barnes, the former Lieutenant Governor.
And then you've got David Crawley with, you know, government experience as a county executive.
So not only is the field rounded out in terms of names, but in terms of
You know, the various places where Democratic candidates would come from to come into a race like this.
And what a beloved governor he has been for the last eight years.
Because really, you've got now four people who are trying to sort of lay claim to the Evers' success of the last eight years.
and try to capture some of that for themselves in addition to putting their own, you know, self into it and what they've done.
But between two lieutenants governor, I think is the plural, much like attorneys general in Barnes and Rodriguez and two top cabinet officials in Hughes and Brennan.
I think you've got a lot of people who are trying to draft off of the success that Tony Evers has had.
And, you know, we'll see.
My bold prediction this morning is that not all of those seven folks will have their name appear on the ballot next August.
Because between now and May 1st or so, which is right around when nomination signatures go out, there's going to be some sorting out and sifting and winnowing of the field.
The fact that you have
four folks, two from that sort of like economic development world of Evers, the fact that you've got three candidates from Milwaukee, that's going to start to be pretty crowded.
And if you cannot demonstrate an ability to raise real resources, I kind of don't care how big your super PAC or your IE is going to be.
We know that, you know, at least three, if not four or five of these seven are going to have independent support, you know, behind them.
But you got to get contributions you got to capture people's imagination and get attention and seven legitimate candidates is an awful lot of them in this information environment
And I can speak just from my personal experience of working with Dana walks when he was running for governor eight years ago You know the people who would donate during a primary and probably Republican as well as Democratic but I can speak for the Democratic ones, you know, they're their checkbooks are not
wide open right now.
They're kind of just in a wait and see.
They don't want to be the one writing a, you know,
$250 check or $1,000 check to somebody who then is going to drop out in mid-April or something like that.
And it's frustrating as I'll get out for these candidates because they know they have supporters out there.
But fundraising is going to be just a real bear for all of these folks.
That's one of the yardsticks that people will be measuring them on.
Another one is, you know, so-called electability and the other is, you know, trying to get a feel for what kind of a governor would they be?
Would they be divisive?
Would they be too cozy with Republicans and things like that?
And of those three yardsticks, you know, the fundraising and the management style, I have a feeling it's the electability one that
voters probably look at most of all and say, can this person win in November?
Or do you feel like they're looking at other factors?
I think there are absolutely times when voters are scared and want to go safe.
And in my travels around the state earlier this year, and in what we are seeing from the Democratic Party writ large, and what I mean by the Democrat is it's voters.
I think folks are rightly angry at the system, at the establishment, and are looking for change.
And if you cannot capture the sort of primal rage that people are feeling when health care costs too much, groceries costs too much, childcare costs too much, housing costs too much, or is out of reach, you know, there is going to be a real
differentiator between some of these candidates ability to say, I've been part of the system versus I'm well, I'm ready to take on the system.
And I think, you know, in 2004 is a great example.
People were scared.
It was the wake of 9 11.
We were at war in the Middle East.
And there was a real sense among Democratic primary voters, we just got a win.
Right.
And that's how we ended up with John Kerry, who was viewed as the most electable Democrat.
despite the fact that a lot of people really like Howard Dean, right?
I'm not sure the mindset of Democratic primary voters right now is scared, therefore looking for safe.
I think to the extent people are scared, they are pissed off, they are mad as hell, and they don't want to have to take it anymore.
And so, which...
who among those seven can best grab that mantle of reform and challenge to the system, I think is going to go a very long way.
uh, Joseph Pecky is here and the front runner arguably among the Republicans is Congressman Tom Tiffany, although Washington County executive Josh Shulman is certainly trying to make inroads as well.
But you know, Tiffany has said he's, he's going to train most of his firepower on Mandela Barnes.
He feels like Barnes is the front runner and that, you know, he, he's not going to spend a lot of time defending Donald Trump, put it that way.
Uh, he's going to
He's going to use Mandela Barnes as a proxy for Tony Evers and criticize anything that he doesn't necessarily agree with.
My question to you is, if that is the case, if that actually is what Congressman Tiffany does to spend most of his time singling out Mandela Barnes, does that strengthen Barnes' standing among the primary voters?
They say, oh, he must be the guy if Tom Tiffany is attacking him, or does it actually wear him
down and people begin looking at the other candidates by comparison?
Or are there other reasons why Tiffany is singling out barns for a tax?
But I will say that Tom Tiffany is going to have a really hard time if he thinks that he can run away from Donald Trump.
Tom Tiffany is the consummate insider, has been a member of the state legislature, has been in the Congress for years, and what does he have to show for it?
What has he done to differentiate himself from Donald Trump?
When Donald Trump launched a trade war that is hammering Wisconsin farmers, destroying the soybean market, where was he?
And standing up and saying, hey, this is bad for my constituents in northern Wisconsin.
He didn't do it.
He is among those complicit in the fact that healthcare premiums are about to skyrocket.
He has not had anything going for him when it comes to trying to distance from Donald Trump, whose popularity is dropping like a stone, right?
The latest numbers from the Associated Press and Norbert College, 31% approval on handling the economy for Donald Trump.
This was supposed to be Mr. Fix It.
And Tom Tiffany has just said, OK, Trump, you want me to jump how high?
You want me to ditto head everything you're doing?
OK, sign me up.
And so I'm not sure what else Tiffany can do because he can't authentically distance himself from Trump.
So of course, he's got to try to find a punching bag.
He's he's going to borrow a page out of the the current trump economic playbook something that we've mentioned before now I'll now mention to you this hour as well is How much longer will the blame biden for the economy thing last because you know tiffany is going to go there as well This this is all biden's fault.
This is all evers fault and anything to deflect from what donald trump has or hasn't done over these past 10 months
I mean the economy is shedding jobs
Stuff costs too much and what we saw on full display this week is Donald Trump is incapable of hearing what the American people are saying You know they're oh, we're gonna get him out of Washington.
He's gonna go make his economic case But he doesn't have a case to make because he's made it worse and Rather than say here's my new policies.
We're gonna change course.
We're gonna end the tariff war What he's saying is affordability is a hoax
Ray, he's trying to take what people are feeling and living in their lives and saying, no, no, no, no, this is all made up, it's all in your head.
That's not gonna fly.
This lack of an economic plan is not surprising only because there's also no healthcare plan.
And that's what we're going to get into in just a moment here because, again, millions of Americans are going to be facing higher insurance premiums because of what is and what isn't happening in Washington, D.C.
And several groups and other leaders this week are making sure that Americans know why that is and how something could have been done.
but some of these elected officials choose not to.
We'll continue that with Joseph Becky right after this.
Again, tomorrow, our regular Friday weekend review panel.
And much more, I'm Pat Crightlow.
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Coming up on 8.53 and Matt and Aaron are coming up the final two episodes before Jane's retirement so join Jane and Greg coming up right after the nine o'clock news.
Joseph Pecky back with us now and we've been talking about the latest developments in the race for governor.
Let's turn now to health care because the the U.S.
Senate Republicans had promised a vote on extending the Affordable Care Act's enhanced premium tax credits as part of a deal to end the government shutdown.
And as we've discussed that previously, nobody thinks it's going to pass.
And the House Republicans probably wouldn't take it up either.
And yet, health care remains.
Of course, a key area of concern for Americans, they've seen just how high their health insurance bills are going to go.
And so there are vulnerable Republicans saying, hey, we should put something out there.
And according to Politico, the House Republicans are really divided amongst themselves as to what to propose, whether it's, you know, some actually want to put a one year extension out there, allegedly.
And others want, you know, health savings accounts, of course, that old chestnut.
And then there's another bullet point that was simply called innovation.
You know, it wasn't even called concepts of a plan.
It was simply called innovation.
That's not a plan, Joe.
And I know that between Protect Our Care and other groups, y'all are making sure that people know just who is responsible for their health insurance premiums getting jacked so high.
Who is responsible
and doesn't have an alternative plan.
It is bad enough that Donald Trump stood on a debate stage last year and said, well, I have concepts of a plan.
And then nobody thought to flesh that out.
For 15 years, Republicans only healthcare policy has been to criticize Obamacare.
And even when we approach this deadline, these expiration of these credits that are going to skyrocket people's premiums,
They've had all year.
They've had multiple years to come up with something.
And instead, Mike Johnson, little MAGA Mike, walks into his conference this week and says, here's 10 bullets, and maybe in the months ahead, we can flesh some of this out.
They're so bad at this.
Like, it boggles the mind.
and the reality is this is an economic cataclysm on our doorstep because when your health insurance premium goes up by hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month you either drop health insurance which means
Everybody who has health insurance is going to pay for the most expensive type of care.
There is emergency room care when you do get sick or you do have an accident or something you should have been dealt with years ago or months ago.
Suddenly is a serious problem.
It means you have less money to go and spend in the economy because you're going to be saving everywhere you can in your budget.
That's going to impact.
everything from restaurants to movie theaters to retailers.
This is going to be devastating.
And I hate to sound alarmist, but like the pain is real.
We had a conversation yesterday with a restaurant tour, a small business owner and a pharmacist and governor Evers.
And the stories, they just make your blood boil.
that young parents of kids under the age of 10 are going, well, we're gonna have to just pay for the health insurance for the kids, and we, the parents won't be able to get the care that we need.
What are we doing here?
And so it, I'm very frustrated.
This is not over yet.
If you are anxious about this,
Call Ron Johnson.
Call your Republican member of Congress.
It is still at this hour, not too late.
If 214 Democrats plus four Republicans sign a discharge petition and vote on a clean extension, let's just, whether it's one year or two years or three years, get this to the president's desk.
I'm not sure you would sign it if it did, but we gotta try.
Because people cannot afford what's coming.
And as a society, we cannot afford the second, third order impacts this is going to have on our economy.
I would love to see a Mr. Smith goes to Washington moment and have people come to their senses in the Republican caucus about this, but as I note in the article from Politico, in this House Republican session, more than 20 Republican members spanning various factions lined up at the microphones to weigh in, but hardliners raised opposition to any extension of the subsidies
unless they include further restrictions on abortion coverage, a view that clashes with the Republicans who are in vulnerable districts next fall.
These hardliners, again, won't even allow a clean vote unless they can add to the abortion wars in there.
They are truly incapable of just having a clean vote on something that would be good for their constituents.
That would just buy them time.
Okay, buy yourself the space to do it.
Extend these for a year and spend 2026 legislating on the Republican alternative.
But they are incapable of seeing and taking the most obvious path forward.
It's like they're trying to lose.
because this is going to make their political misfortunes of the moment where Democrats continue to win races that they haven't won in decades, like the Miami mayor that flipped to Democrats this week.
It's like they are getting hit politically, getting hurt, and they like the pain.
I just don't understand
it.
there's a bag of tricks that they use.
And of course, we've seen it with Ron Johnson, you know, three times now is when you're not popular and you don't have ideas, you just find new and interesting ways to bash, you know, your opponent.
And so next year, they won't be defending that they'll be busy talking about trans athletes, and, you know, abortion and whatever else they can to avoid talking about their lack of action or lack of compassion, or lack of anything on the issue of health care.
And I just want to keep calling people's
attention to that so that they see through all of that fog next year.
Joseph Pecky, thank you so much as always.
We'll talk to you next week.
See you, Pat.
All right.
Coming up on the program tomorrow, we will be talking to former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, a candidate for governor who will be joining us in our eight o'clock hour tomorrow morning.
Also, Dr. Kristen Lyrely, Mark Jacob, and Jonas Pizito from WCPT Radio in Chicago.
My thanks to Joe, to Joseph Pecky, Chad Holmes, James Kelly, the folks from Project Fire Buddies, Sean O'Malley, Joel Brennan, candidate for governor, Sharita Booker, and to all of you for being here this morning, I'm Pat Krightlow from Up North News, part of
of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network.
We'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning, 6 a.m., back here up north.
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