Fighting For Compassion In Wisconsin’s Budget (Hour 1)

Live from the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app,

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Alma, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer on the board.

It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Monday, back to work, back to school, at least for some June 2nd, 2025.

That's right.

We are into June Dairy Month.

Mr. Zommers, how are you?

Also Pride Month.

Also Pride Month, as well.

I'm

doing well.

Had a good weekend, spent some time with my family back in Manitowoc.

fixed my sister's arcade cabinet, which

is

a slot machine.

So yeah, we had that up in the garage and put in $2 and then opened the cabinet and took the $2 out and put them back in.

Well, fantastic.

Good for you.

If this is any indication of how today's show will go, right before we get on the air,

I had one of my headphones on and one off and I was doing something.

Zommerz comes in the studio and he says something and I thought and I looked up and I said, why what happened?

And he said, you didn't hear the news?

And I said, I don't know.

And he said, well, Ukraine did a big offensive against Russia.

And I started laughing uncontrollably because what did you actually say?

Did you hear?

I

said, go Ukraine.

That's right.

Zommerz said, go Ukraine.

And what I thought he said was, go you Hugh Grant.

Which, uh, not the same

thing.

I thought, what did Hugh Grant do now?

But no, it was go you Ukraine.

He was the Russian truck driver.

No, he was

not.

No, he was not.

Uh, yes, big news over in Ukraine over the weekend.

Might get to a little bit of that big offensive there.

So yes, go, go Ukraine.

It was an interesting weekend for me, a busy weekend that I thought it might be, but that's fine.

I had a good time throughout the entire week.

On Saturday, went to brunch with my friend Chris Andrews from United Wisconsin, talked about fusion voting, have some exciting things come up.

We'll talk about here in the days and weeks to come with that.

And then on Saturday afternoon night, I went down to the beautiful city of Monroe, Monroe, Wisconsin in Green County.

And met up with my friends Curt and Floresy and also Rob Wheat and Sean Holly, who is in town.

And we went and saw Boogie and the Yo-Yos.

Have you ever seen Boogie and the Yo-Yos?

I

think I

have.

I don't remember exactly.

I've

seen a lot of local bands like

that, at least.

They're a great band based out of, I believe, Appleton, Wisconsin.

Yeah,

Appleton.

and they play all over and they always play at cheese days.

You've heard me talk about usually a Saturday feature at cheese days.

Well, this year, the Monroe County or the Monroe Chamber of Commerce kicked off their downtown summer concert series with Boogie and the Olio's because, of course, this year is not cheese days.

It's so big it only happens every other year.

And so they brought Boogie in and I have been wanting to do this.

Here you go for those watching on the stream, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

There is my Boogie and the Yo-Yo's t-shirt.

Pretty cool t-shirt.

So I did that.

It was just a great concert.

Made me feel good.

Came back on Sunday, had a brunch here in Madison.

It was a big brunch weekend for me.

Had brunch on Sunday with the Wheats and the Hollies.

and then kind of worked on the show and chilled out on the rest of it.

Still smoky across much of Wisconsin due to those Canadian wildfires.

Still bringing down, did not get as much rain, I think, as they were thinking, although they're saying now tomorrow more rain and thunderstorms, some of which in some parts of the state could be severe.

We'll keep you up to date on that as well.

Gonna be a big show here today.

Coming up at 2.35, State Senator Kelder Royce.

from the 26th district of Wisconsin, member of the joint committee on finance will be here in studio.

Will the joint finance move to doing some things on taxes?

Is there any progress being made?

We'll get an update from Senator Royce on that.

And then just after the three o'clock hour, Tom Kirchner of Wisconsin Watch will be in and talking about a fact check on some of the GOP things as well as news here in Wisconsin on vaccines.

So we'll talk to Tom about that and other things over the weekend as well.

And hour two, what's worse for you?

And I've got a story.

I was going to tell it at the top of the show, but I think I'll wait until hour number two because it is timely, timely need.

Remember how I've said this show before?

I've been adamant that in Wisconsin, it's right turn, no stop, that you could just go on.

I mean, maybe not.

It's not supposed to be.

Maybe not.

Maybe not.

Stay tuned.

I've got a story about that in hour two.

And also, I know Jane McNair, a friend and colleague of McNair on air and Greg Bach touched on this this morning.

But from the news of the wild and wacky of politics, Iowa's US Senator Joni Ernst, not holding back, being, yeah, being very, very honest.

So we'll, we'll get to her kind of crazy comments and, and much, much more, including the Trumpster tweeting out, and I'm not making this up.

The Trumpster tweets out over the weekend that he believes that Joe Biden was, is dead.

And what we, what we currently see is, is like a, a sith or, or an Android.

And not only that he's dead, but that he was executed in 2020.

Here's the actual tweet or the.

from his true

social to be fair, he

reposted.

He did not say this, but,

you know,

he repost.

Thank you.

The implication is that he believes agrees with it.

He reposted this from someone else on his true social network.

The quote is, quote, there is no hashtag Joe Biden executed in 2020.

Hashtag Biden clones, doubles and robotic engineered, soulless, mindless entities are now what you see.

Hashtag Democrats don't know the difference on quite there's more And you know Unfortunately Trump got a lot of what he wanted on this which are people particularly left-leaning pundits the likes a oh my gosh 25th Amendment Donald Trump's incompetent, you know the dementia blah blah blah And it ain't that in my opinion.

He knows exactly what he's doing It's do get us to spend the next hour talking about that

tweet out there instead of talking about what's going on in Washington and the custom Medicaid and Medicare and the tax breaks for billionaires in this country, the 1% and getting this off kilter.

So fine.

I mentioned it.

I mentioned it.

We might talk a little bit more about it, but that ain't going to be the focus of the show.

I

agree.

I think it is a

distraction.

It's the news of the of the wild.

And the wacky Tony's ever been watching on YouTube says someone clearly watched Star Wars right the Clone Wars You're absolutely right Tony.

I read an article.

I think on the intellectuals was oh, yeah He'd like us like you to talk about anything but his bill.

Yes, you're right.

I Saw an article or a post by the intellectuals over the weekend Spooky talking about the continued rise of AI

and where this is going, and the fact that this whole thing about clones and synth or whatever, synth, sorry, synth, it ain't 100% made up.

It's not gonna happen tomorrow, but within the next 50 years, it could be something, so.

Anyway, all that more can be up on today's show, but right now it's 14 minutes past the hour of two o'clock.

Time once again for this year's edition of Scotty's Summer Text to Win Contest.

Here we go.

Let's start this off.

It's time once again for this summer's edition of Civic Media's Scotty Summer Text to Win Contest.

This is very big.

For those who've been with us for a while, you know how it goes.

Every time we do this, not just on our show, but on others, you'll have a chance that hour to win either A, a $100 Benjamin Franklin cold hard cash bill, or B,

a pair, that's two, a deuce, of brewer tickets in our beautiful club-level seats.

And then at the end of the two-week contest, two lucky grand prize winners will be randomly drawn by a computer, and you'll either get an A, a Baraboo Area Dell's getaway, or a beautiful Door County getaway, and each vacation comes with cards for gas.

How about that, Zombers?

So...

I'm very, very excited.

And we're going to give you a word this hour.

You download the Civic Media app.

If you don't have it, go to your app store, Apple or Android, type in the search bar, Civic CIVIC Media.

It'll pop up.

Click on it.

It takes less than a minute to download.

It's free.

It's what Gale King calls a deal.

Then you open that up.

The first 11 stations are the ones we're on.

Click on one of those.

In the lower right hand quarter, it'll say text.

All right.

I'm going to give you a word here in a minute.

and text us the following word in a second.

But here's the caveat.

Now, in yours, well, I guess in yours, but in Contest's past, there has been this internal pitting of my very good friend and colleague, the wonderful entail to Jane McNair.

Again, and there is, well, who could get the most text to it?

And we had won, quote unquote, the first couple of times.

And then the last contest, Jane beat our posteriors and was named the internal text to win queen.

Well, apparently now they've retired her text to win Jersey, because she's not a part of this one.

They've given us a new, and Jane was never our nemesis, but they've given us a new nemesis in the face of nationally syndicated Tom Hartman, the most popular liberal talk progressive program in America.

He is the number nine talk show in America.

and they've pitted our little show against his.

And he's gonna get the word every day by Carrier Pigeon, because he's very green.

He'll get the word by Carrier Pigeon, he'll unroll it, he'll give you a word during his show, we'll give you a word during our show.

Here's the deal, if we beat Tom Hartman, I'm told they're taking us national.

So right there, that's very, very big news.

So here we go, the text to in word for this hour is...

The text-to-win word is brew, B-R-E-W, brew.

The word is brew, B-R-E-W.

The witch is brew.

So help yourself, first and foremost, by the way, up for grabs this hour, a pair of Milwaukee Brewer tickets.

So that's fantastic.

Help yourself out win the tickets.

And then secondarily, help us reclaim our text-to-win contest trophy and beat Tom Hartman.

And you know unlike our show if we beat Tom Hartman this contest is statewide.

Oh, thank you very much Yes, this is a statewide contest the lawyers insist that we must tell you that So join our statewide contest all the next two weeks here.

We're gonna have word for you during quite low show at 7 a.m

during the Hartman show at 11, our show at two and Maggie Dawn show at four every day for the next two weeks.

Be listening and we'll give you a word and you can win either those Brewer tickets, a hundred bucks or those lovely prizes to the Baraboodles area and the Door County getaway.

I've heard now, I cannot confirm this, I've heard that the Door County getaway includes a jar of cherry bounce.

So that would be very nice.

That would be that would be big if true.

Yes,

as I was

just going to say, as the kids say, big if true.

We don't know.

We don't know.

But what is true is you can win a pair of Brewer tickets, a text word, brew a B R E W right now for our Scotty summer text to win contest.

Back with some headlines after this is the title ball show for Monday on the Civic Medium.

truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to Total Ball Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Twenty-two minutes now past the hour two o'clock on this Monday.

We're into June.

Can you believe it?

Lots more graduations happening this time of year.

People are starting their whole new chapter after either high school or college.

Allergies, by the way, are still killing me.

I'm sorry about the voice a little little scratchy little rough rusty.

I feel like it's getting better, but I know people all over the The state are really struggling this year lots of tree pollen allergies right now right in the middle of our Scotty summer text to win contest up for grabs this hour This contest ends at three o'clock sharp.

So text it while you can up for grabs

two pair of Milwaukee Brewer tickets, simply go to the Civic Media app and text the word, brew, B-R-E-W, B-R-E-W.

On the Civic Media app, you two then will be entered in for those two free Milwaukee Brewer tickets in our beautiful club level seats right on the third base row.

You can look right down into the Brewer's dugout.

They're phenomenal.

And then also,

Everybody who enters over the next two weeks will be eligible.

We're giving away two great grand prizes a Wisconsin vacation in either the Baraboodles area or Dora County and We're giving you gas money to get there a 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 and

eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Our friend's ongoing contributor, Jeff Perry, watch on Facebook says that the contest rules are too complicated.

Feel free just to award the prize to me.

I'm willing to make that sacrifice.

Jeff Perry is nothing if not humble and helpful.

I appreciate that, Mr. Perry.

Well, we'll see.

Speaking of the Brewers, boy, great series for Milwaukee.

They swept the fillings.

But got a little hairy yesterday.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Milwaukee Brewers removed outfielder Christian Yelich from the game in third inning at Citizens Park Bank after he was struck in the hand by a pitch.

X-rays, thank goodness, were negative.

And the Brewers officially labeled the injury a right hand contusion.

And manager Pat Murphy said Yelich will be day to day.

Quote, thank God, unquote Murphy said.

I think a lot of us were thinking that after that pitch yesterday.

Yelich, rather after Yelich absorbed the pitch from Philly's starter, Ranger Suarez, in the first inning, he stayed in the game to run the bases after a brief check for the Brewers' training staff.

Eric Haas pinch hit for him in the third inning, that is.

Brewers, rather Yelich was having trouble gripping the bat when he went back to the dugout in the first inning, which made him fear the injury was potentially worse.

But again, X-rays showed there was no broken to the word, no broken bones.

Quote, that was good news, Yelch said.

I felt like I was going 50-50 going in there.

Just really was a swelling thing and had nothing but was not being able to grip the bat.

Not too much pain when I was taking swings at the bottom of the first, unquote.

So there you go.

Hopefully Yelch can do a little, our old football coach.

From Richland Center, the late great Avidus Rip was fond of saying, oh geez, give a little hot cold.

Five minutes hot, five minutes cold.

We'll pull it.

We'll pull the hand.

I'm sure they've got a great training staff there at the Brewers, and hopefully Yelly can be back in action soon.

But how about that?

The Brewers, they are hot right now.

What is it, seven in a row?

Yeah, I believe so.

Yeah, that's

not what I expected.

Well, I'm very happy for them.

They're very happy.

So our great sports reporter, Mike Clemens, will be in throughout the day to give us some updates on the brewers as well.

27 now past the hour of two o'clock.

Let's do this Ernie, Joni Ernst thing.

She held this town hall in Iowa, her home state where she's a U.S.

Senator.

And a town, I guess I'll give her credit for facing people and having a town hall.

more than guys like Ron Johnson and Derek Van Hortner doing here in Wisconsin.

But one person yelled out, after she would answer the question, that you're gonna kill people.

Here's what happened.

And yeah, it might be a little hard to hear because it's someone recording on their phone, but this is what

happened.

Well, we all are going to

die Jody Ernst after someone said look people are gonna die and she's like well all everybody is gonna die I Mean that's cold that is that it's chilly I see the ice princess Jody Ernst No, is she a tin man?

Has she got no heart?

So then she tried to make up for over the weekend somebody or staff said look you better offer an apology

I really thought this was AI at first.

But no, Joni Ernst recorded this in a cemetery.

No joke.

In a cemetery, this was Senator Ernst's apology.

Hello, everyone.

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall.

See, I was in the process of answering a question that had been asked by an audience member when a woman who was extremely distraught screamed out from the back corner of the auditorium, people are going to die.

And I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth.

So I apologize and I'm really really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well.

But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I don't know what to say to that.

One broadcaster likes to say, that deserves a wow.

I mean, that's pretty sick.

We'll talk about it a little bit later, but next we're going to talk about what the states that are kelvin Royce about some things that are actually happening to help people in Wisconsin.

Back after this is the title of our show for a Monday.

You're listening to the Civic Media Radio Network.

you

There's a reason

Zomber is

the best of the business because he dials up all the appropriate music.

Well done, Mr. Summers.

A little, uh, Swifty for you there.

Taylor Swift.

Why do you gotta be so mean?

Right before the break.

Welcome back, by the way, to the title of all show 35 past the hour two o'clock on Civic Media.

Before the break, we played the cut from U.S.

Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa.

over the weekend.

I'll give her credit.

Like I say, at least she showed up for a live town hall in Iowa.

But when someone yelled out, look, these cuts you guys are doing in DC for Medicaid, it's going to kill people.

And she replied with, well, we're all going to die sometime.

Pretty cold.

And then she attempted an apology, which she shot on her phone in a cemetery in which she.

Half-baked apology and she said well, I guess we'll have to tell people there's no tooth fairy either and Then try to bring a religion into this joining me at the table as she has here through the budget process We are so thankful for it the state senator from the 26th district here in Dane County including parts of Madison state senator Kelder Royce senator first of all Thanks for being here.

Happy Monday.

Happy Monday, Todd.

Great to see you.

I don't want to spend too much time in Washington, but

Boy, you know, as a former Republican Party, someone who's helped with dumb races, I don't know anybody from any party where that is an appropriate answer, let alone an attempt at apology.

Yeah, that sounds less like an apology and more like an audition for the next cartoon villain.

Right?

Yeah.

You know, I think...

the sort of callousness.

I mean, who cares?

I mean, if you don't care about your constituents, but these are people's family members and their loved ones that you're just talking about.

And I think we cannot lose sight of the fact that Medicaid is what makes people's lives possible.

And, you know, if you want to cut that, then you have to

take responsibility, and I guess we should give her credit for saying, yeah, people are going to die.

And that's too bad, so sad.

And if she doesn't care about that, well, at least we know.

But I don't think that's a very good way to live.

And I certainly don't think it's a good way to govern.

And it's another unfortunate, but good reminder that Wisconsin's senior U.S.

Senator Ron Johnson.

has been saying he's opposed to this Trump reconciliation bill, but again, I would say for the wrong

reasons,

because he doesn't think it was far enough in cutting Medicaid.

To me, that is just insane.

The idea that not enough people are going to lose their health insurance and their lives, not enough hungry kids in Wisconsin, he wants more.

But this is a guy who

has is totally out of touch.

He's been a millionaire ever since he married into his wife's family's money.

Exactly.

His wife was the one that had the money.

Well, and, you know, I mean, if it was up to him, he'd be feeding us all microplastics,

right?

Because more profits for him.

Why not?

And I just think that that approach to the world is so, I don't know, it's just absolutely devoid of any kind of care or consideration for other other people.

I don't get

that.

And I think that, again, I was spent too much time, but.

As a former Republican, I don't remember what I first got into.

the political game in the early 90s working.

I don't remember sitting in caucuses or my former boss's office and hearing those types of mean spiritual discussions.

It was more, oh, how much should we cut taxes?

Or how much should we fund this?

It wasn't like, I mean, somebody- People weren't cheering,

people losing their health insurance and getting fired and their kids going hungry.

You might say, well, that's unfortunate, we can't pay as much as we want for those programs, but people were not.

enthusiastically cheering other than,

you know.

And by the time the party did change, and former state senator Lou Vukbir, Laura Vukbir, she was a former nurse and talked like that.

And former Senate Majority Leader and President Mike Ellis at the time, God rest his soul, I can tell the story now.

In private, he said, you know what she is?

She's backcrap crazy, because you know what?

She's backcrap crazy.

I mean, people that knew.

how to be a legislator would never directly hurt people.

Well, you know, when I think about why I care about politics, why I'm interested in public policy, it's because I love people.

I want everyone to thrive.

I want every kid that grows up in the state to have the same kind of opportunities that I did, you know, not growing up wealthy, but growing up on the edge of the middle class and having the opportunity to be the best version of myself.

My gosh, I mean, why wouldn't we want that for every single kid?

It

benefits us all.

Someday I'm going to be old.

I'm going to need doctors and nurses taking care of me.

You know, I'm going to need librarians.

I'm going to need people cleaning the streets so it's safe.

You know, we need each other in society.

And I think the idea that, you know, people are just disposable and we can all live in isolation from each other.

I just think it's factually wrong.

It's very stupid in short sighted.

So let's get down to brass tacks.

What this.

means in terms of again the potential cuts as a good reminder a good opportunity for a bad reminder that was happening in Washington has implications across the state of Wisconsin.

I think one of the things that I didn't bring up and that's on me last time we talked was unfortunately there are stigmas and stereotypes that get perpetuated by Republican narratives that somehow these are quote unquote lazy people collecting benefits and explain

particularly for Wisconsin's veterans, what these cuts mean?

Well, one in two nursing home beds in the state is paid for with Medicare dollars, not Medicaid, Medicare.

So we lose Medicaid, we are gonna see massive closures of nursing homes and those folks are gonna have nowhere to go.

Let's talk about kids, lazy people.

You know, one in every three kids, one in every three births are covered by Medicaid.

And for adults on Medicaid,

68% are working.

And when you think about the fact that we also cover one in two nursing home beds, think about the vast majority of people on Medicaid are already working.

And it is Medicaid that makes it possible for them to work.

People who are disabled or have chronic illnesses and without that health care, they would be out of the workforce.

They would have no

ability to participate in the economy and now they can.

Medicaid is one of the greatest workforce programs this country has ever built and they are trying to dismantle it and with it they're going to take people's lives and economic security.

We're talking with State Senator Kelder Royce from the 26th district here in the city of Madison.

She is also a member of the Joint Committee on Finance which is in the middle.

Supposedly, that's not a knock on you, Senator, but rather on your colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

They're supposed to be putting together a state budget, but give us an update.

What's happened since the last time we talked to

you?

This is where we need that kind of like thinking music or the jeopardy.

Really not much.

I mean, here we are in June, and we've just played tiddlywinks, essentially.

We've had a couple of small agencies that we've done the executive sessions, but no major decisions.

In fact, the Republicans have yet to even put out their tax plan that they saved Senate Bill 1, the very first bill that they were supposed to introduce the session.

They saved it for, and here we are six months in, and they haven't introduced it.

And I think it's because they know it's gonna be really unpopular.

they don't want to show their work here.

They're hoping to kind of cut a backroom deal and never have to talk about what they're advocating for.

And I just think that's outrageous.

I think it's all right.

Thank you.

There we go.

There you go.

The sound effects.

I think we had Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez on the show last week, and she's been traveling around, as you know, to all 72 counties in Wisconsin as we travel around for this show.

I think what most Wisconsinites are like, well, just get the job done.

And I asked her directly.

I said, we hear all these reports.

You know, the governor doesn't want to negotiate or meet the Republicans.

I said, where's the truth here?

And she said, look, from our point of view, from the administration, we're ready to meet.

We're trying to, from a legislative side, Senator Royce, what are you seeing?

Is there any sort of real progress in, because at the end of the day, correct me if I'm wrong, the legislature

at least JFC is going to have to come up past something.

And then the governor is going to have to veto the entire thing or can use his line item veto again and do it that way.

But it wouldn't be real great if the if the Republican legislature just passes something they know is going to be automatically wholly vetoed.

Right.

I mean that would be bad for Wisconsin because we're gonna miss deadlines and that means school districts and local governments will have no idea what they can spend.

It also means we're in a little bit of a race against the clock with the horrible cuts that are being proposed federally.

I mean there's two billion dollars that Wisconsin could access that will disappear if the

Republicans in Washington get their way, and we do not expand BadgerCare.

And I think we've got to expand BadgerCare this year to save it, because this is our last chance.

And the cost to continue without getting that $2 billion incentive payment, that's about to go away.

Otherwise, it has to come out of all of our pockets.

It has to come out of our existing taxes.

And that is a huge cost.

And there again, BadgerCare.

I was a small business owner, owned a coffee shop.

I know you're an entrepreneur, small business owner.

This is not a reward for, quote, unquote, doing nothing.

This is rewarding people for being entrepreneurs in this state and

helping them out.

Yeah, I mean, honestly, Medicaid, BadgerCare, it's the same program, essentially.

It is, in many ways, it's a subsidy to small businesses and to other employers who don't pay their employees.

enough that they're able to buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Marketplace and don't have employer-based plans, right?

So, you know, it is helping, again, bolster that workforce.

I've told the story before on the air, not with you here, but when I had my coffee shop, I suffer from really bad allergies like I am right now, and sometimes I get ear infections.

I went for it to refill a prescription.

I had to go in person.

The cost for that office visit

without anything was $435 and my doctor never laid a hand on me.

Just, you know, 10 minutes.

All right, there you go.

Right.

430.

The end of prescription cost me 10 bucks.

Right.

And so, again,

for people that say, well, I'm kind of on the Republican side here.

We gotta make people earn their keep.

This is not a giveaway.

This is a hand up.

As former Republican Tommy Thompson used to say.

Right, I mean, and it's a step, a building block of our economy, right?

We take this away and our workforce collapses.

It's in that way, it is like child care, it's like housing, right?

It's something that you need for people to be able to work and be productive and be the best, most...

thriving version of themselves.

About three minutes left here before the first break.

What are your colleagues on the joint finance committee?

What is the Democratic caucus right now?

Again, just what is your priority here that you want people across Wisconsin to know that it's a priority for you folks?

Well, I would say, number one, the thing we heard over and over again is kids.

People want their K-12 public schools funded.

And that was true in Wausau and Hayward and West Dallas and in every corner of the state.

And that's been true for years.

Our kids, the kids who've just graduated from college since they were in kindergarten have not gotten an inflationary increase in school funding.

And that is wrong.

So a budget that does not

meet the needs of our kids must be vetoed.

A budget that does not invest anything in childcare with an industry that is on the verge of collapse must be vetoed.

And of course, a budget that does not provide what's needed for the universities of Wisconsin to continue being the economic engine of the state must be vetoed.

And, you know, I mean, we're outside the Capitol, so I'll mix in a little politics here in the last 90 seconds.

I mean, I think there's a real possibility with now fairer maps that

Republican's majority in the state Senate next year, it ain't assured this time.

That's right.

In fact, I think the Republicans are going to have a very difficult time holding on to the majority, especially given, you know, the corruption and the cruelty that we're seeing from Republicans in Washington and seeing that mirrored here at the state level.

You know, this is a pragmatic state.

It's a purple state.

And I think the Republicans have gone so far to the right.

They've gone complete MAGA in the capital.

And that is not what

Wisconsin voters want.

Now they're seeing the impacts, they're seeing the chaos with the tariffs, you know, all the attacks and the vengeance.

And it's bad for our economy and I think they're going to lose.

Yeah, we're going to come back, talk a little bit more with State Senator Kelder Royce.

We'll talk about the fact that it is Pride Month and Democrats have a couple pieces of legislation.

We'll discuss that and more.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the All Ball Show for a Monday Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.

Ready

to work.

Now go stand in the corner and think about what you did.

Welcome back to the Powerball Show at the Civic Media Network.

It is eight minutes now before the hour of three o'clock.

Glad to have you along with us.

Our guest this half hour, the State Senator of the 26th District here in the Madison area, Kelver Royce.

Senator, glad to have you here.

I know over the weekend, for those around the state might not have heard it, but one of our major hospitals here in Madison, a Unity Point Meritor, SSM, not SSM, pardon me, Meritor.

came to a resolution at least temporarily or initially with the nurses union there they have been on strike my aunt Peggy was a long time nurse in the city have a deep respect for them and this is about patient safety as much as the rights of nurses

absolutely and i'm delighted i mean these nurses work their butts off

sorry no

absolutely you know and the idea that

You know, when you walk into a hospital, you take it for granted that there are guardrails in place so that you're going to be taken care of.

And if you press that button, the nurse is going to be able to show up.

If you crash after surgery, that a nurse is going to be there immediately, you know, helping revive you.

And the reality is like nurses who are hailed as heroes during the pandemic, we're not getting their fair share.

We've got a profit driven healthcare system and the providers, the ones who do the care, we're not getting.

what they do needed.

So it appears I think the details are being worked out but it appears that there's a settlement that reached them and that's

good all the way

around.

Absolutely.

Because a lot of nurses taking care of the state of Wisconsin.

As much as I loved being on the picket line with them and you know going to vigils and giving speeches I would much rather have those nurses in the hospital where they want to be by your

bedside.

Absolutely.

Let's talk a little bit about legislation coming out of the Democratic caucus.

The LGBTQ caucus chair, according to Whist Politics today, Mark Spritzer argued Wisconsin should update its constitution to ensure that no residence's marriage are in doubt.

He, along with Representative Snodgrass, Democrat of Appleton, presented a bill that she authored that would ban conversion therapy in the state and also looking at

protecting same-sex marriage as well.

Absolutely.

I think we saw that after Dobb's decision overturned 50 years of abortion rights and the court, some members of the court clearly signaled that gay marriage was next.

So Wisconsin cannot afford to have this discriminatory amendment in our constitution that puts people's families in jeopardy, right?

I mean, if the Supreme Court does overturn the right to gay marriage, Wisconsin families could see their marriages essentially

challenged in court, and that would be devastating.

You know, kids deserve the protection, the legal protections of having two parents if their parents are married, or if they're same-sex parents, and we need our laws to reflect that, and to be fair.

I think this is a really great point, and you're an attorney, graduate of UW Law School here in Madison, and obviously,

We don't nobody knows the future.

Let's say the worst happens and the dobs over to her that The amendment that are the other decision that codified marriage equality the Supreme Court was thank you.

Thank you The sinus drugs or the allergy drugs Let's say the worst happens

Is it possible that individuals who are already legally married are grandfathered in, or we don't know that unless it happens?

We just don't know.

I mean, that's the really scary, scary thing when the Dobs decision came down.

It didn't settle the question or quote, send it back to the States.

It created an absolutely chaotic landscape where people were saying, oh my God, is this Civil War era law back in force?

And millions of women overnight lost their rights and lost access to care because people were unsure.

We now see maternal mortality skyrocketing around the country.

And we will see that same kind of cascade of politicians who oppose gay rights.

doing everything in their power to try to destroy existing families and to

argue,

oh yeah, your family's not real and take away protections that those families rely on.

So hospitals could deny visitation rights like they used to.

You could be denied from making medical decisions for your partner or for your child.

You could be barred from going to school events, you know, your kids end of the year graduation or school concert, right?

I mean, there's all kinds of horrible things that

being married is a bit of a protection against, right?

Because it says you are in this family and we don't want to go back to the battle days where the kind of family you are or who you happen to be married to could be caused for discrimination.

My favorite quote about marriage equality comes from Willie Nelson when asked if he supported it and he told Rolling Stone magazine, I'm all for it because they might as well be as miserable as the rest of us.

So I always like that one.

Oh, poor Willie's

wife.

I know, right?

Oh, look, as a person happens to be gay myself, one of the most dreadful things in my opinion is this conversion therapy stuff or so-called.

Oh, I know.

This is horrible.

And if you haven't heard about it, the short version is it is where people believe that you can take a gay individual, usually a child or a teenager, and either, quote unquote, pray it away or send them to counseling to somehow make them straight.

And I always tell people, not, oh, I don't really do it anymore, but when it comes up, people would ask, I'm really not offended by the question.

Like, well, when did you decide to become gay?

And I always say, well, at what point, what day could you name me when you said I'm straight?

And it's just either R, you

aren't.

Yeah, I mean, I think the cruelty here, we have to.

understand that conversion therapy is not therapy, it is abuse.

And it causes real harm, especially to kids.

And that's why this ban is really important because it basically says, if you get a license to practice from the state of Wisconsin that says you're a mental health professional, you're a counselor, you're a therapist, psychologist, that you may not engage in this totally discredited, anti-scientific, abusive practice.

Now, if you're an adult and you want to find a

priest to help you pray the gate.

That's your choice, but you can't hold yourself out as a mental health professional that's licensed by the state of Wisconsin and then abuse people in this way.

And to me, that's, you know, that's something I'm very proud to be a part of.

And, you know, we have the largest LGBTQ caucus in the state history, and I'm really proud to be a part of that.

And, um,

proud for us to all be authoring this bill together.

Well, we're here in June, June is Pride Month and I appreciate your efforts.

I appreciate the caucuses efforts because at the end of the day, I think most people are just like, Hey, I just want to be treated like anybody else and be part of the community.

Yeah.

I mean, listen,

no matter

who you are or where you're from, you should have the same rights.

Yeah, absolutely.

States are killed, Royce.

We appreciate you.

Hopefully by next week, your colleagues in joint finance will will bring you in.

So we'll find out.

Let's do it.

Show me back next.

Quick, we'll be back after the top of the news, whether it's sports or if y'all both show for a Monday across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.

Live from the Civic Media World headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across

Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Tal Alba, along with our outstanding producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers, on the board.

It is six minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Welcome into hour number two on the big program at the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison, where Zommers' son's trying to come out with that hazy smoke coming down that Canadian smoke is still in the air.

Gonna be here at least through tomorrow, I think.

But it's not too bad.

I think it was worth Friday.

At least

just it looks like it was worth Friday.

Yes, absolutely.

It's the it's the darn pollen.

It's my it's my allergies that are driving me crazy over the weekend and today as well.

So hope you all are taking care of yourselves against the water in the end and try to stay maybe inside for a couple of days.

They say rain moving across the parts of the state tomorrow.

Some places in Wisconsin may see some potentially.

keyword potentially severe weather tomorrow.

So keep it here on civic media and your local weather source and we'll keep you up to date on all that.

Many thanks to state Senator Keller Royce for being here at hour one always does a great job.

Brings along a little Taylor Swift.

Thanks to Aaron Zombers as well.

That's a lot of fun.

Coming up later this hour, we will do a what's worse for you be asking you about driving.

And I have a little story.

about driving this weekend.

We'll talk a little bit more about that coming up later this hour and taking your phone calls as well.

But right now, joining me live at the table, how about that summer's two in studio guests in a row?

I feel like I won the lottery here in guest today.

Mr. Tom Kersher, he joined us last week via StreamYard.

He is here in the studio today from Wisconsin.

Watch Tom.

Thanks for being back.

You're welcome.

Good to be with you.

I always like a good, in-person interview because the vibe is better.

I don't

know.

I agree.

So thanks for making the trip over here.

How was

your weekend?

Great.

I made my first visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Spent about seven hours there over two days.

That is great.

My dad and I went several years ago and did a dad son weekend.

And that is remarkable.

For those that don't know, it's built like a

pyramid.

It's so cool.

It's right in Lake Erie.

Yeah, that's right.

I was drawn by a new exhibit, the 50 Years of Music on SNL.

It's a new exhibit.

Really?

And so I spent a lot of time with that.

And yeah, if I were to recommend it, I would say, aim for going to the Hall of Fame when there's a special exhibit like that.

Okay, that appeals to you or another event, you know, maybe a concert something like that

Yeah, I bet that has to be remarkable because I think a lot of us think of all the actors from John Belushi to Dana Carvey to You know the cast from today But you look at the people that appear musically over the years sometimes big first appearances sometimes comebacks sometimes controversial

Yeah, what impressed me was

being reminded after going through the clips, and you could watch some films that kind of summarize things, but you could also search out people by artist, by year, by show.

And yeah, the range, right?

So they've got some, you know, super hot band in the moment, One Hit Wonders, but then, you know, the legends.

And then the people sort of in between, like I don't know, Leon Russell, for example, that maybe the average person doesn't know, but SNL appreciated.

how authentic artists like him were and how important they were.

Yeah, I totally agree.

And Lord Michael is the long-time executive producer of that show, noted for bringing actors onto the scene.

But I think he deserves credit for pushing some of that musical stuff as well.

Yeah, you did hear about that at during the exhibit.

And I think he thought it was another way of SNL being relevant and sort of being a...

a time capsule, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I'm glad you had a

good time.

And thanks for sharing a little bit about that with us.

A little bit closer to home here on the other side of Lake Erie, closer to Lake Michigan here in Wisconsin.

And these stories you could find at Wisconsin spelled out, Wisconsinwatch.org.

You had a great piece here just today, actually, on the online.

entitled Wisconsin once a leader in childhood vaccinations, now a leader in vaccine skepticism.

Tell us a little bit about

it.

Yeah, so we were, at Wisconsin Watch, we're struck by a story in The Economist recently that talked about how much the vaccination rate in Wisconsin, specifically for measles, had dropped in comparison to other states.

And it caused us to want to look deeper.

So we put out a call to readers.

made a post online, asked people to write in with suggestions or questions.

And what I did is took a look at why, one reason why the vaccination rates in Wisconsin are down and it's because of something called a personal conviction exemption.

personal conviction exempted.

Please explain.

It

sounds like an insurance policy

or something.

My

car breaks, I'm sorry, we don't cover it because of the personal exemption or whatever.

I'll just take a step back.

First of all, Wisconsin has all states to have as vaccination requirements to enter school.

Public school, private school, even childcare centers.

So it's very common.

And the vast majority of Wisconsin kids do get the required vaccinations over at 89% in the last check.

So we don't want to give the wrong impression that it's dropping dramatically.

But for a disease like measles, for example, to reach what's called herd immunity where people in a given community are considered to be protected from a disease, you need a vaccination rate around 95%.

So the fact that

You know, overall, we're down to 89 and dropping in recent years.

You know, it's cause for, if not concerned, at least questions about why and what are the implications.

Is there any

correlation that can be proven?

or is it speculative at this point that those reductions, particularly in measles, might have been from the Trump slash MAGA movement of anti-vaccine, which first started with COVID and now it's just been exacerbated.

Not only that, but made worse by the new Health and Human Services Secretary, Mr. Kennedy.

Some of the people I spoke to do point to that too, to COVID and in the years since then.

some vaccine fatigue, some questions about safety, some questions about, gee, is the government maybe a little too cozy with pharmaceutical companies?

Are we really rigorously testing these vaccines the way they should be?

So that does seem to have seeped into the consciousness.

So I mentioned the personal conviction waiver or exemption.

That's an example of what's happened as the skepticism has increased.

So there's always been people who have exempted their children from vaccinations through a medical reason.

They go to the doctor.

The doctor says, hey, you're an exceptional case.

Don't get a vaccination.

It's too risky.

Or you could state a religious conviction against vaccination.

But what's changed in the last, really in the last generation,

is a big increase, relatively speaking, in the number of parents who are deciding for personal beliefs, personal convictions, to exempt their child.

And it's as simple as stating and writing, I have a personal opposition to vaccinations.

I don't want my child vaccinated.

And, you know, a generation ago, those personal waivers, personal conviction waivers represented about 1%.

of kids who are exempted.

And now it's up to more than 5%.

Wow.

I

just struck by this.

We're talking with Tom Kersler of Wisconsin Watch here at 14 minutes, almost 15 past the hour of three o'clock.

I was struck by, you know, my mom is a woman of a certain age in her mid-70s or so.

And she's told stories of when the vaccinations first came out for measles and polio.

And at that time in small town, we're still in center of 5,000.

She said it was put out all over town and people would after church services would head up to the and stand in line at the hospital and were thankful for these vaccinate because they knew they had grown up with people that had polio and died of it and measles and rubella and were so thankful.

And it seems to me, Tom, and you find this in your reporting that.

Now that that generation has gained older and that some of them are dying off, there are less stories being told about what happens when you don't get vaccinated.

Yeah, it used to be kind of second nature, right?

That's what you did.

Everyone got vaccinated.

The Wisconsin law actually goes back to, I think, 1882, the first one that required vaccination.

So it's part of the fabric of our society.

But you're right.

I think as the decades have passed, we don't hear about people dying from polio anymore.

And you sort of think, well, gee, that's been eradicated when, in fact, if we don't continue to vaccinate, there's the risk of a new outbreak.

And that's my personal concern.

Putting politics aside for a minute, again, it's about the cruelty of it.

And I just think that fewer people pay attention.

And I honestly believe

that there are some people that are MAGA followers who are like, oh, that's not a problem.

We're just doing it.

We don't need that.

And it's so sad that it's going to take death and tragedy to make people realize, no, this wasn't a political thing that was made up.

This was science.

You know, there's such strong feelings in this, right?

Just what you describe on one hand and the other hand, shouldn't a parent have the right to decide

what goes into the child's body, what sort of medicine is taken.

And so you can appreciate on that level and sort of individual level why a person might want to question or resist.

And if they look at the number of vaccinations over time, and boy, this is such a young child, do we really need this?

I mean, a person could even point out now, I'm not saying this is a reliable indicator, but.

even though the vaccination rate in Wisconsin has dropped and is relatively low for measles, has there been any measles outbreak in Wisconsin yet?

No.

That's the thing, right?

And

if people don't see, nothing bad happened

yet.

And then you look at Texas, where in particular, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, I think it was the Omniscient Mennonite community, which again, that's a small group of people relatively speaking across America that for religious reasons traditionally have said, no, we don't do vaccines.

But now that combined with,

a larger non-Amish and population, Mennonite population that's combining with that, that reduces the herd immunization rate.

Yeah, there's certainly that risk.

You know, I talked to Representative Lisa Subek from here in Madison and she introduced a bill back in 2023 to get rid of the personal conviction waiver in the state law and the hopes that

It would keep vaccination rates higher.

It didn't go anywhere.

At that time, she said she's thought about reintroducing it again this year, but not with any idea that it would become law.

So another group that's involved in supporting organizations that do vaccinations says, you know, let's take a different tack.

Maybe it's not legislation getting rid of that exemption.

We want to put our efforts into education, telling people what you just described, why, what the risks are if vaccination rates get low, and responding to what they call misinformation, you know, out there that, go ahead.

Yeah, that some, this vaccination,

organization talked about the fact that there's certainly some parents who have genuine convictions and others they think are acting out of misinformation.

And so they want to try to conjure that as a way to push up vaccination rates as opposed to changing the law to take away an exemption.

And that to me is what is so dangerous, Tom, is that people now are creating their own truths out there.

For lack of good journalism, like what happens at Wisconsin Watch, as the late great U.S.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said to a woman in a committee hearing, my dear, you are entitled to your own opinions.

You are not entitled to your own facts.

One of my favorite former U.S.

senators.

Welcome back, one of our favorite reporters, Tom Kircher, of Wisconsin Watch, talking about a little fact check on the GLP out in Washington.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the all ball show for a Monday across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Ready Network.

you

and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to Tonalville Show on the Civic Media Already Network for a Monday, the second of June.

That's right.

We're into June already here for 2025, 22 past three.

Glad to have you along.

Tom Kircher is here from Wisconsin.

Watch a little bit later on this hour.

We'll do a driving edition of What's Worse and talk about some more of the news headlines of the day.

But Tom, take us through some of these fact checks.

Your wheelhouse is what I love about some of your, much of your writing is you keep people honest and that's fantastic.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin had their recent convention and maybe needs a little fact checking.

Yeah, so just to explain a little bit what we do at Wisconsin Watch, we have something called Fact Briefs.

Brief as in 150 words a story, so very quick.

The format is posed as a question and answer.

Is it raining today?

Yes or no?

And then we answer the question in 150 words.

And that may sound sort of too simplistic, but there is quite a bit of research that we put in.

The articles are quick to read, but people will see the footnotes we add to show that we do quite a bit of research on these.

I think it's great.

Yeah, thank you.

So we're always on the hunt and always looking for suggestions if readers want to contact Wisconsin Watch with a fact check suggestion.

So I'm constantly looking at interviews, talk shows, podcasts, you name it, primarily at what politicians are saying on those things.

But I also attended the Wisconsin Republican Party State Convention last month and decided to fact check.

Three statements that came out of that.

All right.

Number

one statement, true or false?

Go ahead.

So, Representative Derek Van Orden, one of our congressmen, was speaking about the big, beautiful bill, the major federal budget bill.

What Trump calls it, yeah.

Yeah, is being debated now in Congress.

He said that if that big bill did not pass, the vast majority

of Americans would see a 65% tax increase.

The answer to that is no.

Incorrect,

incorrect.

So one of the things that would happen if that big bill does not become law is that some of what are known as Trump tax cuts will go away.

But most people will see if that happens, if the big beautiful bill does not become law.

Most people would see a tax increase in the range of 20%, not insignificant, right?

Far from sixty five percent, which is what he

and most currently wrong a lot of twenty percent might see increases are not people making forty five fifty thousand dollars a year

Yeah, that's a you know the average figure right

right so yeah absolutely all right Fact check number two mr. Kircher does Mississippi

rank higher than Wisconsin in fourth grade reading scores.

Explain.

So again, this was at the convention.

Another Wisconsin congressman, Tom Tiffany, used the phrase that Mississippi has passed up Wisconsin in reading.

The answer is yes, although I would say with an asterisk in this case.

So every two years, there's a national reading proficiency assessment.

And fourth grade is the key level there.

And in 2024, Mississippi increased a little bit, Wisconsin decreased a little bit.

And in fact, Mississippi did pass Wisconsin for reading proficiency for fourth graders.

The asterisk on that is that the agency that puts out the test said that's not a significant difference.

So technically there's a one percentage point different.

Within the margin of error to use a polling term perhaps.

Yeah, and I guess what's important to know there is

You know, for people in Wisconsin, if they're concerned, it's true that the proficiency rate in Wisconsin has been dropping a little bit, so that's something to focus on.

At the same time, Mississippi has been referred to as the Mississippi Miracle in recent years.

They put a lot of money into improving literacy, and it seems to have paid

off.

And good for Mississippi, I also think we're from a family of educators, and I'm not trying to disparage this particular study, but...

I think some of these tests that they're doing right now, it depends on what kind of the day the kid is having, what the situation is.

I'm not a big believer that you can take one score and say, well, this is representative of everything that our kids

know.

Yeah.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

I guess this does have the advantage of having been around a long time and being standardized and done every two years.

But right, it's one measure.

Yeah, one measure.

All right.

And final fact check from the Wisconsin Republican Party Convention.

I can't believe this is real, but it is.

Is being transgender classified as a mental illness?

Explain.

So a congresswoman from South Carolina, Nancy Mace, was one of the guest speakers at the Wisconsin Convention.

Her statement was to the fact that girls, women shouldn't be forced to share bathrooms with what she called mentally ill people.

So the suggestion was...

that she was referring to people who are transgender.

Years ago, more than a decade ago, there were designations like that from, for example, the American Psychiatric Association, but that's changed.

It's been changed for quite some time.

Being transgender in and of itself is not considered by authorities to be a mental illness.

Now there's some gender dysphoria where a person who is uncertain about...

their sexuality, how their gender fits, you know, may experience distress because of that, but that's an entirely different thing than saying you're mentally ill because you're transgender.

Yeah, I just find it particularly cruel, particularly now that we're in Pride Month and, you know, I've had, I was in small business for a while and the opportunity to meet some transgender folks that were clients of ours and to listen to their stories.

And we all have a story, right?

It doesn't matter who we are.

We're all going on a journey.

And many of these folks have struggled and fought through things, and discrimination, and stigma, and stereotypes are very strong individuals, actually.

And to label someone as a mental illness, I just find it naive and cruel and extraordinarily partisan from Congresswoman Mace's point.

Yeah, she was very strong on

I'm gonna protect you.

I'm with you.

Girls and women, I'm gonna be out there protecting you.

You shouldn't have to compete against men.

You shouldn't have to share locker rooms with them.

I'm on your side.

So that was sort of her message, but then obviously going beyond by making

it.

Why is it that it is never transgender people attacking people in bathrooms?

It's usually somebody from the local church.

That happens to be straight.

Anyway, Tom Kircher from Wisconsin Watch.

Thank you very much for being here.

I appreciate you.

We'll see you next week.

All right,

Dad.

Stay tuned.

What's worse, it's next on the Civic Media Network.

show of the Civic Media Ready Network.

It is 35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock.

Many thanks.

Tom Kertcher from Wisconsin.

Watch being here for another Monday.

Always great to catch up on Wisconsin headlines with him.

Nice job, Tom.

We're just going to talk about driving in just a minute.

But Mark from Purr and Sack has been extraordinarily patient.

Mark, thanks for hanging on.

We want to get to those interviews done here.

But we in the show about an hour ago, we played a cut from US Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa, or as my grandparents used to call it, Iowa.

I

don't know why they call it Iowa.

Anyway, down in Iowa last weekend or Friday, I think it happened.

Joni Ernst was in the town hall talking about the.

Medicaid Medicare cuts out there in DC with the big reconciliation bill and one of her constituents, the Iowain, stood up and said, this is going to kill people, which of course it is.

If it goes through and passes and Trump signs it in the law and Jody Ernst said, well, everybody's going to die sometime and then gave not even a half hearted apology.

I believe it was on our Instagram or Twitter over the weekend, which she filmed, by the way, in a cemetery and made fun of the person in a half-baked apology in which she said, yes, it's true.

I'm sorry I told that person that we're all going to die.

And I'm really glad I didn't have to tell her that the tooth fairy wasn't real either.

Right.

It was the kind of thing where, you know, you're a little kid and...

your parents are like, now you need to apologize to your brother or sister.

And you're like, I'm sorry, you're so stupid.

Right.

It was that.

That's what it

was.

That's a good way to put it.

So anyway, Mark, prepare to sit.

I wanted to comment on that.

Mark, thanks for holding it around to listen to the show.

What do you want to say about this?

Yeah, not a problem.

Yeah, it's interesting.

She would say something like that.

You know, setting aside the whole point, it is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, not her personal.

You know, that Jesus doesn't belong to her.

I mean, if that is

your religious bent but i mean that the whole surplus population that i think that these republicans are thinking about the whole time is that it reminds me of scrooge you know that the whole the warning of the second spirit saying that you know beware you know you might not know who the surplus population is and as far as like the tooth fairy believe in the tooth fairy i don't know if i brought it up on this show before but there's an interesting book by terry practically called hogfather where

death has actually commented to his adopted granddaughter about the importance of believing in the little myths like the tooth fairy and the boogie man and all that kind of thing, is that we need to believe in these little myths so we can believe in the big ones.

It makes the comment, take the universe, grind it to the finest powder, run it to the finest sieve, show them one molecule of mercy, one molecule of justice.

The only reason we believe in those things is we believe in those things and bring them into existence.

So, I mean, that Joni Ernst should actually be looking to the fact that we actually had to believe in our fellow man, believe in justice and mercy, and actually believe in what Jesus actually said in the Gospels is that we are supposed to be taking care of one another as individuals and as nations.

And if you don't do that, you are doomed.

You are damned.

Mark, it's so interesting, and I appreciate you bringing this up, that when I heard the remarks on Friday, I think it was, from Joni Ernst.

I thought of the exact same thing because way long ago, I played Ebenezer Scrooge on stage on Christmas Carol and I'll get the exact quote wrong right now.

But again, it's this scene early on in the show in which the two towns guys are trying to raise money and they're kind of walking kind of.

trolling literally, following Scrooge around town, trying to get him to contribute.

And Scrooge finally says, you know, something along the lines of, are there no prison houses and poor houses?

My tax is, unfortunately, I have to keep going to them.

And they say something like, well, unfortunately, sir, they are.

And Scrooge says, good.

I thought that my tax money wasn't being used right.

And one of the guys says to Scrooge says, sir, many would rather die than go there.

as Scrooge responds, let them and decrease the surplus population.

Mark, I thought of the exact same thing.

Yeah, it is just tragic.

I mean, and remember the two startling children underneath the second spirit's robes?

Ignorance and want.

I mean, the want is bad.

The girl was want and the boy was ignorant.

But ignorance is actually on the ball of ignorance is written doom.

And Joanie Ironsick had better brush up on her

her teaching literature that we all should be well.

My mother used to read the Christmas Carol to us every year at Christmas time when we were children, small children.

Yeah.

I mean, and that lesson has never left me.

Actually, Joni Ernst, by the way, Mark was reported yesterday that Joni Ernst told her staff she was afraid she was visited by one of the ghosts of Christmas past.

It turned out to be Chuck Grassley.

So, right there.

Yeah, thank you.

I appreciate it, Mark.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

What are your thoughts on this whole deal?

Again, I just think it's cruel.

It is absolutely cold-hearted, chilling.

Tony Ernst is frigid.

That's the problem.

And I seriously, like I said before, it's toddler behavior.

It's, I'm sorry, you're so stupid.

And treating it like a joke when people are going to die if this bill passes because they won't be able to afford what they need to live.

Well, and we heard from a state senator killed Royce right here in the studio earlier in the show that Wisconsinites are going to die.

if this bill passes as is.

And you say, well, Todd, how do you know?

You can't tell if anybody's gonna die or not.

What we know for sure is there will be some nursing home, elder care facilities that will not be able to function because they won't have the money, they won't have the staff.

If those places aren't there, people will ultimately die.

As someone who has helped get a grandparent into a nursing facility like that,

it depends on your income.

And if you're not able to pay your own way, and many of these places now, anywhere between $6,000 and $9,000 a month.

A month.