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Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Todd Alba, along with our fantastic engineer and producer, Mr. Aaron Zommer is on the board.
It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, July 3rd, 2025.
It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.
Welcome in, everybody here at the World Headquarters of the Old CM.
Civic media, nobody calls it see him.
I sound like Trump now and nobody calls it see him.
I just thought of a new thing call it civic nobody calls it
Shame mostly clear skies blue skies here in downtown Madison a block away from the state Capitol where the midnight oil was burning and then some last night State budget was passed by the assembly the wee hours of the morning
Apparently somebody made a lot of popcorn for Robin Voss.
He said, I need to eat that.
So let's pass.
No, he didn't.
I'm just, I'm just, I'm joking around.
You understand?
I'm joking around.
Uh, our very own Dan Schaefer, host of, uh, not host, but our civic media political editor and founder of the reconbibulation area, as well as our news director, Shalie Pittman and Jimmy Cusca from our news department, all on top of it last night.
Here's what happens, bombers.
I was, uh, I was watching Colbert, a rerun.
and I fell asleep in my chair and I woke up and there were reruns of sign failed on and it was like, I don't know, 1245, one o'clock in the morning.
And
I'm like, oh,
I better check.
And I just, as I woke up, here's Schaefer and Shalie Pittman and Jimmy Cusco, they'd stayed up the whole time.
And I think the governor signed, then they took that, they passed the budget.
and immediately walked it over to Governor Evers' office in the East Wing, and Governor Evers signed it, I believe, 132 a.m., 131 a.m.
to Schaefer.
We'll have it, because he was up and doing it.
So we have a new state budget, a lot of people unhappy, some people happy.
There are winners and losers in these things, politically, winners and losers in terms of Wisconsinites.
We're gonna break it all down with Dan Schaefer here at the bottom, just after the bottom of the hour, because he understands bombers.
this state budget process, it can be a bit discombobulating.
It can
discombobulating.
So we'll recombobulate with Dan Schaefer at the bottom of the hour.
Also coming up today, a holiday edition in hour two of what's worse, sparklers or fireworks.
Or firecrackers, thank you.
Sparklers or firecrackers, we'll discuss that in hour two on the lighter side.
Also, if you don't like politics, that's okay, we got you covered on today's show.
And this is real.
Red Panda has taken a fall with a major injury.
Hopefully she'll be okay.
Anybody who's gone to a sporting event, you know exactly what I'm talking about here.
The woman who's on the big unicycle and balances like a thousand teacups and flip around.
Yeah, I saw that the other day.
For a second when you
its
There's only one Red Panda.
And she is, I believe she's recuperating.
So we'll check in on that as well.
And we're gonna begin with just moments ago, about a half an hour plus ago, broke across the news headlines here.
This by the Associated Press House Republicans propelled President Donald Trump's $4.5 trillion tax breaks and spending cut bill to final congressional passage within the last hour, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second term.
Policy package before the 4th of July deadline by the way may I'll editorialize that was a made-up deadline He didn't have to do it by then, but Trump said he wanted done by then so they said well we gotta gotta get it done by then and by the way last it was it was dueling budgets last night Zombers At 1 a.m.
Or the early this morning you had the state budget going on and then you had the federal budget going on Like four holdouts one of them Fitzpatrick
He voted no one on the procedural so it couldn't move along and then he took off and and Johnson had to round him up.
I'm not I've got kitty This was real and we're gonna get into the stand shape for a little bit.
It was it was a little surreal Watching both of these budget processes happening in real time early this morning because the state budget the state of Wisconsin They were a lot in the legislature and the governor were trying to beat the clock
and get the state budget passed and signed into law before the federal budget.
Why is that?
Again, Schaefer will help us walk through it, but essentially there were monies for rural hospitals and reimbursements available at the federal level, but if Wisconsin hadn't passed their budget and signed into law,
before the federal budget was passed and signed into law, we would have missed out on all kinds of reimbursant monies.
So there was this beat the clock thing going on last night.
Right.
Save 11%, save big money at Menards.
It's always on.
It's like going on to do regular, it's always 11%.
Anyway, that had been arts.
Yes, exactly So back to the story the AP wire of the federal budget the tight roll call about an hour ago to 18 to 214 came at a potentially high political cost with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed Republican leaders worked overnight the president himself leading on a handful of skeptics to drop their Opposition and send the bill to him to sign into law
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delayed voting by holding the floor for more than eight hours with a record breaking speech against the bill.
I thought you did a great job.
I didn't see the whole eight hours, obviously, but I want to play you a couple of these cuts of Hakeem Jeffries, because I think you made a couple of really great points.
First one, Hakeem Jeffries early this morning into later morning.
calling this federal budget bill of Donald Trump's and the Republicans immoral.
Here is Hakim Jeffries on the House floor.
You see budgets are
moral documents.
And in our view, Mr. Speaker, budgets should be designed to lift people up.
This reckless Republican budget that we are debating right now on the floor of the House of Representatives,
tears people down.
This reckless Republican budget is in a moral document and everybody should vote no against it because of how it attacks children and seniors and everyday Americans and people with disabilities.
This reckless Republican budget is in a moral document.
And that is why I stand here on the floor of the House of Representatives with my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus to stand up and push back against it with everything we have on behalf of the American people.
Democratic leader of the House, Hakeem Jeffries, if you've never been involved in politics, you don't fully appreciate how hard it is to keep your caucus together.
In other words,
other everybody in your party to get them to vote unanimously on something.
It ain't easy, believe me.
And for leader Jeffries to be able to do that, super impressive, number one.
Number two, I think his speech is, you can take cuts of this and run against Republican manga incumbents next fall.
And it's going to come back to haunt them.
By the way, our friend, our colleague, Jane McNair,
Great program every morning from nine until 11.
By the way, Jane and Greg Bach and I are gonna be on the road here in a couple of weeks.
Ashgash Bagash up in Butternut and Hayward gonna be on the road, cannot wait for that.
Jane texts in and I'm glad she's reminding me to say this.
And she's absolutely right.
Because what Jeffrey's just said about this bill being immoral, gonna get more into Medicaid cuts in a minute.
These cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, better known as food stamps,
Many, if not most, they don't kick in until January of 2027.
Two months after the midterm.
So this, I mean, if I didn't care, which I do, but if I didn't care, I'd say, wow, this is politically beautiful because what this does is this passes, Trump's going to sign it into law, apparently tomorrow.
And so this allows the Republican, the modern Republican congressional incumbents to travel around their districts and say, so where are these cuts?
Where are these cuts?
You know, the libs kept ginning things up, lying.
There's no cuts.
Have you seen any cuts?
And people are going to say, no, we haven't seen them until January of 2027.
And then if the Democrats are able to take the House representatives and things go to hell,
Then Maga and Trump were gonna say, see, this is what happens when you elect Democrats to put them in charge.
I mean, it's politically beautiful.
I'm not gonna lie about
yeah.
It's a politically beautifully written bill for political expediency.
It's absolutely destructive.
Americans are going to die.
Nursing homes are going to close.
Already had one, I think it was Nebraska.
And Jane Gregor talking about this this morning, saw it a couple other places.
One nursing home has already said they're going to close down because of this.
And when I say people are going to die, no, it's not hyperbole.
This comes from a lot of different places that the fact of the matter is there's going to be thousands of people that lose their health care for hundreds of thousands of millions of people lose their health care coverage in this country because of this bill.
But the way it's been written, much of the pain will be pushed off.
So.
Well, we'll see about that.
Have we got time for a little bit of the second Jeffrey's Cut Summers?
All right, here's Keem Jeffrey's talking about these Medicaid cuts on the House floor.
It's
extraordinary to me that as a result of this one big, ugly bill that's all out of salt on health care in this country.
millions of people are going to lose coverage thrown off of health care set in motion a chain of events where hospitals will close nursing homes will shut down people unable to get the care that they need to live a life of dignity and respect
And that as a result of the all-out Republican assault on healthcare in the United States of America, people will die.
Tens of thousands, perhaps year after year after year, as a result of the Republican assault on the healthcare
of the American people.
I'm sad.
I never thought that I'd be on the House floor saying that this is a crime scene.
And House Democrats want no part of it.
No part of it.
House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries on Medicaid cuts calling it a crime scene.
He's not wrong.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont tweeting this out.
16 million Americans will lose their health care they currently have under Trump's quote-unquote big beautiful bill.
How many will lose their health care in your state if it passes?
This is interesting but tragic.
According to Senator Sanders numbers that he got from CBL Congressional Budget Office in Wisconsin, 276,100
75.
Let me say that number again.
276,175 fellow Wisconsinites are going to lose health care in the state of Wisconsin.
I'm no whiz statistics, but the chances are if you're not one of those 276,000 plus, you're going to know somebody who is.
Might be your grandparents.
your mom, your neighbor.
This unfortunately will haunt us here in Wisconsin and the only recourse, assuming there are midterm elections and that is not a given, is to get out and vote.
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Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title ball show on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Glad to have you.
Long summers on the board.
22 now past the hour of two o'clock on a Thursday, July 3rd, 2025.
We're going to get back to the budget federally in just a moment and coming up after the bottom of the hour.
Civic Media's political editor, founder of the Reconbobulation Area.
Dan Schaffer will be along.
Have a half an hour discussion on the state budget.
Lots of breaking news would be remiss if we didn't mention that this other breaking news very important particularly for listeners of WA UK in Southeast Wisconsin, but I think bears mentioning of course here statewide according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Great reporting by Sophie Carson and Claudie 11's one person was shot and killed and two others were shot during the early morning hours today
including a Shorewood police officer who was struck in his ballistic vest and treated and released from a hospital.
Well, I'm going to clear this as Shorewood in the Milwaukee area and there's another Shorewood municipality here in Dane County.
This is the Shorewood in the southeast part of the state.
Back to the story the person who died was an adult woman according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office Officials have not revealed the condition of the other person's shot in Shorewood Police were searching for a suspect before an apparent chase began ending in the Halleyard Park neighborhood on the walkie later in the morning medical examiners said they responded to that scene and Indicating that someone had died other reporting is that the accused or alleged shooter
had died at that scene.
It's still a fluid situation.
We'll continue to update that as it becomes available here in civic media.
But again, a shooting this morning in Shorewood in southeast Milwaukee and more reporting that there was a mass shooting at least four people killed in Chicago.
Twenty four minutes past the hour of two o'clock back to this federal budget being passed about an hour ago.
The ramifications thereof.
According to Bernie Sanders, over 246,000 people in Wisconsin will lose their health care coverage.
276,000 plus after Donald Trump signs it tomorrow.
855-752-4842.
Let's go to the phone lines.
Tom in McFarland, listening on WMDX on the line.
Tom, thanks for calling.
Let's see you.
Thanks for taking my call.
And you know, just talking about those Medicaid cuts and how people are going to lose their insurance.
I was talking with a couple of MAGA friends who are on BadgerCare and they're saying that while they're already working and they see nothing wrong with the work requirements that are going to be put into place, they think that's actually a good thing.
Until I pointed out to them that the way that they're going to lose their insurance and they're going to lose their insurance is because of the federal state or federal budget.
reduces the amount of money that's going to be sent back to the state to cover the cost of Medicaid.
Correct.
States are going to have to make up those costs, and they won't have the funds.
What's going to happen is they're going to have to increase the eligibility.
So right now, for Badger Care, after this goes through, you are no longer going to be eligible for that Badger Care.
That's how most of these people are going to lose their insurance.
And they were gobsmacked when I pointed out to them that that's how it's going to happen.
And I wish I could say that I thought some prayers, but they were warned.
I was telling them prior to the election that this is what they were going to do.
and they didn't believe.
So, illegal immigrants won't get
it.
Yeah, as he says facetiously.
Yeah, I get that.
No, I mean, there's a lot of finding out going on and about to happen across this country right now.
The other thing is, and some of this is still fluid as I understand it, people are gonna have to file for eligibility instead of once a year, twice a year.
So you have all that extra paperwork and all that bureaucracy and the cost on top of that.
So, you know, it is someone who spent a few months on BadgerCare.
It ain't easy.
So, I get it.
So, thanks, Tom.
I appreciate the call.
855-752-4842.
Let's go up to beautiful Eau Claire, Chippewa Valley on Gene and Eau Claire, WCFW The Tap.
Gene, thanks for calling.
We'll see.
Well, thank you so much for covering this.
This is just outstanding.
I watched the whole thing and I thought, oh, man, I hope these guys play some of those clips because I hope people get a chance to watch it because it was
really informative and all of the different amendments that the people, different people offered to try to protect the people in the United States and they would just turn down, turn down, turn down and all of them were very significant.
And then also there was a little bit of religion through and in there.
I'm glad that he did that.
It was like I was
talking about the Democratic leader in the
house.
Yes.
Yes.
And it was just great, you know, the way they were, where they wear the crosses and, you know, tell people how, you know, different things in any way.
It was so great because he did bring up the Bible and I used to see sunny school years going, you know, where you're supposed to
go,
you know, the people and stuff.
So if you get a chance also brought up.
project 2025 at the very end of this speech and you can find it probably on on public television, you know, I'm real cool if you go through that.
But anyway, thank you very much.
And I hope you have a good weekend.
Yeah,
I have a great fourth of July weekend.
Let's go quickly to Mark and per the stack.
Mark, about 45 seconds.
It's yours.
Let's say you
know, well, in honor of the holiday coming up, recognition of our Declaration of Independence, I'll remind people that in the declaration includes this line.
A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of your free people.
Now, there's a little bit of change there, you know, that the leader of a free people is more of a parent.
But Donald Trump is just trying to be a tyrant.
And in every case, he is what the anti-Federalists were worried about.
surrounded by minions and mistresses and now with his his ice troops going out there murdering Jena series.
Appreciate the
call, Mark.
Yep.
Thank you very much, Mark.
Yeah, that's something that's not going to allow to play either.
That the ice budget, the budget for Homeland Security ice, like it like is five times larger.
It's it.
It really is Donald Trump's own police force, if you will.
And I haven't been able to confirm this because there's been so much going on.
So I want to say that I've not confirmed this, but I'm just going to throw it out there.
Maybe somebody can point me to a confirmation from a reliable source.
But there seems to be language in this bill that also abdicates part of Congress's ability to control things to the executive, to Donald Trump.
If that turns out to be true, Katie bar the door.
Back after this on the Civic Media Ready Network with Dan Schaefer talking about the state budget that passed and Evers signed into law.
What does it mean for his reelection bid?
Don't go anywhere on the Civic Media Ready Network.
beyond that which is known to man.
Milwaukee's best.
It's a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.
Hey man, what about Milwaukee, man?
It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.
I think God would want us to go to Milwaukee.
And it lies between the pit of a man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.
What do you think about Milwaukee?
This is the dimension of imagination.
You are now entering the Recombobulation Area.
Welcome back to the title ball show
and the recap population area 35 minutes past the hour of 2 o'clock on Thursday, July 3rd That intro can only mean that one person is on the other side of that a Milwaukee in a Lover of Summerfest at least in smaller doses and nobody is a bigger Bucks fan and a great political writer their very own civic media political editor and founder of the recap population area Dan Schaefer mr. Schaefer
Good morning or a continued, you can sleep at all last night.
I did sleep a little bit.
You know, it's a discombobulating day, perhaps, to be covering politics in Wisconsin.
Watching the governor sign the bill for the budget at 1.32 a.m., I believe, was the exact time that that signature hit the paper.
So, yeah, lots going on in state politics and lots for us to discuss here.
Now, maybe I got my wires crossed.
I didn't know that you were coming on to talk.
about politics.
I thought you're coming here to talk about the big story this morning as being the reporter in the Milwaukee Journal said now.
Pat Conantin bids farewell to Milwaukee on Instagram post he've been traded to Charlotte.
That's right.
It's a lot of moves for the bucks this week, you know as someone who lives at the intersection of sports particularly NBA basketball and politics This has been a incredibly newsworthy week And I'm gonna need some time to really recombobulate at the
end of it.
That's what Dan Shafer is doing over the 4th of July weekend.
All right, I can't we can't want the main reason we're here is talk about the state budget, so you Shaly Pittman our news director and Jimmy Cusco for news department all up last night.
I have
falling asleep in my chair after trying to get through Colbert, or the old man Todd couldn't do it.
I woke up to reruns of Seinfeld about one o'clock, and I'm like, oh, well, look at that.
But you guys stayed up, you did a great job, and all of our civic media socials updating folks.
Tell us what happened, Dan, at the end, and explain this rush to get the budget done.
Yeah, so there you know, obviously there's there's a little bit of political news happening today So along with the state budget being signed in Madison the the so-called one big beautiful bill That Donald Trump was advancing through Congress also just passed in the house this afternoon and there was a reason for for the state of Wisconsin to pass this before the federal bill passed it meant
that it's kind of a complicated, long story short, is that they needed to pass this with a certain change involving some compensation for hospitals, involving some Medicaid reimbursement, you know, and some federal dollars that the state would have missed out on had they not made this budget change before that bill was
passed.
So if Republican caucus and Hakeem Jeffries had their poop in a group, and if Hakeem Jeffries, or Johnson that is,
Jefferies hadn't held the floor for eight hours.
If this thing in DC had passed first and Trump put his signature on it, then Wisconsin would have lost out on millions of dollars of available money to help essentially hospitals and reimbursement.
Yeah about a billion dollars a little over a billion dollars I believe could have been at risk and you know never mind that Republicans in the state have been denying Medicaid expansion for more than a decade now which would bring about a billion dollars every budget cycle to the state of Wisconsin never mind the logic of that but but
I think that added some urgency.
And some of what I was hearing as the budget process was unfolding in Madison last night was that they were watching what was happening in DC too, as there was some certain delays.
So I think it ended up being about 12 hours after Tony Evers signed his.
budget that the federal budget passed in the House.
So everything was on a pretty tight timeline here.
You know, it's kind of frustrating, really, though, if you zoom out and talk about what's been happening in the state budget discussions for weeks and weeks and weeks.
They've just been going in circles and going in circles.
And as I reported here about this same time with you last Friday on the Todd Alba show that Diane Hasselbein, the Senate Democratic Minority Leader, was finally invited to the table because Republican
did not have the votes to pass the budget with only Republican votes.
So adding her to negotiations, I don't know why it took so long to do that, but it eventually did and things moved quickly once she joined negotiations and Evers announced the deal.
What was it, Tuesday morning?
Voted on it yesterday into the wee hours of the night and now here we are on Thursday with a state budget.
Talking to Dan Schaefer, political editor for Civic Media and founder of the Recobobulation Area, you can find all of his
work, both at Civic Media dot US.
Great story by Dan, Shaly Pittman, Jimmy Cuskar, entire team breaking down this budget.
Civic Media dot US, find it there.
And also all of this work at www.vrecombobulationarea.news.
Type it correctly.
You got it.
You got it.
You got it.
Right
there.
For those nuts of us like us who follow this political stuff, I always liked the the parlor game of winners and losers.
And let's start politically.
And then let's go policy wise and Wisconsinites.
You brought up the first one, I think Diane Hesselebein, State Senator Diane Hesselebein, Democratic leader in the Senate, winner.
Absolutely a winner in this.
You know, even people who are really frustrated with this budget and there are a lot of Democrats in the state legislature who are frustrated with this budget, people are
really have a high opinion of the work that Diane Hasselbein did to get this budget over the finish line.
It has been a pretty long time since they have invited any legislative democratic leaders to the table in any kind of budget negotiations and that she was invited last week and made a number of changes.
I think some of what I'm hearing that she has been credited for is the increases in funding for the UW system, the increases in
special education reimbursement rates, and a number of the kind of one-time capital projects that emerged to get this budget over the finish line, too.
A lot of those within the UW system, but also, you know, a number of projects in a variety of different municipalities and counties as well.
So, yeah, a lot of people have a really, really high opinion of the work that Diane Hasselbein did once she was invited to the table for this budget.
Where the votes lied for the Democrats, those who crossed over and voted for this.
La Crosse seemed to have a disproportionate amount of state legislators on the Democratic side vote for this.
And we talked about this story in the Hill yesterday at the federal level, Republican from US Senator from Alaska, Lisa Markowski, she got called by one of the Democrats a cheap date because she sold out her vote on the federal budget for harpoons for fishers in Alaska.
I mean, was Brad Paff a cheap date?
And Steve Doyle over there in La Crosse, did they?
get enough for the UW system over there?
I think that I forget the exact dollar amount, but I know that they got a big.
capital investment for a project on the UW La Crosse campus.
So I know that was one of the big things that they talked about there.
Yeah, you're right.
Senator Brad Paff was among the five Senate Democrats who joined the majority of Republicans in the state Senate to pass the budget.
You also had a couple people from the Fox Valley and Green Bay area and also Eau Claire who crossed over to pass the
budget as well.
crossed over and some of them are in kind of purple-ish districts.
Are they winners then?
I would say so.
I would say so because I think ultimately it was a budget that it needed to get passed in some form or another.
And I think the inclusion of Senate Democrats in particular.
I
mean,
assembly different Democrats, they were not at the negotiating table.
It's a little bit of a different dynamic largely there.
But I think Senate Democrats being able to get a number of things that are seen as really big wins in this budget, there are a number of things that I think people, we can talk about some.
the losers in this
as well.
I was gonna say, yeah, go
ahead.
But I think the Senate Democrats really have emerged as probably the big winner in this budget
for sure.
On the other side of the aisle, a majority leader, Republican leader, Devon Lemihue, and Senate President, Mary Flaskowski.
Not odds very much at odds in this in this process Felskowski was one of the four Republican state senators to vote against this budget She gave a pretty impassioned speech Decrying governor Evers in this process as well, but I think I forget the exact details But JR Ross from was politics pointed out that this was the first time in a really long time that a you know majority leader and Senate president of the same party were on opposite sides
of a budget vote.
So that was pretty interesting, too.
And I think it just, it also shows that there is a little bit of disarray.
You know, Robin Voss might have his assembly caucus pretty much in line, but there's definitely some disarray among Senate Republicans, that's for sure.
Agreed.
Let's go to the assembly, Speaker Robin Voss, winner or loser.
I think he has to be seen as a winner as much as it pains me to say it.
I'm not a huge fan of the assembly speaker, but I think he got a lot of what he was looking for in this budget.
He was really driving the conversation for a lot of it, and he seemed pretty pleased with the budget as it was signed, and as he kind of wrapped things up right before that final vote.
And yeah, only losing one Republican vote in this, too.
Scott Allen of Waukesha, who voted, who is typically,
vote against Voss from time to time, but really only losing that one vote and getting a lot of the priorities that they wanted in the budget past, including that tax cut that they had been talking about over and over and over.
I bought every speech from a Republican assembly member as I was watching into the wee hours last night.
It was about a tax cut.
Governor Tony Evers, winner or loser, I
ask you, Dan Schafer.
I would say it's a little bit more mixed when it comes to Tony Evers.
I think there are aspects of the budget that can be seen as a huge win for Evers, particularly childcare.
I think Evers really went to bat for that issue.
You've talked about this on the show over the last few weeks.
He was saying that he's not going to sign a budget unless there is funding for childcare.
So I think that aspect of it was really strong from Evers.
approached this budget the same way as he has for the last three budget cycles.
And I think recognizing the leverage that Democrats had with needing Democratic votes in the Senate to get this over the finish line, I think
Evers could have approached this process a little bit differently.
And I think that's why you're seeing some of the consternation from legislative Democrats, particularly those in the assembly, many of whom voted against this budget.
And I think that.
You know, it's a it's a story of missed opportunities as far as a number of people are concerned with what is being ultimately delivered in this budget.
So I think they're you know, it's a it's a mixed results.
I think when it comes to the governor here,
I want to get to the assembly Democrats in particular who are strong nose and trying to lobby people to call their state legislators in a minute.
But before I get to that, Dan, let's speak.
Let's see.
Have you speak to this for a minute on.
To your point that there was a lot of people that said well Why did Evers their words not mine cave in and some of this stuff not hold the line on K-12 education But I kind of was like look I mean there is a point because I've been in the room with Robert boss my former boss where he'll just say thank you very much We're done here and walk away and like your boss impression by the way But but I mean he's very polite, but he's just very firm and and I think that you know I don't think this is a great budget at all
But I think maybe it was the best that could be done under the circumstances.
What do you think?
I think you're right about that.
I mean, this is, you know, Robin Voss controls the Republicans control.
This is the nature of divided government, right?
You're not going to get everything that everybody wants.
It's going to be a purple budget.
But I think the difference of this budget from the last few that Tony Evers have signed, the last
three Republican budgets that Tony Evers have signed and taken, you know, at times some creative approaches to the line item veto and whatnot.
But I think not recognizing the leverage that they had in the state Senate until really last week when Diane Hasselbein was invited to negotiations, I think they should have brought her in much, much earlier.
I agree that they should include Democrats earlier in the process as well.
When we come back, we're gonna play little John McLaughlin with Dan Schaefer.
On a scale of one to 10, one being not at all, 10 being metaphysical certainty that he will run again.
Does Tony Evers run for a third term?
We will ask Dan Schaefer on the other side and I will give you the correct answer.
Don't go anywhere, it's the awful show on Civic Media.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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We'll talk about that in hour two, but right now, back into political conversation with Civic Media's political editor and founder of the Reconpopulation area, Dan Schaefer, joining us live from Milwaukee.
Nobody's more Milwaukee than Dan Schaefer.
That's my opinion.
We
love it when you're here, Dan.
You should be.
It's a great city.
Those of us old enough remember the old McLaughlin group television show he'd have a panel and at the end he'd ask a question on a scale of one to ten and he'd call people's names out for a brief answer.
He'd say, Pap Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, Chris Matthews.
So in John McLaughlin style, I'm going to ask you on a scale of one to ten, one being no chance at all,
10 being metaphysical certainty that he runs for a third term.
Does Tony Evers run again?
I ask you, Dan Schaefer.
Well, obviously I have had a bit of a say on this.
this matter.
As you know, I wrote a column about why I think Tony Evers should not run for a third term.
You know, as I was writing that piece, I was asking people what they were thinking if he was going to run again.
And I think that the feedback that I was getting was that he was genuinely, genuinely had not yet decided and was going to decide after the state budget.
Here we are the day after the state budget was signed.
I guess I'll go with a six.
I think it's more of a 50-50 change.
but I guess I would lean slightly towards him running again.
Because I do think he has approached the last budget process and all of that, saying that with an eye towards running again, it does seem like that's the direction that things are headed, but I would not be surprised either way.
The correct answer?
How's that squishy middle ground answer?
The correct answer is two.
Tony Evers has put in his time in the public service, three terms as a school superintendent, state school superintendent, two terms as governor.
I think that he is going to call it a win.
And the main reason I say that, Dan Schaefer, is in my opinion, this is not a budget you go run for reelection on.
because the cuts to K-12 education or the lack of funding, okay, 500 million for Special Ed, that's great.
But there are school districts, larger ones like Eau Claire are going to lose $2 million next biennium.
And there are smaller ones that are going to be really devastated.
He's going to lose the K-12 pro education voting base.
Those people, they're not going to vote for Tom Tiffany, but I think they stay home.
If he runs again, he can't politically afford that.
I think he was just ready to be done with this.
He was ready to sign pretty much anything.
And I think he's out of here.
that's an interesting that's an interesting point and I do think there are you know if we're going back to kind of the winners and losers of the budget and all that there are a lot of people in the public education space who are especially upset with the governor's budget and with this compromise and you know we heard it in all the speeches from especially from assembly democrats last night talking about how the lack of you know a lack of funding for public schools in this budget is going to lead to more and more of the wave of referendums that we've been seeing.
So so yeah, I do think you know, I do wonder if this if Evers approached this like one last yeah
You know, uncomfortable compromise before he doesn't run for a third term or if or if this is, you know, kind of the opposite end of the thing would would be saying, hey, you know, he people like bipartisanship, people, you know, like some governor who gets things done.
And is that the, you know, line that Evers would bring, you know, hard to say.
I think last I mean, do you see that pathetic signing last night?
It was like him alone in an eschewed tie.
Looks like he woke up from a nap, but he signs it with three.
people as often as it was like.
It was like AJ Biaport and a couple other people were the only ones there.
I mean, that's not something you'll run on, Dan.
I mean, if you're gonna run again, you do this, you force some of these Democrats to stand behind you and you say, this is only a start.
I am calling the legislature back in to refund this and quickly, to this point, listen to Jane McNair's show.
They brought this up this morning with a childcare worker.
The childcare provision, the funding that's in here, it's only for one year.
A big chunk of the child care changes really only extends the child care counts type funding for another year I think that's there's a lot of confusion with that another piece that the Evers issued a partial veto He issued 23 partial vetoes as he signed that budget around 1 30 a.m.. Last night one of those was to remove the deadline to close the Green Bay correctional Yeah, that was a big thing that people brought up in negotiations to so instead of having the 2029 I believe deadline to
close he removed that deadline and so no there is not a set date for that.
I think that has a lot of people I've seen on both sides of the aisle frustrated with with that decision as well.
Many thanks to the great Angela Lange tuning in on on X for giving us that tidbit reminder as well.
She's always great whenever she's all the day and other people across this network.
About a minute or so left Dan Schaefer.
Any final thoughts on the state budget?
Or can Wisconsinites take a little bit of a summer vacation over the holiday weekend now?
Is there any big breaking
news that's gonna happen?
Todd, now you just jinxed it.
Now you just, I was gonna say, if you didn't say anything like I say, we get a couple days to celebrate with our family and friends for the fourth of July weekend.
But now that you said something, Todd, now I think that we're gonna get hit with another tidal wave of news or something
like that.
I'll be traveling with my Starlink setup just in case something happens over the holiday.
What does the Schaefer family do over the fourth weekend?
We're staying in Milwaukee for the fourth this weekend.
It's the best time of year to be in Milwaukee, summer in Milwaukee.
We're looking forward to watching some fireworks at our neighborhood on the west side of town here, probably going to Washington Park to watch those fireworks and eating lots of good food, having a few adult beverages and enjoying ourselves.
What's your favorite to brought?
Oh, um, there's so many good ones in Milwaukee.
I'll go with the usingers Italian.
I just had a usingers hot dog on the grill lot.
It was very, very good.
Usingers.
Great place there in Milwaukee.
No more Milwaukee than Dan Schaefer, a host.
Why do I keep saying that?
The political editor of civic media also recombination area, Dan Schaefer.
Thank you so much.
Have a great day down there.
Thanks for
having me.
Dan, remember this.
If you have a fifth of the fourth, don't go fourth or the fifth.
Back after this.
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