Derrick Van Orden Has His Cake and Eats It Too (Hour 1)

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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.

Todd Allbaugh along with Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

Glad to have you along here on a Wednesday, July 9th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite, and it is pump day.

That's right.

Here we are halfway through the week.

And really, Zommers really, by the way, at six minutes past the hour of a two o'clock.

Welcome in, everybody.

Mostly sunny skies downtown Madison, the world headquarters here on State Street.

Zommers for it really feels in a way like this.

This is Friday to me because the next couple of days really aren't work at all because we're going to be at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair with our friend, our colleague, the host of Mornings with Pat Krightlow.

Mr. Pat Krightlow, who joins us from beautiful Lake Wissota.

And is currently muted.

And is currently muted.

Don't put Pat in a corner.

Don't trust him with technology either, if you think.

that going to the Northern Wisconsin State Fair and working a shift there isn't work.

You apparently did not see the barn schedule.

I did.

I put you down for a few shifts there and the shovel will be waiting.

Hey, if there's anything I'm good at, it's shoveling the doors.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, absolutely.

Tony, it is.

Tony says, where's Trigby?

He's missing the guy he idolized on TV growing up.

Shut

up, Tony.

Wow, Tony, filling in for Mr. Olson.

Coming off the

top rope real early in the show here,

Tony.

No, Trig V is traveling.

He's in high demand.

So he's supposed to be getting into O'Hare.

He thinks he's going to join us before the end of this half hour.

I have my doubts.

It depends on where the private jets, do they get your priority?

as he comes in.

He does not own one, but the funny thing is he occasionally does travel by

private

jet.

And I like how he phrases that as occasionally.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, Patrick, I'm truly excited.

We're going to be up the Northern Wisconsin State Fair tomorrow and Friday.

And here's how good a broadcaster, how good a friend, Pat Critlow is.

He does his three hours of fine entertainment and news from six until nine a.m.

And then he has the

courtesy, the kindness to come over and join us for a couple hours next two days.

Just thank you very much for doing this Pat.

It's what a good host is supposed to do.

And I love, I love the fair.

I've lived here now in Chippewa for 30 years and love, love the fair every year going there.

It's, it's one of those where it's not too big.

It's not too small.

It's got two.

Count them to beer gardens in case you're in case you don't like somebody at the one, you can go to the other.

And somebody also gave you the stink eye.

But no, good, good entertainment, you know, wide variety of food.

You got your animals, you got your rides.

And the thing that really won me over when I moved here was something you can't see at, you know, your big old state fairs.

You see the blue ribbons for the animals and things like that.

But there's a building just.

devoted to the schools in Chippewa County.

And it's just kids' artwork, kids' projects, all kinds of kid-related things in that little building.

And it's just adorable knowing that your kids could be in that building with their stuff.

Pretty sure mine were at some point here, but you know, it's just it's very community oriented and it's something I'm looking forward to having you see again.

Yeah, we had a ball

up there last year.

Trigvie was with me when we stopped and did this last year with Pat for one day.

And so this year we get to be there for two days looking forward to it.

Thanks to Pat.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

What is Trigvie coming?

Would that be some of you is flying out here?

I think he's just going to be in Chicago.

But would that be cool if he was driving up here?

Well, yeah, I mean, I'd gas up the pontoon and everything

here,

but look at that.

All right.

We'll see.

Maybe we can strong arm strong arm him to come in.

But many thanks to you, Pat.

We're going to have Rusty Volk.

Now, he was fantastic.

He was on last year.

He is the director of the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

He will be joining us tomorrow at the top of the show.

And then we're also going to have for guests tomorrow, we are going to have Eric Anderson, who is the director of the U.S.

Cube Championship.

and editor of Kube Nation Magazine.

This is a big deal that the national championships are in Eau Claire this weekend, so that'll be fun.

Yeah, I mean, there's no other game where you can throw lumber at each other.

All right.

You know, I mean, you're not supposed to, I

guess.

But nope, it's a very, very popular game around here.

So I'm not a bit surprised that you've got the world championships.

Yeah, it's going

to be great.

And then on Friday, we have BJ Hollers, a great filmmaker.

He did that great documentary on the unor oil plant closing in Eau Claire.

We were up there for the world premiere last year.

And he's going to be back on the show on Friday.

He has a new

upcoming documentary on Guess What!

Kube and so that'll be fun.

And also author Ken Samansky, who is an educator in the Eau Claire public school district.

He is going to be out.

He has a brand new book coming out in part on the northern Wisconsin State Fair.

So we have all those great guests, plus Pat and I are going to sample some fair food, not great food, not bad food, just fair food.

And no, no,

no,

no, it's

all great fair

food.

It's great fair food.

And then we're going to my goal this year and my lovely and talented sister who you met Heather is.

gonna be our on-site producer once again.

I'm hoping to get into the show barns because my goal this year Pat is to get a young 4-H or somebody with a small animal.

It could be a rabbit, it could be a rooster, it could be a chicken, I don't care because hilarity as you know as the season broadcaster that you are, hilarity ensues when you're live on the air with animals and kids.

All right, let's we're going to check the rules first to make sure that the building where we're in will allow wild varmints like that to come on in or domesticated, you know, farm animals.

Well, they let me

in.

But yeah,

I like I said, varmints.

So we'll we'll see what the rules are and make sure that you can on live radio kids be listening as Todd all becomes the first radio host ever bitten by a bunny rabbit live

on air.

Would that be something?

I could call the doctor and get a rabies shot live on the air.

That's

right.

I'll do

anything for a bit.

She

will.

Yep.

So Todd, Todd meets an animal

coming

up.

Sounds like my last date.

But anyway, it's going to be a good time had by all the northern Wisconsin State Fair.

So join Pat and I to the next two days from the beautiful Chippewa Valley.

from Chippewa Falls at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Not everybody is listening to us on the network right now, Pat, because on several of our stations, as you well know, the Brewers are taking on the Los Angles Dodgers on many of our stations, the Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racing, Kenosha Park Falls, and Hayward.

Wow, the Miz once again last night.

Big win.

Exciting.

Exciting.

Two big wins over the world champion defending Dodgers at Bamfam

Field.

It was just so great watching him, especially at the very start of the game when Mizoroski's up there and the first batter to face is Shohei Otani and strike one and strike two and you're already getting excited.

And he throws that O2 pitch and Shohei says, welcome to the bigs, Jacob Mizoroski, as I launched this thing.

431 feet.

But that was it.

Then he settled out.

He struck out the next five Dodgers in a row.

You know, six shutout innings.

He's just he's he's insanely good and so much fun to watch.

Fun

time to be a Brewer fan for sure.

Lots of news to get to here.

I thought we might start with this.

This from the old Huffington Post headline.

GOP representative weirdly lies about helping save his state survived the Medicaid cut he voted for.

Yes, I know you talked about it on mornings and pack right load this morning I've been following this but in brief you can look up the story on Huffington Post But our old friend I say this tongue-in-cheek Derek van Orton congressman Darren that Derek van Orton from the third congressional district He's making a big deal in a post from Friday where he complained that a PBS story about Wisconsin State Legislature's racing to pass their budget to secure the extra funding quote

failed to mention that we worked seamlessly with the state governor to get this done, unquote.

And he goes on the same day he accused Evers of telling, quote, a flat out lie, unquote, about Republican is in Congress telling out families to pay for tax cuts for the rich.

So basically, I think you've talked about your show, Pat, we've talked about here.

State legislators, the governor got the budget deal done for the state.

We can argue that one way or the other, but they had to beat the clock before the national budget was passed and signed.

Otherwise, Wisconsin would have lost out on what a billion dollars, according to State Senator Kelder Royce.

And so Evers sent this perfunctory letter, and he has a copy of it to Governor Evers saying, you need to do this, and then he votes against this.

Well, of course,

I mean this this is what he does Derek van Orden has not been involved in politics very long You and I have been involved a lot longer and we have seen what he's doing here He's doing he's doing things that you know rookies do and that is trying to have it both ways

And honestly believe in your heart of hearts that you are able to have it both ways and that everybody believes you when you try to have it both ways.

When you say, I am absolutely for this budget.

It makes these necessary reforms to Medicaid.

It's going to slash and burn Medicaid.

But, you know, that's OK.

We we need to we need to cut this.

And then right away, it says, hey, governor, I know I'm voting for this bill, but boy, there's a big there's a big stink bomb in there for you.

I just wanted to warn you, OK, we're buddies, right?

And then come back out and rip either some so.

So, yeah, classic, classic, trying to have it both ways, politician.

Welcome to the bigs, Derek Van Orden.

And I'll clarify my, clarify my own word.

When I said he voted against, I bet he voted against the interests of the state.

So he voted for Trump's bill, which was like, I know, but some of the listeners, they don't understand my weirdness like you do, Pat, because you've, you've hung around me.

God love you.

Probably too much for your liking, but I love it.

I enjoy it.

It's okay.

It's a contractual obligation, but I fulfill it.

That's all right.

Yes, you do.

Yes, you do.

I think this is just interesting because and Trigby said this before last couple of weeks.

I really think that Derek van Orden is.

politically worried for his future.

I think he looks at what's going on right now in this country.

As you've talked about on your show, what this budget actually means for people in Wisconsin.

There are going to be people that have loved ones that were not going to be in nursing homes anymore.

There are going to be people that don't have health care anymore.

I think it was Senator Bernie Sanders.

What was it?

276,000 plus Wisconsinites are going to now lose health care coverage.

As we say back in Richland Center where I'm from,

Something quite right about this guy, Derek Van Orden.

Well, the thing that he could really learn from the rest of the Republican delegation for Wisconsin and the U.S.

House is, shut up.

I mean, look, look, Scott Fitzgerald took the same vote.

He has no rigourts whatsoever.

None.

You know, you don't hear anything about him.

You don't hear Glenn growthman's name.

in the news because he is also not getting on Twitter, calling people names.

So if you're going to take the vote to hurt the constituents, just follow those guys and go, yeah, I don't care.

And then not get on Twitter and not name call reporters and not try to call attention to yourself.

Go back to what the one thing that he does well, the one thing Derek Van Orden does well, and maybe it isn't him, it's his campaign team.

But in his commercials each year, he looks like the kindly older fella next door who rides a Harley and he's just working on it in the garage and he loves his grandkids and

all

that.

And the folks who never see his social media interactions, who never see the way he talks to reporters and others, the way he talks to people in public, they believe the commercials.

So, I mean...

Again, somebody needs to take away his social media passwords and tell him to make more videos, even if it's not campaign season, make the videos that make you look kindly, even as you're sticking that shiv into the constituents who rely on Medicaid in your district.

I couldn't.

But to your point, Pat, you made here politically.

Don't you think this guy is is doing on social and attacking people and name called because I think he's truly worried about his about this reelection.

I think that's just his nature.

He knows that there are three different strong women who've announced so far that want to run against him next year.

He has no idea who his opponent's going to be.

And so he's just swinging wildly at everything because, like you said, desperation will do that when he does not have facts and, I don't know, morals on his side.

Pat Crite low.

Come on back.

Talk a little.

We got education.

Yes, our old friend, Jane Rothman, wants to up your tuition.

We'll discuss that with Mr. Crite.

On the other side, see if Trigvie shows up.

He's on a jet plane.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the All Balls show and Civic Media is ready to work.

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Welcome back.

to the title of all show in the Pacific radio network, 22 now, past the hour of two o'clock on a Wednesday, July 9th, straight off the Derrick Van Orden Spotify playlist.

Welcome back, everyone.

Glad to have you

all

along.

Oh, sorry.

I thought you were taking a shot at me for mentioning the two beer gardens at the

northern Wisconsin State Fair.

It was about

TVO.

I'm like, Somers, that's so brilliantly passive-aggressive, brilliantly

so.

someone who does not have a drinking problem, although he makes a very mean, nay I say, the best home brandy old-fashioned I've ever had.

And he was so kind to do it up when I was up there in Lake Wissota doing our show up there.

Mr. Pat Critell, you can hear him every morning on Mornings with a conveniently named show, Mornings of Pat Critell.

Isn't it great you can throw that back at

me

now?

I know after two years of him doing it to me.

I can just do it to him now, so that's great.

Pat, people that have kids in universities in Wisconsin, they may need a brandy old fashioned after the news yesterday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

It says pending an upcoming vote tuition for the University of Wisconsin system students is set to rise in the upcoming school year.

Board of Regents expected to vote.

On July 10th, a couple of days, on a proposed 5% increase to resident undergraduate tuition for most UW campuses at UW Madison, the flagship campus, that 5% increase would be an additional 500 bucks, bringing the 2025-2026 annual resident undergraduate tuition to $10,506.

If the vote passes, it would mark the third consecutive year

with a tuition increase.

My old friend, tongue-in-cheek, EW system president, Jay Rothman, said after a decade of tuition freezes and lagging state aid, we believe we have struck a balance for students and families with this proposed and the proposal and the recent state investments in the UW as part of the 25-26 biennial budget, unquote.

Pat, I, you know, no bigger.

believer in the UW system than me.

And I think I'll include you in that as well.

But after the legislature and Governor Evers did get more money into UW systems budget after the Republicans wanted to cut it by $87 million, you would think at least they might be able to go a year without sticking it to the people paying the tuition.

Well,

I'm decidedly in the minority on this.

I don't feel like the UW system or any colleges and universities should have to intentionally, you know,

play victim or play popper, you know, play those games, essentially, if it costs more money with inflation and everything else, that's fine.

And put the pressure on where it belongs.

State government, which has done a woeful job of supporting higher education in the state, I looked it up and did you know, Mr. Alba?

No,

it was 40 years ago that I was starting my senior year at UW Eau Claire 1985, the 8586 academic year.

My tuition that year was I looked this up 2000

seven hundred eighty four dollars

for the year

for the year.

Wow.

And that was almost entirely covered through either federal Pell grants or other state assistance, things like reciprocity, because we valued higher education far more once upon a time in the state for nearly a century than we do now.

So I understand that it's it's easy to get frustrated at the UW system for it.

It's just that I can't get to that point.

because of my years long frustration with the way that we have made it so convenient to knock colleges and universities as Republicans love to do, you know, the ivory towers and the elites and everything else.

And if we lose, you know, what's left of the UW system, and I'm not taking them off the hook for any mismanagement, I'm just saying if we if we lose something like the UW system,

That's that's that's the ballgame for our state economy We we will be so much worse off if we don't have all of that research if we don't have all those best and brightest people coming to our campuses The faculty the jobs that are created not just directly but indirectly through the graduates This place has a story to tell

No, I don't think Jay Rothman is doing a great job at all of telling that story or making justification for it.

So I'm not taking anything away from from your frustration with the tuition hike.

I'm just telling you where my bias is, is that I would like to see, you know, this state through its legislature do more than just turn the UW into a convenient punching bag when it feels it has to do things like.

raised tuition.

No argument for me on my former party and their assault on higher public and K-12 public education in this state.

Totally fair.

I just look at it from the standpoint of my two god sons, the last one graduated UW a couple of years ago now.

And I know how much he and his parents were paying.

He got a couple of small scholarships, but they were paying their own way.

And it's tough on

And now with the closure of half of our two-year schools, so now you're gonna tell some of these people, okay, now you have to drive an hour one way to go to class.

Oh, and by the way, we're gonna increase your tuition 500 bucks a semester with all the money that's going into building projects.

And those are important too, I'm not saying they're not, but you look at some of these, and I think the good people should be paid a fair and market wage on this, but I just think that when some, and you know what I'm talking about, I don't have

to spell it out.

There

are people on the 17th floor of Van Nuys, that's where the system is at, that are making a quarter million dollars and they are assistance to Rothman and other people and they're supposed to be lobbying the state legislature and really a quarter million dollars got us kind of milk toast?

I just don't see the justification for it and you could give these parents one year of not increasing tuition.

I think the UW system ought to hire you and they ought to hire me because we are both absolutely correct in how we are evaluating this problem and both things need to be said, perhaps by two different people like we are right now, but both things are absolutely true.

But those tuition hikes wouldn't be as necessary if the state came through and did their share.

I get the optics, I get the politics.

I

just, I

keep coming back to the root cause.

Think what that could boost our state retirement, Pat, if we each took a couple of years at 200 grand.

I mean, wow, we'd be sitting pretty, my friend.

All right, we'll see you tomorrow up in the chip wall fire.

Thank you very much, Pat.

Listen every morning six until nine.

Come on back.

We'll talk.

Tax on tips after this stay tuned now for a farm park update with Pam Young pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it Welcome back the title ball show on the civic media already that we're glad to have you along with us Zommer's on the board 35 minutes now past the hour of 1 o'clock Pardon me 2 o'clock check that on Wednesday July 9th 2025 many thanks to Pat Crite low of mornings of Pat Crite low every morning from 6 until 9 for being here our first half hour and looking forward

Do I hang out with Pat a little while up in the Chippewa Valley next couple of days gonna be a great couple of shows from the Northern Wisconsin State Fair So be with us tomorrow and Friday will bring you all that live action from the Chippewa Valley.

Trig V. Olsen may or may not join us He's stuck in flight as they say you know how it is and by I heard our friend Jane McNair and Greg Bach on Matt Nair on air this morning

great program every morning from 9 to 11.

They were talking a little bit about this.

We'll touch on it maybe a little bit later.

Big news from TSA.

You don't have to take off your shoes anymore.

But even bigger, more important news from TSA.

They're still keeping the recombobulation area.

Thank you.

Yes,

the Milwaukee.

They have the recombobulation area where you can get

Because sometimes you have to undress when you go through the the take off your

shoes.

No longer shoes

take off about what the story we had last week if you have swamp crotch Then you gotta you gotta you know get a pat this rope, you know this rope But and then so they say Milwaukee then they're so smart Milwaukee ahead of the country on this They set up an area where you can put your clothes back on and it's called the Reconbibulation area and our friend our colleague the editor the political editor of civic media

Dan Schaefer, that is where he got the name for his great site called the Recapobulation Area.

And so there was talk now that now that TSA is announcing you don't have to remove your shoes, do you really need a Recapobulation Area?

And the answer is, of course, yes, 100%.

You need the area at the airport and you need a Recapobulation Area to get you all set with the news as well.

So check it out, www.

and you gotta use the three W's.

www.vrecombobulationarea.news.

You can find Dan Schaefer and all the great contributors there at the recombobulation area.

Thank you, Zombers, for that update there on that.

I'm gonna talk about tax on tips here in just a minute, but I want you to finish up on this story we were talking a little bit about with the PAC Crite Low.

story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today on the University of Wisconsin system, announcing that the J Rothman president wants to up tuition for students within the system, 5% across the board for in state tuition.

And of course, this is after the university got a big increase in the, in the state.

But, and believe me, I'm glad they got a $256 million increase in the budget.

after it was floated by Robin Voss and other Republicans in the legislature, they wanted to cut the system by $87 million.

So I'm all for the increase.

But you would think that Rothman would have been politically smart enough to say, you know what, why don't we not raise tuition for a year?

Give...

students and in many cases, their parents a break, but no, he won't say tuition up.

So let me connect the dots, as they say.

Connect four, great game by the way.

Is that classified as a board game?

You're an expert.

Connect four, yeah.

Really connect four, all right.

Because it's not really a board, it's more of a stand.

Yeah, I think you don't need to have a board necessarily to be considered a board game.

I

guess

tabletop game

is more accurate.

Oh tabletop, tabletop game.

I like that.

tabletop game.

All right.

So anyway, uh, uh, let me connect the dots for you because this is serious and this is, this is serious business.

So under this proposal by Rothman at EW system, non-resident, non-resident undergraduate tuition would rise, hang on to your hats to $42,531 at EW Madison.

for the 25-26 school year.

I mean, that's crazy, right?

But here's the deal, here, let me connect this for you.

Why is it that we, when we talk about what's happening in DC with Donald Trump and the MAGA leadership out there wanting to crack down not just on

undocumented folks and immigration.

He's trying to cut back on even legal immigration.

And he has targeted foreign students.

They are now saying, according to the State Department, the Homeland Security, that if you want a student visa, you have to unlock all of your social media accounts.

So you can, you know, I, as Omron's knows more about this than me, but like on Twitter, for instance, on X, you can make it so that you have a social media account, but only people that

It's locked, quote unquote, which means you have to people have to ask to see your account or be in it.

And if you don't get permission, they can't see your account.

Is that right, Summers?

Basically.

And I think you can do that with Insta and Facebook and whatever.

So now this State Department Homeland Security says, hey, if you want to be a student in America, you have to unlock so we can review your social media accounts.

And basically, if there is anything in their derogatory about Donald Trump or Maga, gone.

You don't get to come here Which seems to me more than a little ironic that you have people coming from China and other countries where the government is Not standing up for free speech and they're coming here in part at least to study in a country that has more freedom But now our current federal government under Trump is saying we're gonna we're gonna decide

Whether you're ideologically compatible and this ain't for good.

We're not talking about people who are might be terrorists or making threats We're talking about people that might have retweeted something that was anti-trump Are you say well Todd you're off on a tangent here a little bit, but now really bear with me Why is that important?

Because the fewer foreign students that are allowed to come into America

And in our case, the fewer international students that are allowed to go to state public universities, just think of that.

At Madison, for every person that Trump doesn't allow in, you're losing $42,531.

Now replicate that several times.

You know, my old professor, Jack O'Neill, you'd be a Plathville, you used to say it all comes down to the dollar sign.

Jack was right.

If, if UW system doesn't have international, it has a lot fewer international students, guess what?

They have to make up that revenue.

And in part, I will give President Rothman a little bit of leeway, a little because of the Trump administration allowing fewer foreign students here.

They have to make up for those dollars.

A lot of people say, why is it so hard to get my kid into UW Madison?

I mean, they're 4.0 or higher now, grade point average.

They were involved in extracurriculars and they got denied.

Well, part of the reason is, is that UW Madison to the largest degree, but other state schools as well,

have to hold out for financial reasons so many slots for international students because the state legislature under Republican control isn't allocating enough dollars for them to survive.

It's a sick money game.

And yes, I get it.

I mean, I'm all for auto, you know, international students paying more as a privilege or whatever, but $42,531.

That's like four times what a Wisconsin resident pays.

And yes, I think that Wisconsin residents should get a deal.

It is a public land grant university.

In this story, in the journal Sentinel says, what about graduate students?

A majority of UU campuses are also proposing increases to graduate tuition, both for residents and non-residents.

For graduate residents, tuition would increase between 4 and 5.6 percent at all campuses with the exception of Madison and Milwaukee.

Those two are proposing to keep their graduate resident tuition flat.

It's nearly the same story for non-residents.

Madison and Milwaukee are proposing no increases and other campuses are proposing between 1.9 and 5.3 percent increases.

That's for graduate students.

But you see how this is all connected.

You kind of dig down into it.

We think, you know, well, what happens in DC?

Well, how does that affect me?

Well, it could very well mean that your niece, your nephew, your son, your daughter can't get into the state university that they want to because there simply aren't enough slots for financial reasons.

That's why we have to have investment in our UW system.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Let's go quickly to Mark in protest.

Mark, thanks for listening.

What's the?

Well, heaven forbid somebody criticized the orange menace that is currently the president of the United States.

And as far as international students go, I went to school at UW-Superior, 76 to 1980.

I graduated in 1980.

And there was a significant number of students from Nigeria at UW-Superior at that point in time.

I mean, there's two different categories of them.

Some were there on, I think it was called the Riverside Scholarships and there was others there that came from very wealthy families that were, you know, going to school in the northern Wisconsin, you know, that, in the middle of the continent that they're coming from, from Nigeria.

I mean, those were international students and I don't know what the rate was back then.

I mean, tuition was certainly heck of a lot cheaper back then because the, you know, the

you know, state actually kicked in more funds toward the university.

But I mean, that cutting off that resource for the, you know, for our universities and that resource for our country, you know, bringing in knowledge and exposing people to, you know, to America, coming from other countries and that, and Donald Trump is so thin-skinned that they're just afraid, oh, somebody might be criticizing Donald Trump.

I mean, for God's sakes, they're,

detaining American citizens because you know coming back from foreign countries because they might have tried you know criticize the king well that's the kind of crap that the colonists went through back in the back in the day when we declared independence from the king you couldn't you couldn't criticize the king back then period

thanks mark appreciate the call mark the just up against the clock but appreciate the call it marks absolutely right and and I've told the story before I won't tell the entire thing again so it's not to bore you

But the greatest part about my college experience were my three years at a two-year college at UW Richland with the Central American Scholarship Program that was administered through, guess where, USAID, the State Department, which Trump and Marco Rubio cut, to bring

students from very poor families but that were academically excellent that would never otherwise get a university education to give them two-year full-ride scholarships to come to the United States to learn either computers or business with requirement to go back home for two years in order to lift from within both economically

And to give them the quote unquote American experience so they can go back and say you know this is back in the the the late 80s So you can say yeah, you know what?

Democracy and and America is better than communism and and Russia and the Soviet Union at that time That program did more to improve world relations and peace Then all the money that you stuck into bombs or defense and guess

Who was one of the main authors of the Central American Scholarship Program?

Republican U.S.

Senator Bob Castan of Wisconsin.

That Republican Party no longer exists.

We'll get to tax on tips.

Don't go anywhere.

We'll give you the whole story, including the tips.

Come on back.

It's the town of all show across to Wisconsin on the civic media

radio.

You're listening to civic media.

Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the civic media website, civic media dot US.

Welcome back to the town of all show on the chill vibe of a Wednesday afternoon on the civic media radio network, eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock.

I love that song.

I don't know why it takes me back to my.

Early radio days at WRCL original and center Ray Schrader a reminiscing with Ray every Saturday afternoon And he would play that I let you played the old tunes like that and it was just I don't know that

version of it too or

maybe I think there was a lot of It's been done a lot.

Well, is that is that from my fair lady?

What shows that from I'm not exactly that one

is it's a cover by Peggy Lee, right?

Oh, do you mean the original it's from the music man?

I think

music man.

All right.

Yeah, there you go

But it's, it's just a, it's a chill song that I tend to, if you watch the secret show, if you tune in on the stream, on Facebook, YouTube, Twix, Twitter X, whatever I call it, I occasionally just start singing that and Zomers has to put up with it.

And here and occasionally he'll he'll throw it back at me like that and I love it every time he does it all right Welcome back everybody.

I had nothing to do with anything other than to amuse me So insomers have you ever had I'm not sure I've ever asked you this before We've been to get almost three years.

Can you imagine that's three years?

This show has been on the air almost three years and that in and of itself these days is quite the accomplishment indeed

Uh, I'm not sure I've ever asked you.

Have you ever worked in a job where you relied on tips?

I have not.

I have worked in jobs where I received tips, but never relied on them.

Like I worked out of Starbucks and you get some tips, but it's not the bulk of your salary or, you know, your wages.

I would say similar.

I've, you know, also my first job in coffee years ago was, was at a Starbucks where you got tips.

Um, I served, I was, I was kind of in a man management role.

So I, if I.

Occasionally wait a table.

I just put my tips in with like the bartender tips or or whatever So I haven't my myself personally relied on it But here is as my old social studies teacher Ken Lewis is fond of saying here is a hitherto unknown fact Did you know that in Wisconsin the minimum wage for tipped employees like servers is still $2

33 cents an hour.

I did.

I know you did.

Although, technically, if they don't make it to real minimum wage with tips, then the employer has to pay up to that.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Yeah, you're right.

So they passed the law not too long ago.

Exactly.

Zombers is right.

So if a server or bartender's tips don't equal at least $7.25 an hour, which is...

the still ridiculously low non livable wage, minimum wage in this state and the other country, at least in the state.

The employer has to make up for it, but the employer can claim a tip credit for the difference between the tip wage and the minimum wage, which I'm fine with that.

I think that's great.

But the important part, so people say, well, why, why should I tip my server?

We're at this nice fancy restaurant.

I'm paying, you know, $60 for a fillet.

And you pay 10, 20% more, hopefully at least 15 or 20% more for a tip.

Yes, because the person that's waiting on you for that hour or 90 minutes, they are only making technically $2.33 an hour.

So.

I'm going to start this and we're going to finish it on the other side in three o'clock hour here.

According to WISC TV Channel 3000, the CBS affiliate in Madison says President Donald Trump's campaign promise to eliminate federal taxes on tips has become a reality in his budget bill.

So what will it mean for Wisconsin's more than 50,000 tip workers?

The provision allows workers to deduct up to $25,000 in tips annually with an income cap of $150,000.

Tipped workers will still have to pay state and local income taxes and payroll taxes.

According to Susan Quam, Executive Vice President of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, which represents $7,000

locations across the state of Wisconsin, she says, that's going to cover a huge portion of what people are earning.

Kwam also said the provision will apply to industries that traditionally have used tipping so the other sectors won't have to, quote, jump on the bandwagon, unquote.

She says, many of our folks are either part time, either supplemental income to the family or our students putting themselves through school.

This will help them achieve their goals as individuals.

According to a main report for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, eliminating federal taxes on tips for eligible workers will increase take home pay by roughly $1,600 annually.

However, there's roughly four million tipped workers in the United States and nearly a third don't earn enough to pay federal income tax, meaning.

they wouldn't actually benefit from this tax elimination.

That seems to be a problem.

Laura Dresser, a labor economist and professor at Udemy of Madison, questions whether the tax cut addresses the most pressing challenges facing tipped workers.

She says, quote, tax on tips is not the first problem I would solve for tipped workers in this economy.

unquote instead she argues that tipped workers face more fundamental issues like limited access to benefits such as health care and our wage instability and here's the kicker this trump tax on tip provision is extended only through the 2028 under the current budget bill basically meaning that congress could restrict or abolish it in the future so this again unfortunately

is politically brilliant.

They get to go around Republicans and campaign for the midterm elections saying, hey, we got rid of the tax on tips.

And if you put them back in office, guess what?

It's gone.

It was as George Costanza once said on Seinfeld did take.

I mean, I laugh about it because it's so ridiculous, but it's tragically sad because.

Most people aren't going to dig down into the facts.

They're just going to let Trump and the Republican Congress get away with this sham.

That's why you gotta.

That's

great, Oliver Twist.

That's why, that's why, as Mr. Lewis says, you can't be so poor that you can't pay attention.

Come on back, hour two is next.

Why talk a little bit more on this tax on tips.

And what's worse, a za edition.

It's the title of our show on the Civic Media.

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