Battleground Wisconsin

In a major victory for Citizen Action's Radio-Active project, Mike Crute ( co-host of the Devil’s Advocates radio show) makes an exclusive announcement on the podcast that he is buying a major radio station in the Milwaukee market, broadcasting at 1510 AM. The new commercial talk radio station will feature independent and progressive voices engaging in fact-based discussions, including local hosts and national luminaries such as Thom Hartmann, Stephanie Miller, and many others. We also discuss Scott Walker’s punitive plan to force parents with children to work a minimum of 80 hours a month to receive food stamps and housing assistance, while the Walker economy continues to hemorrhage family supporting jobs. Also the panel discusses shocking new cost estimates for one of Walker's biggest corporate tax loopholes, his latest assault on worker rights, and new evidence that private school tax break passed by the GOP in the middle of the night is going primarily to wealthier Wisconsinites. We also weigh in on the l

In advance of Gov. Walker’s state budget, Citizen Action of Wisconsin is one of the leaders of a 20 organization coalition which released an alternative state budget earlier this week. The budget eliminates huge corporate tax loopholes to fund exciting new investments in jobs, education, and health that will help create thriving communities. We also bat around the surreal Trump cabinet confirmation hearings this week that were headlined by embarrassing performance by Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos, whose only qualification appears to be millions in campaign contributions made by her family. Jorna has a Paul Ryan Watch update and we discuss growing opposition to the Trump attack on health care, including the successful Citizen Action Organizing Co-op rallies in Milwaukee, Eau Claire, Appleton, Waukesha, and Wausau.

We dissect Gov. Walker’s “working and winning” State of the State speech and uncover clues about his evolving political strategy. Moving to the national level, we welcome Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s Mel Barnes to discuss how Paul Ryan and Congressional Republicans plan to use the repeal of the Affordable Care Act to blacklist Planned Parenthood as a medical provider for Medicaid patients, cutting off access to women's preventive health care across Wisconsin. We also talk about Trump’s stranger than fiction press conference this week, the Senate's first vote on Affordable care Act repeal, and Health Care for All rallies we are hosting this weekend with Senator Tammy Baldwin and Congresswoman Gwen Moore. We also uncover shocking new Wisconsin legislation that would repeal child labor laws for kids 16 years and older to supposedly help homeless kids.

Media Call: Substance Use Prevention Experts Will Question Effectiveness of Walker's Opioid Proposal Legislators, Advocates, and Experts working with youth in urban, rural and suburban school districts to evaluate Walker Administration's opioid prevention proposals Statewide: Thursday January 12th at 1:15 PM, Citizen Action of Wisconsin will host a media call with State Senator LaTonya Johnson and substance use prevention expert Julie Whelan Capell to analyze Governor Scott Walker’s recently announced opioid prevention proposal. The Walker plan will be debated by the legislature during the state budget process. Large scale prevention is the most effective and efficient strategy to cure the epidemic of heroin and opioid addiction, but there are major questions about the scale and scope of the Walker proposal. Failing to invest in proven prevention strategies at the scale necessary to meaningfully address the opioid epidemic will leave tens of thousands of urban, rural and suburban youth at deadly risk. Wha

After repeated, bold, and blustery promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act on day one, Congressional Republican’s moved tepidly this week to start the process of yanking funding for health coverage with no plan or timeline for replacement. After digging into the impossible predicament Republicans have made for themselves on health care, we welcome State Representative Eric Genrich (D - Green Bay) to discuss what to expect from the GOP in in the new legislative session, and how progressive Democrats can counter them with an alternative vision for the state. We also discuss Walker’s DNR cleansing of climate change from its website, the lack of a candidate to run against Justice Annette Zeigler for her State Supreme Court seat, and the deal pro-voucher DPI Candidate John Humphries cut with the Dodgeville School District to be paid $650/day while he runs full-time for State Superintendent.

To discuss Charlie Sykes’ last radio show this week, and his racist legacy of dividing and conquering for the benefit of right-wing politicians, we welcome special guest Mike Browne, the Deputy Director for One Wisconsin Now. We celebrate the successful launch of Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative’s Radio-Active Campaign with it’s new lead organizer, Terri Williams. We also discuss Gov. Walker’s support for a Constitutional Convention to amend the U.S. Constitution; threats by right-wing Legislators to cut UW-Madison funding in retaliation for professor's course on race and white privilege; small steps by WEDC to address Citizen Action's concerns about outsourcing; and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke's response to Congresswoman Gwen Moore's call for a federal investigation into 4 deaths at the jail he runs.

2017 Wisconsin Health Insurance Cost Ranking Report finds continuing regional disparities on cost, inflation, and quality Rate of health care inflation was more than 7x higher before Affordable Care Act Statewide: Citizen Action of Wisconsin released its 11th Annual Wisconsin Health Insurance Cost Ranking report Wednesday morning on a statewide media call. A full audio recording of the media call can be downloaded here. The full report includes 11 charts ranking the cities and regions of Wisconsin on health insurance costs, rate of inflation, and quality, and can be downloaded here. This year’s report finds wide disparities between higher and lower cost regions of Wisconsin, as well as large differences in the rate of health insurance inflation, causing some Wisconsinites to pay thousands of dollars more than others in less expensive regions of the state. New in this year’s report is an analysis of the rate of health insurance hyperinflation in each Wisconsin city before and after the Affordable Care (A

We welcome subzero wind chills by discussing the reckless plan by Trump and Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a viable replacement. We also look at Trump's diverse and highly qualified cabinet picks (we kid); the scathing report of dysfunction at the state's ethics agency by a resigning commissioner; more outsourcing follies at WEDC; new data on the high cost of private vouchers for public education; the latest on Paul Ryan's relationship with Trump; and the the atrocious conduct of Donald Trump's favorite Sheriff, David Clarke.

America meet a real working class hero, Chuck Jones, the president of United Steelworkers 1999, who told Donald Trump “He's lying his a-- off," about his boasting of saving 1,100 jobs at Carrier. We discuss how Jones’ bluntness has entrapped Trump into a Twitter war with Jones that is keeping the issue in the national media spotlight and revealing Trump's phony solution. We also review Sen. Mitch McConnell’s comment this week that repealing the Affordable Care Act will be the first item up on January 3rd. We also look at how the Wisconsin GOP’s fight over the state transportation budget presents an opportunity for state Democrats to start articulating a compelling alternative vision for a 21st century transportation system that connects all our communities and our workers to tomorrow’s jobs and opportunities. We also update the presidential recount in Wisconsin.

This week the panel dives into the presidential recount that is now underway in Wisconsin. What's behind the recount, and could it change the result? Next the panel examines Trump's claim that he has cut a deal to save Carrier workers from outsourcing, and what his appointment of Tom Price as Health and Human Services Secretary means for the future of health care. We also look at redistricting reform legislation from Senator Dave Hansen, the State Senate recount in La Crosse, and more.

We welcome Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member, Sachin Chheda, who is the Director of the Fair Elections Project to discuss the Thanksgiving victory this week for the gerrymandering redistricting lawsuit. On Monday, judges ruled 2-1 that the GOP Assembly redistricting maps were unconstitutional because they were "intended to burden the representational rights of Democratic voters ... by impeding their ability to translate their votes into legislative seats." Sachin tells us more about the lawsuit and we discuss next steps and its prospects before the U.S. Supreme Court. Robert also address the potential for a Presidential recount in Wisconsin and two other states.

We discuss the news that plaintiffs in Wisconsin’s redistricting lawsuit have asked judges to update their case with results from the 2016 state Assembly races. The plaintiffs say the 2016 election results suggests that the current plan’s efficiency gap continues to be large and pro-Republican. We focus our election attention forward toward next Spring’s State Superintendent election featuring incumbent Tony Evers and John Humphries, who has the support of private school voucher supporters. This week Evers wisely announced his 2017-18 budget that helps rural districts and declining enrollment districts keep quality teachers. Jorna educates us on the potential Trump cabinet appointments and has the latest Paul Ryan news. Robert discusses the impending attack on access to affordable healthcare in 2017 and what we can start doing now. We also celebrate the success of our RadioActive campaign and the doubling of our Organizing Cooperative.

Our panel discusses the profoundly disappointing and distressful results of Tuesday's election, both nationally and in Wisconsin. We also are joined by Citizen Action Cooperative organizers Anna Dvorak and Luz Sosa to discuss the closing stretch of the membership drive.

In the last podcast before Election day the panel discusses late breaking election news and the prospects for Russ and Hillary. Journalist Bill Kaplan joins us to evaluate Sen. Johnson's shocking comments on impeaching Hillary Clinton and Robert discusses the newfound conservative concern about the cost of health care. Cooperative Organizer Anna Dvorak joins us with an update on the latest from Citizen Action's fast growing organizing cooperatives. We also catch up on the anti-Paul-Ryan sentiment in Trump-land in our Paul Ryan Watch segment. All this and much, much more! The panel reminds everyone to volunteer and GOTV!

This week the panel digs in to the latest Wisconsin election news and right wing shouts of indignation over ObamaCare rates. We sort through Ron Johnson's bizarre statement about "lasering out" people with pre-existing conditions, Alberta Darling's strange defense of Donald Trump's policies on women, and the early voting scandal in Green Bay. If that wasn't fun enough, we find out a political secret during in our weekly Paul Ryan Watch, and much more.

This week the panel starts with the news that Donald Trump will not commit to accepting the election results in November. Is he really threatening a coup, or is this just more slight of hand? After discussing the third presidential and the second U.S. Senate debates, the panel looks at the latest polling (such that it is). We then dive into some contentious issues in the Feingold-Johnson race, especially TPP and Obamacare, and into the anthropological question of why the Republican base continues to support Trump no matter what he says and does. We also get an update on the Citizen Action voting right lawsuit, the rigging of the health care system, and more.

We review a surreal week for the presidential campaign and its impact on Paul Ryan and the GOP. The new MU poll reveals the potential impact of Trump’s weekend on the tight the U.S. Senate race. Robert updates us on the latest in the photo ID lawsuit in court this week and why health insurance premiums on the Wisconsin exchange will increase next year. Anna Dvorak from the Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative joins us to discuss the co-op’s new Radio-Active campaign and the current membership drives in Milwaukee, Western Wisconsin, and in Northeast Wisconsin. Anna also discusses the cooperative’s deep canvass project in Milwaukee's South Shore suburbs and Eau Claire area which is discussing economic issues and building support for co-op member Jack Redmond, Howard White, Russ Feingold and Hillary Clinton.

We lead with the new wave of corruption that will inundate Wisconsin because of the SCOTUS's John Doe duck with Matthew Rothschild of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign The panel next talks about the surprise departure of Charlie Sykes from right-wing hate radio. (Podcast listeners will not believe what Charlie has to say about our own Robert Kraig). We dig into the latest Walker photo ID scandal, and the possibility that his voter disenfranchisement law will be enjoined by a federal judge next week. Finally, Assembly Republicans push for another expansion of private school vouchers and Jorna has the latest installment of Paul Ryan Watch.

Sly features our Radio-Active campaign's video exposing Jay Weber's racism and bigotry toward thousands of Native Americans protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Let us know you support our Organizing Cooperative's grassroots campaign to demand media accountability here http://www.citizenactionwi.org/radio-active and follow our efforts on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/radiorevolutionmke/

We welcome the Center for Media and Democracy's Mary Bottari to discuss new revelations they have brought to light in the recently leaked John Doe files. Jorna reviews Scott Walker’s threat to John Chisholm and other DA’s who dare consider investigating him. Robert reveals the Walker Administration is deliberately rigging the health insurance system to raise rates on consumers. He also educates us about new “low out of pocket health plans” with $0 deductibles in Wisconsin that were announced this week. Jorna has the latest installment of Paul Ryan Watch where Ryan suggests he is still considering running for president and Milwaukee County leaders are moving forward with a $15/hour living wage.