Battleground Wisconsin

The panel reviews the huge snow-covered protest of Paul Ryan's murderous health care plan that took place this week outside Paul Ryan's Racine office. Ryan has now become the central character in an plot to take take health care away from 24 million Americans. We also welcome economics professor Dr. Michael Rosen, president of AFT Local 212, to discuss Trump’s plan to cut aid to college students....

The panel digs into the latest Republican health care "bait and switch" delivered by Paul Ryan this week, and preposterous Scott Walker defenses of disastrous new Wisconsin jobs numbers. We also have a special interview with People's Action Co-Director George Goehl, who is one of the national progressive leaders plotting a strategy to get from Trump resistance to a political revolution.

We announce the big news that Battleground Wisconsin will start airing on 1510 AM talk radio in Southeastern Wisconsin this Sunday at 3pm. We launch our new radio show with special guest Sen. Tammy Baldwin to talk about the current healthcare battle in Congress and why it such a deeply personal fight for her. On our Paul Ryan Watch segment we pick up on last week’s discussion of Ryan’s horse-ridin...

We review the spring primary victory for Tony Evers, including the split among the right-wing primary candidates, and look forward to the April 4th general election. The panel exposes another eruption of Gov. Walker’s war on science, his effort to close down the 100 year old DNR Magazine which features articles by professional scientists on conservation issues. We also discuss how Republicans who...

The presumed GOP front runner for U.S. Senate, reality TV star turned Congressman Sean Duff, says no to challenging Tammy Baldwin in 2018. We discuss the wild State Superintendent race where progressive incumbent Tony Evers is being challenged by two conservatives in Tuesday's primary. This week the story broke that the conservative opponents tried to negotiate a deal that would guarantee one of t...

We welcome Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative leader and education advocate Beth Ludeman to dissect Gov. Walker’s recently unveiled state budget where he celebrates restoring some of his own savage education cuts. Sachin Chheda joins us for an update on the redistricting lawsuit victory ordering the Legislature to redraw district lines. Sen. Dave Hansen discusses his new legislation (SB 13/AB 4...

We discuss the inspiring resistance to Trump during his first two weeks in office and the critical need to develop the positive progressive vision needed to inspire a political revolution. We highlight the imperiled nomination of Amway billionaire Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education and the monumental fight ahead on the Supreme Court nomination of ultra conservative Neil Gorsuch. We also welcome...

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...

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 confirmatio...

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, cu...

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...

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 Ba...

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’...

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...

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 p...

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...

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 ref...

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 i...

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 inc...

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 Ci...

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 secr...

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, esp...

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 Organizin...

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, a...