The MacIver Report: Wisconsin This Week

Right next door in Minnesota, a major scandal is unraveling. Welfare and childcare fraud have rocked the state. Seemingly empty daycare centers are accused of receiving millions and maybe billions in federal funds through fake claims. A signal that it may get worse -- Governor Tim Walz dropped his re-election campaign instead of fighting the allegations. Closer to home, a former Milwaukee Police D...

Here we are, another year in the books. The holiday season is usually a time for celebration, with all sorts of excitement about the presents under the tree. But, an unwanted arrival in the mailbox is causing heartburn for many Wisconsinites. Wisconsin taxpayers are finding out just how much their property taxes are going up. For many people, it's a lot. In no small part because of the 402-yea...

The liberals in Madison are at it AGAIN, putting the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex ahead of your freedom. First is Madison Democrat Lisa Subeck. She introduced a bill to take away your right opt out of vaccine requirements that violate your conscience. Another Subeck bill would let minors get vaccines without parental consent. Then there's Governor Evers. He said it was "dangerous" and "unbeli...

Chances are you like the idea of making able-bodied childless adults on welfare go through job training programs. It’s an easy sell for conservatives What you don’t realize is that the government doesn’t actually run programs like that itself. It contracts them out, and it’s always a real feeding frenzy in the Madison swamp. Hundreds of millions of dollars are up for grabs to run government progra...

Bill and Courtney tackle two topics in this episode of the MacIver Report: DPI's report cards and the latest campus free speech bill. DPI has revised its standards for the report cards twice since 2012. Bill explains how the latest standards are tougher than people realize and points out how DPI is actually masking underachievement. Check out the full story here:  https://www.maciverinstitute....

The MacIver Institute's Michael Lucas is joined by Retired Army Sergeant Konrad R.K. Ludwig–combat veteran of Iraq War II, and author of the book "Stryker: The Siege of Sadr City."Sergeant Ludwig is a Californian by birth and now lives in Hillsdale, Michigan with his wife and newborn child where he works for the College as a software engineer. Both he and Michael attended Hillsdale College at the...

Bill and Courtney cover the latest conservative happenings at UW-Madison, the ongoing sexual grooming scandal in Wisconsin public schools, and how the federal government shutdown exposes the true problem with Obamacare. Find all the story links on the main article on MacIver's website here:  https://www.maciverinstitute.com/videos/video-reports/maciver-report-(oct.-31,-2025)-exposing-obamacare...

Every day, Tony Evers and Tammy Baldwin take to social media to spell out the reason for the government shutdown. Republicans won’t extend the affordable care tax credits – which means the premiums on Obamacare plans will go up. Here’s what they don’t want you to know. Those tax credits are actually massive subsidies paid directly to the insurance companies, and the insurance companies don’t even...

Dr. Trevor Tomesh, a computer science professor at UW-River Falls, made a splash online following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. He pointed out that the university was uncharacteristically silent about that traumatic event, despite having a long history of weighing in on other supposedly traumatic events (such as a Christian woman coming to campus to talk about celibacy.) Tomesh penned a comme...

MacIver Intern Courtney Graves shares the latest news about the University of Wisconsin’s reaction to heightened political tensions following Charlie Kirk’s assassination and how conservatives on campus are continuing to attract excitement and build momentum. Plus, she shares her research on the new state budget’s impact on Medicaid reimbursement rates.

All summer long my YouTube feed was flooded with compilations of recent American graduates and young professionals who are desperately looking for work. Stem graduates, ivy league schools, advanced degrees, even with a few years’ experience - completely out of luck. According to the White House, the unemployment rate for recent computer science majors is 6.1%. For computer engineers, it’s 7.5%. On...

MacIver Intern Courtney Graves describes how the assassination of Charlie Kirk has energized conservatives on UW-Madison campus and is driving record interest in groups like the College Republicans and Young America’s Foundation.

The new Wisconsin state budget has now been in effect for almost 2 months, and the MacIver institute just released its in-depth report about it. This is the 9th state budget that we’ve reviewed, and in many ways, it the worst one we’ve ever seen. We’ll be talking about this for a while, so I just highlight one thing for you today. In last budget, the state promised to give local governments a 20%...

Do you ever wonder where the mainstream news media gets its news. Well, here’s a clue. On Sunday, Gov. Tony Evers tweeted that he authorized the National Guard to help with the flooding response in Milwaukee. MacIver wanted more details, especially since the governor hadn’t declared an emergency at that point. He didn’t visit the area or declare an emergency until Monday afternoon. The National Gu...

So, Governor Evers has decided to hang it up. Don’t think for moment that it’s because he couldn’t win a third term. That’s the kind of misplaced confidence that won him a first and a second term as governor. Liberals are playing the long game here, and they haven’t exactly been secretive about their strategy. They fully expect that a democrat will be elected president in 2028. The president’s par...

Ron Johnson tells MacIver why he ultimately supported the Big Beautiful Bill, even though it doesn't go nearly far enough to correct the country's long term fiscal problems.

The new state budget is in effect. A lot of people on both sides of the aisle claim it’s a conservative budget, but the numbers tell a different story. The last budget was $100 billion. Evers wanted 120 billion this time. It wound up at $114. That’s a 15% jump in spending. The biggest increase in at least 20 years. We started this budget with a $4.4 billion surplus. We’ll end it with just $700 mil...

Would you believe that the state legislature writes the state budget every two years without using a spreadsheet? We couldn’t believe it either. That’s why MacIver did it for them. But, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Bill and Mike explain exactly how the state assembles its budget, and why everything about it is wrong. At the end of the day, the state knows exactly where it gets its money fro...

Governor Evers thought he’d play a game of chicken with the legislature over school funding, and last week, he lost big time. Unfortunately, Evers wagered your property taxes. When he pulled that line-item-veto stunt last session, Evers enabled school districts to increase their revenue limits by $325 per student every year for the next 400 years. That comes out to about a quarter of a billion dol...

The legislature made a key decision on the state budget last night when it choose to make Gov. Evers own the real world consequences of his 400-year-veto stunt. Bill and Mike talk about what that means for your property tax bill next year and every year after that for the next 400 years. Also, don't forget the left has a big rioting plans for this weekend. We tell you where in Wisconsin they plan...

The negotiations between republican lawmakers and governor Evers over the state budget broke down last week and it’s just as well. Republicans had nothing to gain and Evers had nothing to lose. Republicans wanted assurances from Evers that he wouldn’t veto their tax cut plan, and Evers wanted to increase total spending by 20 billion dollars (20% more than the current budget). Even if republicans g...