Senator Baldwin Calls Out Trump’s Disastrous Shutdown

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1:38Ben Meiselas:This summer, consider a new approach to feeling your best. Visit orderlymeds.com slash podcast to learn more. That's orderlymeds.com slash podcast. orderlymeds.com slash podcast. Because every new season is an opportunity to take the next step forward. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details. Donald Trump continues to spiral out of control as his messaging on this shutdown is all over the place because he and Maga Mike Johnson and Senator Thune and the Republicans are responsible for it because they want to take away people's health care.

2:21Ben Meiselas:It's that simple. So So Donald Trump started with posting like sombreros and weird AI. And then he moved on to just kind of threatening. I'm going to inflict pain. What an opportunity. Then yesterday he was pretending that he was actually engaged in negotiations that weren't taking place because he and Mag and Mike have ordered Republicans not even to talk to Democrats, yet alone negotiate. And now he's back to the threatening. We will destroy the lives of federal workers. we will inflict pain, but our budget will be balanced. He says, oh, it will be balanced. This is what he said from the Oval Office.

2:59Ben Meiselas:Let's play it.

3:03Ben Meiselas:Say it again. How many permanent jobs are you talking about? Well, I can tell you, I'll be able to tell you that in four or five days, if this keeps going on, if this, if this keeps going on, it'll be substantial. And a lot of those jobs will never come back. But you're going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget, actually.

3:26Ben Meiselas:I just have to also make the observation that he looks utterly ridiculous in there. I mean, the gold everywhere. It looks cheesy. It looks gross. Everything our country should be against and poor taste as he's talking about inflicting pain on the American people. And also he's running record deficits, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on masked agents, disappearing human beings in this country into concentration camps and all of his other despicable stunts. Then Donald Trump also talks about in response to a reporter saying, well, why are you saying that you won't even give government workers their back pay, like if the shutdown ends.

4:12Ben Meiselas:Like, why are you doing this? Here, play this clip. Why do you say some federal workers should not get their back pay? Why do you say some? Well, you're going to have to figure that out, okay? Ask the Democrats that question. Mr. President, just to follow up there, I mean, the law says that when the government reopens that workers will receive their their back case. Are you going to decide the law there? I follow the law and I what the law says is correct. And I follow the law. Guys all over the place. And then he calls the shutdown, quote, a kamikaze attack. You want to know the truth? It's a kamikaze attack.

4:54Ben Meiselas:Kamikaze attack. Here, play this clip. By the way, I'm not sure we would have even had a country. And now we have the most successful country in the world, Brian. Yes, sir. What is your message to Democrats ahead of the next vote to open up the government? The American people are saying open the damn government. What's your message to them right now? Well, they're the ones that started it. They're the ones that have it. And it's almost like a kamikaze attack by them. You want to know the truth? This is like a kamikaze attack. they that's their messaging a kamikaze attack by the way that was you want to know what a clown show it's in there that was marjorie taylor green's boyfriend asking the questions let's bring in democratic senator tammy baldwin of the great state of wisconsin so that's what was going on in the oval office let me show you what's going on in the united states of america we've been tracking at the midas touch network just how much people's monthly premiums are going to be going up if the Affordable Care Act tax credits are not extended.

5:55Ben Meiselas:You took a look at MAGA Mike Johnson's district, a couple earning$82 ,000 a year paying$541 a month will soon be paying $2 ,180 a month. And they will basically be going medically bankrupt because how could someone$82 ,000 a year pay over$24 ,000 a year in healthcare premiums without the subsidy? So what's going on, Senator? What's going on out there? Yeah, well, as we speak, people are getting those notices in the mail or online about what their premiums are going to be next year. And then when you take away this premium tax credit that's going to expire, there are so many millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who will lose health care because they simply cannot afford it.

6:44And I've been hearing from my constituents, meeting with them, lifting their stories. Just earlier today, I talked with Kara, who runs a small business. It's a nonprofit child care center. And she and her family, as well as her employees, rely on the Affordable Care Act. But she feels as though she's not going to be able to pay for her own health insurance in the future if the tax credits expire. She's also worried about her workers leaving if she can't provide some help with health care benefits. And, you know, these are small businesses. These are farmers. These are the backbones of our communities.

7:28And they are disproportionately, by the way, in states and congressional districts that voted for Donald Trump. I think we started to see a little bit of of kinks in the armor, if you will, with some of Trump's statements and some of Speaker Johnson's statements. And they are beginning to understand just how critical this health care issue is. They created this crisis in their big, ugly bill. And now with the expiring tax credits, it would only get so much worse.

8:04Ben Meiselas:And they love to criticize the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. And it does have issues. I mean, even when I showed the initial prices, I think$500 a month is a lot of money and needs to I'd like to see that get lower. And I'd like to figure out ways rather than spending$20 billion in Argentina or$200 billion to ice to deport people and hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign countries doing things that are leading to atrocity. I would like to see the money be used for American people, but they don't come up. They don't go to the second point, which is, OK, well, then what is you had your first administration and you said two weeks and you never came up with the plan.

8:49Ben Meiselas:Now Donald Trump is posting weird AI videos of alien technology from outer space called MedBeds that secretly, he says, cures cancer that the government's been keeping secret. Then he deletes that. He talks about most favored nation provisions, but then doesn't accurately doesn't implement it ever, which would be nice if our drug prices were as low as other countries. But they have single payer and they have they have the governments negotiate for the people to lower the price of universal health care. So there's there's they don't get to the second step. And all they know how to do, it seems, Senator, is destroy.

9:23Exactly. And that's the big fear. Nobody is saying that our health care system was healthy to begin with. There are lots of problems that we have to resolve. Lots of problems. But the big, ugly bill with almost a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid is going to cripple our health care system. And if we allow and we just can't allow these premium tax credits to expire at the end of the year, but it would just make it even worse. You would get it so dysfunctional that it's hard to put it back together again. There are so many important reforms that we ought to be addressing, but fixing the chaos and damage that has put our health care system in crisis just in the first months of President Trump's second presidency, we've got to fix those things first.

10:20Ben Meiselas:And what this, to me, is just emblematic of is just priorities. And it highlights priorities in such, I think, a clear way for the American people who just may not have seen it before or just were ignoring it because it's hitting them. You're either if you're in the United States, you're on Medicare, you're on Medicaid, or you're likely on some Affordable Care Act plan or some health care plan that your premiums are going up and you're struggling with groceries. You're struggling to afford your rent. You're living paycheck to paycheck right now. Everything's more expensive right now. And Trump's out there giving$20 billion to Argentina.

11:04Ben Meiselas:He now has to bail out. We'll talk about this in a little bit. He has to do a farmer bailout because his tariffs were causing real pain. And now we have to, of course, help farmers. But he's caused the problem. And then he talks about all the gold here, gold there. I'm just thinking about a farmer in Wisconsin. It's like, dude, why are you talking about all this gold? Like, remember us? Remember us? Like, what are you hearing from farmers? Well, first of all, just still anger at the big, ugly bill. Remember, fundamentally, that was a tax measure, right? They made these cuts to programs that working people rely on in order to pay for nearly four and a half trillion dollars in tax cuts, disproportionately helping billionaires like Trump and profitable corporations.

11:55And yes, in this tax bill, they couldn't even see fit to extend a tax provision that makes people's health care more affordable. Not a tax cut for working people, just tax cuts for, you know, that disproportionately benefit billionaires. And so it is so out of touch. You know, what's so ironic is that Trump diagnosed the problem during his election. He ran on bringing costs down for everyone. And then he gets into office and he has turned around and done everything he possibly could to increase costs for Americans. It is appalling and he needs to be held accountable. But first, you know, we need to make sure that these Affordable Care Act premium tax credits are continued into the future so that we don't see millions of people lose their health insurance.

12:51And you were right when you were diagnosing the additional problems in the healthcare system. Once you have a whole bunch of people uninsured, you typically, if you don't have health insurance, you don't seek preventative care, you don't seek annual physicals, you don't seek care at all, until it's so bad you go to the most expensive settings possible, urgent care centers, emergency rooms. And that drives up healthcare costs for everyone. Right.

13:20Ben Meiselas:I mean, you could have universal health care. Let's have that healthy debate. I like it. Obamacare. I do too. Obamacare Affordable Care Act has its issues. I'd like to see it look like more like universal care act. But as long as we have Obamacare, we need these subsidies. Let's keep the prices as low as possible so people can afford their health care and not go medically bankrupt. If you've got some third plan, stop posting stupid AI alien videos and sombrero hats because this is real issues causing psychological torture and stress in the American people who need to come up with solutions. So come up with solutions.

13:59Ben Meiselas:Before we go, I want to hear about the farmers and what's going on there and what you're hearing from people in your state generally, in addition to the healthcare issue. Trump went out and said, I'm the best for farmers. I'm going to make you all so rich. And we've seen his tariffs against the world have not had the intended, well, I don't know what the intended effect was other than for him to wake up and show that he can just post and whatever, but what's going on in the state? Well, there's a critical sort of bringing together of issues. Our farmers are facing incredible headwinds. And we are a dairy state.

14:36You may have heard of Wisconsin as America's dairy land. So a lot of our farmers are in dairy and that is a lot of labor. So there's issues with regard to visas for their workforce. There are issues with regard to the tariffs that are wreaking havoc on a lot of their inputs and supplies. In Wisconsin and Northern State, we have a lot of back and forth with Canada. A lot of the fertilizer inputs come from Canada. Those have shot up because of tariffs. We have other supplies across the border. And then about a quarter of all farmers use the Affordable Care Act for their health care coverage. And so this president is just going, he's just contributing to the headwinds that our farmers are facing.

15:34And he knows things are bad. He's talking about bailouts. But our farmers don't want bailouts. They want a level playing field and a fair shot at getting ahead.

15:48Ben Meiselas:Before we go, Senator Baldwin, I always like to ask you this question because for a lot of reasons, but you're seeing things out there that I'm not seeing. There are issues that are just not being talked about that you think on news or just out there that you're seeing right now that you just want to bring attention to with our six million subscribers in addition to the things that we discussed. Are there things that you're concerned about or you think needs more attention? Well, absolutely. I think there's a lot of concerns about the lack of accountability of this administration and the lawlessness that we are seeing.

16:27And people want that reined in. They are very concerned about the direction of the country and the direction that Donald Trump is taking us. And that lawless, sometimes unconstitutional behavior is a deep concern to so many that I represent and hear from in the state of Wisconsin.

16:52Ben Meiselas:Senator Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to six million subscribers.

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