Photo courtesy of Tammy Baldwin United States Senator for Wisconsin
Tammy Baldwin
Tammy Baldwin
Tammy Baldwin has been our U.S. Senator since 2013. She is popular throughout the state because she spends much of her time focusing on kitchen table issues and delivering on them. In the interview below, Sen. Baldwin goes into some detail on the issues she has delivered on and the ones that she is still working on.
Why are you running for reelection?
I want working Wisconsinites to have someone fighting them in Washington and not have just the well-connected and powerful being heard. I’m committing to make sure that working families in Wisconsin are represented in Washington when it comes to the kitchen table issues. I’m talking about good paying jobs, healthcare people can afford, bringing down the cost of things they need, and then restoring some freedoms that we've lost.
Your opponent has bragged about wanting to take away rights from us, also wanting to cut programs that are vital, especially to seniors. And so can you lay out the biggest contrasts you see between you and your opponent. Could you list some specific things.
Yes, let's start with Roe. He celebrated when Roe v. Wade was overturned. And I am leading the fight in the United States Senate to codify Roe, to restore those rights and freedoms with my Women's Health Protection Act. And, you know, anybody who celebrates the overturning of Roe, in my mind, owns the chaos that has ensued where women, depending on their zip code and their state, have different rights and freedoms. And we've seen such harrowing consequences in a state like Wisconsin, which has on the books, a criminal abortion ban that was signed into law in 1849. Imagine that.
On health care, I helped write the Affordable Care Act, and I am responsible for the provision that allows young people to stay on their parents' health insurance until they turn 26. Eric Hovde wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety, and it would throw millions of people out of health insurance.
He wants to cut Social Security and Medicare. I fight to protect them. In terms of cutting Social Security, one of the initial things he wants to do is raise the retirement age. But, you know, I was raised by my grandparents. I got to see both Social Security and Medicare at work at a very young age. And I know how, for some, it is their lifeline.
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He got the Trump endorsement, so he now owns the MAGA agenda. And, again, just like I said at the outset, I want working Wisconsinites to have somebody who's in Washington fighting for them, not just the rich and well-connected. And not like Trump and Hovde being in it for themselves.
Please tell us some of the successes you've had in the Senate that you're particularly proud of. And, again, you may have mentioned a couple of these things.
No, I have more.
All right. Go for it.
Yes. It's especially important to me that people have access to affordable, high-quality healthcare no matter where they are. And one of the things that has been so burdensome for people is the high cost of prescription medications. So just outlining some of our accomplishments recently in the Inflation Reduction Act, for the first time, Medicare is negotiating with big, powerful pharmaceutical companies to reduce the cost of their prescription drugs. The first round of negotiations is coming to a close as we speak. And we will be able to announce the progress that has been made. But every advanced industrial country negotiates with the pharmaceutical companies on pricing. But I think the fact that we haven't until now accounts for the fact that in America we pay sometimes 10%, 12%, 15% more than they do in other countries. So, that's an accomplishment that I'm super proud of. And that same measure, we've got insulin prices for seniors down to no more than $35 per month out-of-pocket. And we are working as hard as we can to make that the case for everybody else who needs insulin. And I’m hopeful that we'll make progress on that yet this year.
Vaccines are now free for Medicare recipients.
And the last thing I want to mention is a very recent victory. A few of my colleagues who serve on the health committee launched an investigation into the high cost of asthma inhalers. So, there's four companies that make asthma inhalers. And in the United States, they set the list price. And asthma inhalers in the U.S. are listed somewhere between $200 and $650 per inhaler. In Europe, the same asthma inhalers have a list price between $5 and $75. Also, people who have asthma need to take a daily inhaler and they have to refill their prescriptions, typically on a monthly basis. Now, not everyone pays $200 to $650 because some have great insurance that covers most or all of it.
But the people who have to pay full price are sometimes the ones who can least afford to do so. So we launched our investigation basically asking two questions. One, to look at that contrast, we asked the four manufacturers why they are charging so much more in the United States of America, again 10 or 15 times more than you are charging in Europe and other countries overseas. And explain why there are only four of you.
We pointed out to them that their patents certainly must have expired by now, inhalers were invented in the 1950s. Under the scrutiny of the high-profile investigation we had launched that called attention these cost issues, three out of the four manufacturers of asthma inhalers in the U.S. have voluntarily lowered their costs to no more than $35 per month out-of-pocket. I think about the half-million Wisconsinites with asthma and the disproportionate impact on low-income communities and communities of color, this will be a game-changer to not have to choose between food on the table and an asthma inhaler for your kids. Two of the companies have already implemented their policy. And the third one, I think, is on the verge of doing that. We're monitoring very closely to make sure that they keep with their commitment.
I was talking to a woman the other day about the way in which the pharmaceutical companies can just jack up the price and there's no accountability. She was standing in line to pick up a prescription of her own. She was standing behind a mother who was picking up an EpiPen for her child who has severe allergic reactions to these things. And they said, you know, it's $200. And the woman just said, I can't afford that. But I also can't afford not to have one for my child. And she burst into tears. And the woman witnessing all of that said she did, too. She just couldn't believe it like that in America, but it is. We're fighting that.
You partially answered the next question and that is you’ve always been concerned about working families having a decent life and a decent chance and that means being able to afford healthy food, the ability to pay the rent or the mortgage, access to affordable medications, good child care, and the ability to send their child to post-high school education, whether it's college or technical college, without at the end of the day being strapped with a huge debt. What have you done to help the average person bring down their costs of living?
Housing Costs
Yes, let's start with one of the fundamentals, housing costs right now. There's a lot of issues involved. Something I think you see primarily in Milwaukee is that the housing crisis has been either caused or exacerbated by the big Wall Street investors who are buying up houses to get unfair tax deductions and to make a profit at the expense of working America, and that’s taking away the promise of home ownership from so many. It's literally corporate greed that's driving the housing crisis and causing a huge shortage.
So last summer I worked with colleagues to introduce a bill that would eliminate some of the tax breaks that these private equity firms and other Wall Street businesses get when they gobble up huge numbers of homes in places like Milwaukee. Also, I introduced a bill called the Affordable Housing and Ownership Protection Act. It would provide up to $50 billion over 10 years to help build and preserve about 3 million affordable housing units nationwide. It would be funded by taxing the corporate investors who purchase and hold more than 15 single-family homes. So, it really does two things at once. It's disincentivizes the gobbling up of these homes, but also creates opportunities to create more affordable housing. There's a number of other things I'm doing in that space, including working with organizations that prepare lower-income families for home ownership and trying to create more opportunities for lending to those families.
Childcare
Regarding childcare, I hear about the challenges, especially as we emerged from the pandemic. We lost a lot of daycare centers and family childcare centers during the pandemic so as we emerged from the pandemic, childcare became more scarce and more expensive. I have been working at the federal level to significantly increase the funds available to states and ultimately to individuals who can't afford their childcare and to provide subsidies for their health, their childcare and also to provide grants to childcare providers so that they can pay their workers what they deserve. This would make operating a childcare center a profitable proposition once again. And I have been able to, in my role as chair of the Appropriation Subcommittee that funds the Health and Human Services Department, significantly increased funding for childcare. There is still more to do, especially policy-wise, so families in Wisconsin do get relief in terms of the cost, if they are financially eligible for that, as we're trying to stabilize the childcare market.
All right, what are some of the other things you mentioned? We already talked a little bit about cost of prescription drugs and bringing those down.
Higher Education
Yes, so let's start with the fact that well over a century ago in Wisconsin, we made a commitment that every child should get a K-12 education, a promise that would, at that period of time, 100 years ago, prepare them for a career. Today, I think it's fair to say that you need to study beyond 12th grade to be prepared for the careers of today. And the cost of college has been a very significant issue.
I believe that we should continue to expand programs for loan forgiveness that recognize that if you go into public service or work in an underserved area, that you can get your loan forgiven after a time commitment of a certain period of time. I believe that community college and community technical vocational college should be tuition-free.
Four-year college and beyond is not for everybody, and some folks would prefer to get a shorter-term track to a good-paying job. We created many of these shorter-term tracks in the Biden administration, whether it be through the Infrastructure Bill, the Chips and Science Act, or the Inflation Reduction Act. My America's College Promise Act would also do that. It would create tuition-free opportunities at technical college. Lastly, and not so much about higher education, but about the transition from school to jobs, I have been a huge booster of apprenticeships. You probably know this, Louis, that Wisconsin was the first state to create a registered apprenticeship program, probably having to do with our many German immigrants in the late 1800s. And so, we were the first state to create a registered apprenticeship program. The U.S. followed suit in the mid-1930s. We have not modernized our nation's apprenticeship laws since then. And so, I'm leading the effort to do that. I so admire the model of earn while you learn, so that you can have a good income and benefits right out of high school or short-term vocational or technical training period, and not have the debt while becoming a master of your craft. Modernization of the apprenticeship laws would really allow us to think about new and novel apprenticeships that would bring greater opportunities to folks.
2024 is becoming a very interesting election year. What is at stake in this election year?
Well, let’s just think about the presidency, the control of the United States Senate, and which party will control the House of Representatives - All of those could really come right down to Wisconsin. We are kind of the battleground state, right? And we know how close elections have been in Wisconsin before. But I think, as Vice President Harris talks about it, it's a choice between moving forward or going backwards. And it's a choice between candidates who are in it to fight for working Wisconsinites or in it to help themselves and wealthy buddies. We need to look at the connections that Trump and Hovde have to big oil, and whose bidding are they going to do should they ever get elected to office. But also at stake are our efforts to move forward and restore fundamental freedoms and rights that we have lost under the previous administration. We must restore Roe. We also must take up the fight against Republicans who want to strip workers of their right to organize. Also access to the ballot box and protecting democracy are on the line. A fight to protect Social Security and Medicare, and to protect the Affordable Care Act from threats to repeal would continue.
Okay, so one final question. It’s another slightly different issue here. Why is it so important for the LGBTQ community to vote on November 5?
Yes, I'll tell you. We are seeing unprecedented attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, both in Wisconsin and frankly, nationally, especially focused on children. And it’s heartbreaking and it needs to stop. And I think in many respects, we see these attacks because they score political points with certain folks as opposed to being a response to any real problem. For example, in Wisconsin, we are seeing bans on books. Bans on materials that are rainbow-colored or somehow allude to LGBTQ+ themes. We've had students and teachers publicly outed and threatened with expulsion because of their sexual orientation. There's a recent study that found that Wisconsin is the second-highest state to ban books, with 481 books banned in schools last year.
We've seen in Wisconsin our governor vetoing legislation, harmful legislation, hateful legislation that our Republican-dominated state legislature passed that he vetoed that would have limited access to healthcare for some children.
And my opponent recently launched a television ad that was filled with anti-LGBTQ messaging and bigotry and stereotypes because I had helped secure funding for a Dane County non-profit that supports homeless youth and runaway children. And the reason he did that was because among the homeless youth and runaway children are people from the LGBTQ+ community. And so the stakes could not be higher. But the other thing I will say about my election in particular is having a seat at the table matters. And, as you know, they often say, if you're not in the room, the conversation is about you. But if you're in the room, the conversation is with you.
And so my presence first in the House of Representatives and now in the Senate as the first out LGBTQ+ member of that body in U.S. history changes the conversation. And it was one of the reasons I was able to pass a bill called the Respect for Marriage Act following the Dobbs decision, where not only did that decision overturn Roe v. Wade, but it told people what they're after next. And what they're after next is contraception access, same-sex marriage, and a number of other issues that were originally decided on the same principle that Roe was, which is a fundamental right to privacy.
The Respect for Marriage Act protected both interracial and same-sex marriages against the risk that a future court would take cases relating to these issues. No one thought I could get passed a filibuster and pass it in the Senate, but yet by engaging my Republican colleagues, one-on-one, especially the ones that I thought really wanted to get to yes on that measure, but I did it. And in the end, 12 Republicans joined all 50 Democrats to pass the Respect for Marriage Act. Having seats at the table matters.
