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Covering preexisting conditions at issue in governor’s race

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Protecting coverage for preexisting conditions is a focus in the governor’s race. Republican incumbent Scott Walker says he’ll make sure people are covered. “Because it’s just the right thing to do,” the governor said. “As long as I’m your governor, we will always cover pre-existing conditions in the state of Wisconsin.”

Walker says he supports legislation to protect such coverage, but his opponent, Democrat Tony Evers, notes that bill did not pass both chambers of the legislature.

“If he was that serious about it, it would have passed,” Evers said. “It’s great to say now that he cares about it. If he cares about it he should get out of this lawsuit.” That’s a lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Wisconsin is one of the state’s participating.

Legislation requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions, in the event of Obamacare repeal, passed the Assembly earlier this year but was never brought to a vote in the Senate. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he doesn’t know if his caucus would support the bill. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said some Republican senators oppose the measure because it places a mandate on health insurance providers.

Mapping a route to meet future road needs remains challenging

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Senator Fitzgerald

How to pay for the state’s future infrastructure needs? The answer has eluded lawmakers at the Capitol for the past two legislative sessions. In Madison on Tuesday, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said problems with the state’s roads have been years in the making.

“So people say ‘well raise the gas tax.’ Well even if you raise the gas tax by a dime in this next budget, there’s not going to be enough new revenue generated to address that issue,” Fitzgerald said.

“It’s not going to be one funding source, it’s going to a mix,” said Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) says the issue needs to be addressed in the next legislative session

Senator Shilling

Governor Scott Walker has claimed that Tony Evers, the Democrat challenging him for reelection, would raise the gas tax by a dollar a gallon. “So the question is how much do we raise the gas tax, which is the question we continue to ask Tony Evers,” Fitzgerald said. “But he won’t say. He won’t tell you.”

“That’s like fake news,” Shilling countered. “The fact is, we can have a grown up discussion about how we get there without alienating and scaring the voters.”

Shilling and Fitzgerald participated in a WisPolitics event in Madison on Tuesday.

Congressman Gallagher seeks to limit executive tariff powers

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Eighth District Congressman Mike Gallagher toured a Green Bay area military parts supplier on Monday to see just what sort of effects trade tariffs are having.

Fox Valley Metal-Tech creates components for the U.S Navy aircraft carrier program.

Gallagher says recent decisions on tariffs by the Trump Administration have made it costly for businesses like Metal-Tech to operate. “We shouldn’t be in the business of making life more difficult for manufacturers and hard working people in the midwest.”

The Congressman is behind a bill that would make it a requirement to get congressional approval if the White House wants to impose tariffs and cite National Security concerns. “All of these decisions that are made by so-called experts in air-conditioned offices in Washington DC, have huge impacts for people that are downstream of those decisions,” says Gallagher.

State dem pushes back on ‘Republican victory’ in reinsurance program

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As Republicans celebrate the return of Molina Health to the Affordable Care Act marketplace next year, one state Democrat says this wasn’t entirely their doing.

Janesville state representative Deb Kolste says she’s confused as to why the Republicans are touting this as their victory.

“It’s a curiosity. I’ve been reading some of the press releases that due to the Republican programs, they’re coming back to the state. It was under those very same programs that they left the state.”

The state legislature approved a $200 million reinsurance package earlier this year that will help insurers cover the costs of the most expensive treatments of their patients. That prompted Molina Health to return to the market after leaving it in 2018.

Kolste says people should know that this program is baked into the Affordable Care Act as a measure to keep insurers in the marketplace.

“Certainly, nationally now as we try to tear it apart, I think people should know that they’re going to lose a valuable product that indeed a conservative state like Wisconsin is now using.”

Kolste says the reinsurance program is just coming at the issue of funding providers directly, rather than offering subsidies to patients. “More and more rests on the shoulders on the government, and with this reinsurance programs that’s just another step in that direction too.”

The Walker administration is looking to help bolster the funding package by getting federal funding under the Affordable Care Act.

Kooyenga to finally pay settlement fine

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A state representative on the hook for a settlement after illegally removing a protest sign from the Capitol will finally be paying that fine.

A report from the Journal Sentinel on Friday stated that Brookfield Republican Dale Kooyenga still hadn’t reimbursed the $30,000 settlement three months after the fact.

About a half hour later, Kooyenga’s office announced he’d be paying for the fine from his own accounts, and not his campaign funds.

The state settled a lawsuit after Kooyenga removed a sign critical of Donald Trump and Republicans from a public area of the Capitol in May of 2017.

State aid package could keep Kimberly Clark in Wisconsin

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State lawmakers could be coming back to Madison to try and keep Kimberly Clark in Wisconsin.

The company announced that they’ve reached a new agreement with their Union, and that they’re willing to work with the state to use an aid package to keep 600 jobs in Wisconsin.

The State Assembly had previously passed a package of aid that would provide 100 to 115 million dollars in incentives over the next 15 years.

The State Senate did not pass the bill before they adjourned this year.

Former State Senator Mike Ellis dies at 77

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Mike Ellis, a former leader of the Wisconsin State Senate, died Friday morning. He’d been in state politics for more than 4-decades and represented Neenah in the legislature for 32-years.

Ellis began his career on the Neenah City Council in the 1960s and served as council president before running for the state legislature in 1970. He’d served in the state senate from 1982 to 2015, and was majority leader from 2011 to 2015.

Ellis announced he would not seek re-election two days after the release of a video that showed him talking about creating a political action committee to run attack ads against a political opponent. He did not go forward with the idea.

Governor Scott Walker issued the following statement: “Tonette and I are saddened to hear of the passing of Senator Mike Ellis. He was a giant in the Legislature and a bigger-than-life personality in Wisconsin politics. I enjoyed serving with him as a lawmaker and as governor. We were just on the radio together recently and I love his wit and passion. He will be missed by so many of us. Tonette and I send our prayers to his entire family.”

Ellis was 77. Funeral arrangements are pending.

WSAU

Joint Finance Committee votes in favor of I-94 spending

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State Republicans will be spending federal road grants to complete repairs on I-94 near Milwaukee.

A vote in the state’s joint finance committee on Thursday will send around $22 million in grants to fund the I-94 expansion project.

Assembly minority leader Katrina Shankland says those funds would be better used elsewhere in the state. “Potholes are not economic development. This is not a real solution. Giving more money to one part of the state will not help the rest of the state’s local roads.”

Democrats had proposed adding the funds Governor Walker wanted for the project to a statewide fund to repair roads.  

Republican senator Alberta Darling says this funding benefits the entire state. “This is not a Foxconn road, this is I-94 North South. And as long as I’ve been around in Wisconsin that road is the entrance from Illinois into the state of Wisconsin.”

Under the plan, $22 million will be spent to refund the construction project, now slated for completion in 2021. The rest of the funds will be spent to replace bridges across Wisconsin and for the state’s highway resurfacing projects.

Senator Johnson seeks Congressional oversight for tariffs

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Senator Ron Johnson is joining a bipartisan effort to try and return control of trade tariffs to Congress.

The bill is sponsored by Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, and would allow Congress to review all tariff agreements made over the past two years.

“For too long Congress has ceded important policymaking authority to the executive branch on a wide range of issues,” Sen. Johnson said. “It’s time for Congress to reclaim its constitutional authorities on tariffs to ensure we don’t undermine the significant economic progress we have made over the last 18 months.”

The move comes days after President Trump called for blanket tariffs against Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Johnson says these tariffs can push up the overall price of raw materials for American manufacturers. “That makes us less competitive in global markets and that exacerbates the trade deficit, if that’s the metric that President Trump is trying to address.”

“The opening salvos have been fired in what could be a more damaging trade war,” said Johnson. “I’ve said repeatedly, I don’t think anyone wins a trade war. We may lose less than other nations because we do have the world’s largest trade deficit.”

That review process would take 60 days, and would include a debate and a vote on the floors of Congress.

U.S. Senators react to cancelled North Korean peace talks

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U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin says she’s not surprised by the cancellation of the North Korean peace talks. The Wisconsin Democrat Baldwin says she’s still backing sanctions against and diplomacy with North Korean leadership.

“We should continue to pursue all diplomatic and economic options to achieve that, because we can’t have name calling and cancelled summits lead to a military conflict. That would be a disaster.”

She also says that the end goal hasn’t changed. “Our goal is to achieve a verifiable elimination of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.”

Wisconsin Republican, Senator Ron Johnson, said the U.S. “will absolutely demand that all the benefits that can flow to North Korea will not occur until we achieve our definition that he is well aware of – crystal clear – of complete dismantlement.”

The cancellation comes after heated verbal and diplomatic exchanges between North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump while negotiations were underway.