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State Assembly passes resolution to honor the life of Rush Limbaugh, matching Senate vote on Tuesday

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Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature will be honoring the life of Rush Limbaugh after a resolution was approved in the Assembly on Wednesday. 

But the move did not come without objection from Democrats, who passionately argued against the measure for an hour. 

Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz says that Republicans seemed reluctant from the start to bring the bill to the floor. “If a sponsorship is a measurement of enthusiasm for a bill or resolution appears that less than a third of the Republican caucus felt strongly enough to put their name on this resolution.” The bill was originally on Tuesday’s calendar, but was pulled until the Senate passed the measure. 

Representative Francesca Hong says that Rush Limbaugh’s rhetoric perpetuated a cycle of hatred among Americans. “Racism kills. We saw it last night. We’ve seen it on so many nights these past couple of years. Misogyny kills. Discrimination kills. Hate kills.” Hong referenced a killing spree in Atlanta earlier this week that left 8 people dead, most of them Asian women. 

Representative LaKeisha Myers says Republicans tried to bargain with the Black Caucus on a Black History Month resolution, and turned around to pass one for Limbaugh instead. “‘But we can let you have a Black History Month resolution if you take our people that we want to put in it and you all don’t talk about it.’ So silence? Silence is what we were given. That’s the option. My name is LaKeisha Myers not Stepin Fetchit.”

Myers says Republicans are showing their true colors by passing the resolution.  “When is enough enough and what the hell is the bar? Because if you wouldn’t honor the People’s Revolution, Stacey Abrams and Kamala Harris, what is the bar? That’s what I want to know. It is disgusting that we have to sit here and go through this and deal with this.”

The only Republicans to support the plan on the floor were Representatives Scott Krug and Shae Sortwell, who authored the resolution. Sortwell says Democrats were speaking ill of the dead. “Because let’s be honest if you agree with him I absolutely everything I’d be shocked I mean we have disagreements on things but the personal attacks on a man, deceased, is a little bit disappointing.”

He went on to say that everyone offends everyone, and Limbaugh was no different. “Chances are at some time or another you’re going to say something that somebody objects to, that somebody may find offensive, that may even be offensive to most of us. President Biden certainly doesn’t have an innocent record on saying things with racial charges in there.”

The bill passed on a 56 to 35 vote, with only one Republican member of the Assembly voting against it. Rush Limbaugh is a Missouri native, with no connection to Wisconsin.

 

State Senate honors Limbaugh but doesn’t take up Black History Month resolution

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A proposal in the Wisconsin Senate to honor the late conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh drew stiff opposition from Democrats on Tuesday.

Senator La Tonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) read selected quotes from Limbaugh during floor debate.

“In 1988 he called Amy Carter the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country and in the early 1990s he called Chelsea Clinton the White House dog.”

“Limbaugh called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a s*** and a prostitute after she publicly advocated for universal contraception coverage. He also said the NAACP should have a riot rehearsal, they should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”

“Another one of his quotes: ‘I think it’s time to get rid of this whole National Basketball Association call it the TBA: the Thug Basketball Association and stop calling them teams, call them gangs.'”

Johnson and other Democrats painted Limbaugh as a racist bully, and said that conservatives need to own that side of him, if they want to honor his work in radio.

Republicans voted in favor of the resolution 18 to 12, after earlier rejecting a resolution recognizing Black History Month. Johnson did succeed in getting that resolution read aloud by the Senate clerk.

The State Assembly shelved its own version of the Limbaugh resolution, but was scheduled to be on the floor again on Wednesday.

 

Senate approves bill that would require schools to teach about Holocaust and other genocides

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The Wisconsin Senate has passed legislation that would require schools to teach about the Holocaust and other genocides.

Milwaukee Democrat Lena Taylor proposed an amendment that would have added the African slave trade to the bill.

“Two million Black people are estimated to have died. Ten to fourteen million were forcibly transported,” Taylor said.

Taylor’s effort failed, on a day Senate Republicans also refused to consider a Black History Month resolution, but did approve one honoring the late Rush Limbaugh. Under the bill, schools would have to instruct on the Holocaust and other genocides at least once in grades 5-8 and once in grades 9-12.

“It is funded by a foundation specifically to fund a model academic curriculum, for this particular issues and all other genocides,” said the bill’s author, River Hills Republican Alberta Darling. “So there is room to talk about, and it should spark the conversation about what’s happening in our world today. Because that’s the point of studying the Holocaust. What happened, and why it should never happen again.”

State Dems say Republican efforts to control COVID-19 funding are partisan

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Legislative Democrats say attempts by the state GOP to take over control of COVID-19 relief funds are short-sighted partisanship. 

Democrat State Senator Melissa Agard says GOP requests to audit funding and debates over bills that would delay getting relief funds out to residents will harm Wisconsinites. 

“We do not have time for partisan bickering and partisan rhetoric. What we need right now is real true leadership that has a track record of doing the best thing for the people in the state of Wisconsin.”

Agard says Governor Tony Evers and his administration are perfectly capable of getting the funds to where they’re needed.

“Ensuring that they have access to affordable, quality healthcare, ensure that our schools are adequately funded, that our transportation budget isn’t being kicked down the road for future generations, and that we get our Main Street businesses back in order.”

Republican leaders say that they only want to ensure oversight and transparency in where those funds are going. Agard and other Democrats say that if Republicans wanted control over the funds, then Congressional Republicans should have voted in favor of the package. 

Joint Finance moves some federal education funds to schools that held in person classes

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Republican members of the state’s Joint Finance Committee have reallocated some federal school funding to prioritize school districts who were open for in person classes this year.

Co-Chair Senator Howard Marklein says schools ought to be rewarded for bringing kids back to school buildings. 

“The motion before us today provides an incentive to those districts that have been doing the right thing and by offering in-person instruction. It also provides an incentive for those schools that are not currently open to in-person instruction.”

But Democrat Senator Jon Erpenbach says that Republicans are being punitive for school districts that had to make a tough choice to move to remote learning.

“Teachers adapted quickly. Administrators adapted quickly. Parents adapted quickly, and the kids adapted quickly. They shouldn’t be punished for that. Individual school districts, through their boards, their elected boards, made their own decisions based on what their community as a whole wanted. They shouldn’t be punished for that.”

The move redirects around $66 million dollars in funding from the program. Another 615 million dollars is directly awarded by the federal government and cannot be moved. 

Evers adds funding for early education, long term care to proposed state budget

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Governor Tony Evers is previewing parts of his proposed state budget, including a new series of grants for those who are caring for their children and loved ones during the pandemic.

The programs will offer up 140 million dollars in total for early childhood programs, and 600 million dollars for long term care programs and those who are stay at home caregivers.

Evers says investing in childcare and the elderly is a moral issue, and not just an economic one and that the pandemic has shown just how frayed the social net in Wisconsin is. Evers is set to announce the full budget proposal next week.

Marklein opposed to cannabis legalization as part of budget

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Sen. Howard Marklein

Does Governor Tony Evers plan to legalize marijuana in Wisconsin have a chance to survive the budget process?

“If you want the short answer, no. I don’t believe it has a chance,” said state Senator Howard Marklein. He co-chairs the legislature’s Joint Finance committee, which will work on the budget Evers proposes next week.

“Marijuana I believe is a gateway drug,” Marklein said. “Not every person that uses marijuana ends up being an addict, but I can tell you every addict probably started with marijuana.”

The Spring Green Republican also said that legalization will increase pressure on law enforcement and social services.

“I certainly don’t think that kind of a topic should be in as part of the budget, this session anyway.”

According to Evers, legalized pot would generate about $165 million in annual revenues for the state. He wants much of that to go to local communities, and small, rural school districts.

 

 

 

GOP-authored COVID-19 relief package passes Senate, is immediately vetoed by Governor Evers

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A Republican-authored COVID-19 relief package has ended a month-long trip through the Legislature with the Governor’s veto.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu urged Governor Evers to sign the legislation after it passed the Senate on Friday. 

“The governor needs to sign this bill. This bill is vitally important for the state of Wisconsin. Do you know why the governor needs to sign this bill? There are many important extensions of Act 185, very many important extensions.”

LeMahieu says that they wanted to protect businesses who were doing the right thing. 

“I wouldn’t let local Health departments unilaterally shut down a Main Street business that’s trying to operate, that’s had a year now to put CDC guidelines in place and operate safely. We shouldn’t have local Health Departments just shutting down a business.”

But Senator Jon Erpenbach said that Senate Republicans strayed away from the compromise they’d made with the Governor earlier this year. 

“So at the end of the day, Mr. President, we’re left with nothing. A big fat zero of doing anything to try and help out not only Wisconsinites but Wisconsin businesses, help them get open, help schools get open, anything.”

Erpenbach says that Republicans have stapled policy choices onto the bill that go far beyond supporting the people of Wisconsin during the pandemic.

“And now we’re taking this legislation and basically saying that the governor can’t order a mask mandate, even though I already has, but he can order an emergency order just to collect money. That’s not going to keep Wisconsinites safe, Mr. President, and I think we all know that!”

Immediately after the bill passed on Friday, Governor Evers announced a veto.

Alongside some extensions of the previous relief package, the bill would have stripped more powers away from the Governor’s desk including control over where federal relief funding is spent. It would have also restricted Governor Evers from issuing any more mask orders. 

Evers and Senate Republicans originally reached a compromise on the package, but Assembly Speaker Robin Vos balked at that, and accused the Governor of not negotiating fairly with the entire Legislature. 

State Assembly passes resolution to end Governor Evers mask mandate

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Assembly Republicans have voted in favor of ending Governor Tony Evers mask order and health emergency.

That resolution will go into effect on Friday. The removal of the health emergency will mean Wisconsin is no longer eligible for 50 million dollars a month in food stamp funding.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says this isn’t about masks, though, it’s about executive overreach. “What we’ve seen, unfortunately, is that rather than working with the legislature Governor Evers has done everything he can to work around us.”

Vos says plans are on the table to allow for a more limited mask order. “Some of those places would be hospitals, public schools, state government buildings, universities, nursing homes, those are areas that we should be able to have a broad general consensus around.”

Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz says Vos and Republicans haven’t done a thing to make the state safer from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

“You know, on September 16th, at a Wispolitics event, [Vos] said that ‘The world is beginning to return to normal, and is doing so safely.’ Well, since then more than 4,500 people in our state have died.”

Beloit Democrat Mark Spritzer says that nothing that’s happening on Thursday or Friday will in any way protect Wisconsin from losing food stamp funding. 

“They’re playing chicken with the governor, they’re playing chicken with us, and they are doing it at the expense of food on people’s tables.”

Republicans have added a limited emergency order provision to their COVID-19 relief plan, but to get that Governor Evers would also have to sign away other powers, including control over how the state handles COVID-19 funding from the federal government. 

State Senate sends GOP COVID-19 bill back to Assembly, with new health order provision

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The State Senate is sending the GOP backed COVID-19 relief package back to the Assembly, with a new rider.

The bill will allow Governor Evers to issue public health emergencies solely for the purpose of receiving federal relief funding. The addition was made after it was discovered that ending the Governor’s health emergency order would cut Wisconsin off from nearly 50 million dollars a month in food aid. 

Minority Leader Janet Bewley says Republicans aren’t doing anything to actually help people through these bills. 

“This is insulting to the people of Wisconsin, to make them think that all these good things are going to happen. It’s not. We can do so much better, we did so much better, we were capable of it and we still are.”

Senator Steve Nass says the new rider will allow the state GOP to end the current health emergency and mask mandate without jeopardizing those funds, while still ending the Governor’s restrictions on businesses and the mask mandate.