No Amount of Money is Ever Enough for Government

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Stop me if you've heard this one. An educational institution
in Wisconsin gets hundreds of millions of dollars from government
and then demands even more from taxpayers tail as old
as time. It is sort of like history repeats itself

(00:22):
over and over and over again. The University of Wisconsin's
system wants another tuition increase after getting how much money
in the last state budget. This follows Milwaukee public schools
somehow needing more money after getting three quarters of a
billion dollars from the Feds in COVID stimulus spending. Welcome

(00:47):
to the Dan O'Donnell Show. It is conservative thought, not
just talk on a beautiful sunny spring slash summer afternoon
here in Wisconsin. If you want to join us, the
Carpetland Say Flooring Center talk and text line is open
as it always is four one four seven nine to
nine eleven thirty. Email me Dood at iHeartMedia dot com.

(01:10):
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(01:31):
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Coming up in the five o'clock hour, we are giving
away twenty five hundred dollars as part of our two
hundred fifty k USA giveaway celebrating two hundred and fifty
years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We

(01:54):
spent a lot of time on yesterday's show talking about
why it is that the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
doesn't feel quite as exciting as the two hundredth in
large measure because socialist democrats who have control of America's
largest cities and many of America's largest states want nothing
to do with local celebrations of America's two to fifty because, frankly,

(02:16):
they don't think there's a whole lot worth celebrating. It
really is just as simple as that. Well, we hear
at iHeartMedia will have none of that. We are trying
to make the two hundred fiftieth anniversary as exciting as
it possibly can be and that's why we are giving
away not one thousand dollars as we normally do each hour,
but two thousand, five hundred dollars. B listening in the

(02:39):
five o'clock hour for your chance to win the two
hundred and fifty k us A giveaway. Let's get right
into this because this is a far bigger deal than
I think people realize that the University of Wisconsin's system
is asking for more intuition. Now you might say, well, Dan,

(03:02):
all my kids graduated from college. Dan, my kids are
college age, but they're going into the trades. This doesn't
impact me. Well, this is just symptomatic of a broader
problem that actually is going to affect all of us,
and it touches every single aspect of American human existence.

(03:22):
That is a massive demographic shift and the fact that
we are running into what Elon Musk and others have
been warning about for many, many years, the fact that
we are running into a significant population decline which has
the potential to deeply affect all of us. And we,

(03:43):
over the next hour, are going to get into this
focused on that UW system Tuitionenheim, Well, it's probably going
to go up. I'm just going to warn you that
after the Board of Regions voted to force former President
Jay Rothman and to resign, they are going to be
totally free without any pushback whatsoever from the system president

(04:07):
or anybody else within the UW system to for a
fourth straight year increase in state tuition for all UW
System students, a two percent increase. Board of Regents are
expected to vote on this on Thursday. This according to
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the tuition increase will generate twenty

(04:31):
one point nine million dollars in additional revenue. According to
the UW System. Now, where will that additional revenue go.
Exactly where you think it will go. About nine million
will go toward two percent pay raises for UW employees.
The state budget passed last summer included a two hundred

(04:52):
and fifty six million dollar increase for the UW system.
This budget mandated the raises and included funding for seventy
percent of the pay plan. Campuses have to cover the rest,
and of course they say they can't possibly do that,
so they need to soak their students and their parents
for more money. Now, this follows a five percent in

(05:14):
state tuition increase last year and three point seventy five
percent increase two years ago. Now you might remember something
about a tuition freeze at the UW system. I believe
there was a former governor named I don't know, it
sounded like Runner Jogger. Yeah, Scott Walker, and the Republican

(05:36):
legislature instituted a UW tuition freeze after discovering a massive
hundreds of millions of dollars hidden away by the UW
system that they swore wasn't a slush fund. No, this
was money, they said, that was dedicated to other projects
and couldn't be used to possibly give students a break

(05:58):
on tuition or taxpayers a break on how much we
were shelling out for the UW system. But in twenty thirteen,
an audit revealed this, this massive amount of money that
they had squirreled away, and it became known as the
UW system slush fund, because well, it was rather obviously
a slush fund. At the same time, the Board of

(06:19):
Regents egregiously raised tuition by the maximum amount allowed by
law at the time, five point five percent, for six
consecutive years, So throughout the bad Old Doyle days and
into the first couple of years of the Walker administration,

(06:40):
when the UW system was pleading poverty, five point five
percent tuition hikes were the order of the day for
six straight years. Governor Walker said absolutely not. The Republican
Legislature Robin Voss Scott Fitzgerald, now a congressman, said absolutely not.
Nearly ten years of a tuition and freeze that the

(07:00):
UW system followed because we entered into an era not
of austerity, but of fiscal I don't even want to
call it responsibility, fiscal sanity. I actually crunched the numbers,
ladies and gentlemen, and found something rather egregious. All of

(07:22):
the money that we have been spending on the UW system,
whether it's all of us through our taxes, going to
fund the system, or it's the people who are actually
sending their kids to a UW school through tuition, all
of the money, and I could prove it, all of
the money has gone to salary and staff funding for

(07:46):
the past twenty five years. All of it. In fact,
according to the Legislative Reference Bureau, in the past quarter century,
there has been an eighteen point thirteen percent increase in
faculty positions across the UW system. Eighteen percent increase eighteen

(08:09):
point one three percent increase in faculty positions. Now, there
has only been a one point eight six percent increase
in students, So there has been nine times roughly, give
or take, it's about nine times. It's almost two percent
increase in students, nine times greater increase in the number
of faculty positions. So eighteen point five three or eighteen

(08:34):
point one three percent increase in faculty positions. There has
been a nearly identical eighteen point five two percent increase
in the annual UW system budget from two thousand to
twenty twenty six. In other words, the increase in the

(08:54):
budget is going directly into a massive increase in staff,
massive increase in faculty, massive increase in bureaucratic positions, while
the number of students has increased but only modestly. Now,
what about tuition. Tuition at the University of Wisconsin Madison

(09:15):
in state, and I did adjust this for inflation, as
I did with all of the numbers that I used,
has increased sixty six point four to one percent. To
account for the dramatic increase in faculty members, bureaucrats, and
salary increases. We are not paying to educate more students

(09:37):
here in Wisconsin with the UW system. No, no, no, no, no,
we are going to pay more faculty members. Let's go
into the numbers just a little bit, shall we give
or take? In the year two thousand, two thousand, two
thousand and one school year, there were about one hundred

(09:57):
and sixty one thousand students across all UW System campuses.
That number is only increased by about three thousand in
a quarter century one hundred and sixty four thousand in
twenty twenty five. Last year for which data is available, however,

(10:18):
there were about thirty thousand this according to the Legislative
Reference Bureau in two thousand and one, two thousand and
two thirty thousand full time equivalent positions for UW system
twenty seven thousand faculty in staff, twenty six hundred student
assistants total staff. Also, according to LRB, this past school year,

(10:43):
thirty five thousand, four hundred forty So while the student
body population increased by only about three thousand, we got
a nearly six thousand a double in total numbers, increase
in faculty and in staff met That's an eighteen point
one to three percent increase over the past twenty five years.

(11:07):
The state budget in two thousand for the UW system
three billion, give or tay, almost exactly three billion, three
point zero five to four billion, if you want to
be precise about it, in today's dollars. I ran it
through an inflation calculator. That is about five point nine
billion dollars that we were spending on the UW system budget.

(11:31):
The budget today seven billion dollars. That is an eighteen
point five to two percent increase. So we saw an
eighteen percent increase in faculty positions and an eighteen percent
increase in the budget. It is almost a total one
to one percentage increase. In fact, it is within point

(11:56):
four percent. The increase in the budget relates to the
increase in the faculty and who's paying for it. UW
Madison tuition, and obviously tuition varies widely across campus Stout,
River Falls, Lacrosse, Oshkosh, all of the campuses have different tuitions.
So I just went with the flagship, right, I went

(12:17):
with the one with by far the biggest student body
population flagship university UW Madison tuition in two thousand, three thousand,
seven hundred and ninety one dollars that is today seven thousand,
three hundred eleven dollars adjusted for inflation, Today's UW Madison

(12:37):
tuition twelve thousand, one hundred and sixty six dollars, a
sixty six percent increase intuition. Now, I didn't even at
this point. I was getting so angry because, as you know, folks,
I have got a student who's graduating from high school.
At No, I'm not going to say where he's going

(12:58):
to college, just for privacy reason. So yes, I am
feeling this. Out of the entire listening audience, I am
the one I am in the generation that is absolutely
feeling this crutch. And it is partially my generation that
is causing a whole lot of the fiscal crunch. No, no, no,

(13:20):
it has nothing to do with government taking care of
its own and that's first and foremost here the localized
problem for the University of Wisconsin system and also Milwaukee
Public Schools, which I will give credit to Brenda Cassellius,
the relatively new superintendent at MPs, for at least trying
to get rid of some of those bureaucratic positions and

(13:41):
put more teachers into the classroom. Even while MPs and
all K twelve education they're just losing students left and
right because of what is known as the demographic cliff.
And here is where we get into something much deeper.
What we are seeing is people of my generation, the millennials,

(14:04):
and behind us generation Z, we are having far far
fewer children than any generation before us. Now this was
a gradual decline. My father came from a family of
seven children. Yes, Irish Catholic. I probably didn't need to
tell you that Irish Catholic family of seven that was

(14:27):
considered somewhat large, but definitely normal family of seven. Today
they would give you your own reality show. I have
three children, that is considered on the larger end. Far
more families two one or increasingly people are choosing not
to have kids. A big reason for that, it is surmised.

(14:49):
And when all of this accelerated was in two thousand
and seven, two thousand and eight, the Great Recession. We
will dive into that and how now that is causing
major cultural shifts and major problems that we are going
to have to deal with, not just today but well
into the future. The University of Wisconsin's system gets a

(15:13):
quarter of a billion dollars in the last state budget,
but still wants to increase tuition for in state students,
something it has done now for four straight years. There
will be a formal vote on Thursday, but that's something
of a formality. Of course. The Board of Regents is
going to vote to increase tuition because they have and

(15:38):
left to their own devices, they will. When removed from
Governor Walker's nearly decade long tuition freeze. Along with the
Republican controlled state legislature, the UW system is dramatically increased
tuition and before the tuition freeze maximum allowed by law
five point five percent in state tuitioning increases for six

(16:01):
straight years under Diamond Jim Doyle, all the while the
University of Wisconsin system was holding on to a slush
fund that they kept secret from everyone. It was discovered
by state auditors in twenty thirteen and it was in
the hundreds of millions of dollars. Well, I actually did
some digging into the numbers here, and if you go

(16:21):
back twenty five years, total UW system students have increased
one point eighty six percent, so roughly two percent. There's
been an eighteen percent increase in the number of faculty
positions in the UW system. We have seen a nearly
identical eighteen percent increase in the UW system budget. This

(16:43):
means the budget is going to the faculty. As we
get more faculty members, we need to increase the budget
to pay for them. We have also seen a sixty
six percent increase intuition at UW Madison, the flagship's school
the University of Wisconsin system, in order to pay for
all this. Now another big reason that tuition has gone

(17:06):
up so dramatically. And I know there are people who
are sitting listening to me right now saying, well, my
tuition at UW Madison was four hundred bucks a year,
and I worked all summer and I paid for that,
and I had no student debt exactly. In fact, it
was the government increasing its involvement in student loans with

(17:26):
the intention of trying to get more non traditional students
into college that actually jacked up the prices by some
estimates three hundred to four hundred percent above the rate
of inflation since the nineteen eighties. In other words, the
exact same thing that happened with healthcare. As the consumer

(17:49):
of the service, the student and the parents became more
insulated from the costs. In other words, government was increasingly
subsidizing these loans, and the universities knew that with government
backed loans they were going to get paid back no
matter what. They could increase the costs without ever having
to worry about not getting paid back, and without ever

(18:12):
having to compete for the best price for the best students,
because those students would just take out student loans. And
in twenty ten, finally, after years of increased involvement and
increased takeovers over the student loan system, under President Obama,
the federal government essentially took over all student loans, and

(18:33):
prices then have just gone up exponentially, and at the
exact wrong time, because US births have been going steadily
downhill since two thousand and seven. Now, I actually have
a son who was born in two thousand and seven.
As I said, he's about to graduate from high school.

(18:54):
Total US berths including my son four point three million.
What happened right after, in fact, I believe now it
was the following year, two days after my son's first
birthday was the Lehman Brothers collapse, and of course the
Great Recession. During that recession, fertility rates fell from about

(19:18):
sixty nine berths per one thousand women who are in
child birthing age, considered to be fifteen to forty four.
They drove, They dropped to the lowest level in decades.
Over the past three four years, births per one thousand

(19:42):
child bearing women dropped to fifty four in twenty twenty four.
Total births, remember we had four point three million in
two thousand and seven, dropped all the way to three
point six million, but a client of about twenty percent,
and they have continued to decline. Well, what happened in

(20:06):
twenty twenty five, those kids who were born in two
thousand and seven turned eighteen. What happens when you turn eighteen,
You graduate from high school, you become an adult. You
either enter the workforce or you go to college. Well,
we're seeing far fewer high school graduates and prospective college students. Remember,

(20:27):
even though the United States population is much bigger than
it was in two thousand, the UW system total population
of students only increased by one point eighty six percent.
In fact, the demographic cliff, as it's called, is continuing

(20:47):
to accelerate. By twenty forty one, there are going to
be even fewer thirteen percent fewer high school graduates across
the country, down to about three point four million total.
We're losing about five hundred thousand per year. As a result,

(21:11):
there are fewer people of college aged to go to
college to pay the tuition. Now, what would you think
would be a necessary outcome here? I'll give you a hint.
Private universities have already felt it. Bryant and Stratton University
is no more. It had to shut its doors because

(21:33):
it simply could no longer deal with declining student enrollment.
In fact, pretty much every industry has that caters to
children had to deal with this in some form or fashion,
except of course, government backed schools. Not only have the

(21:57):
birth rates just declined so dramatically, there are far fewer
kids in the population, far fewer kids are choosing college
because the price frankly has priced out a whole lot
of people who might otherwise consider it. And also, let's
face it, there is a stigma about the liberal indoctrination,

(22:21):
especially of America's top universities the ivys, UW. Madison, Yes,
to a lesser extent, but there are people who don't
want to send their kids to be indoctrinated. Also, there's
a sense that the kids aren't really learning stuff about
the jobs of the future, that they're just going to

(22:42):
class to learn about sotereric things that aren't really going
to matter. Now. Of course, I'm not talking about stem
careers or things like that, but if you're going for
fourteenth century queer expressions in poetry, chances are outside of academia.
The job market is pretty small. So you are seeing

(23:07):
the number of kids who are graduating from high school.
The number of kids who do exist and are graduating.
They're choosing in increasing numbers not to go to college.
So nine years ago, twenty sixty, ten years ago, actually
seventy percent of high school kids immediately went to college

(23:27):
four year or two year program. That number has dropped.
Last year it was sixty two percent. Undergraduate enrollment hit
its peak in twenty ten. Now, what was special about
twenty ten. Twenty ten also the year the federal government
took over student loans. Prices spiked much higher, very very quickly,

(23:50):
almost immediately after this takeover peak college tuition. Twenty ten,
we have already seen a fifteen percent decrease nationwide in
college enrollment, and it's expected to get down even further.
Instead of adapting, though, government has simply put its hand

(24:14):
out farther and stuck its hand farther into your pocket.
If you're my age, or maybe a little older, maybe
a little younger, you've got a kid who's in college,
or you've got a kid who's thinking about going to
college in the next couple of years, you are feeling
this most acutely. But every single person listening to me
who pays taxes in the state of Wisconsin is paying

(24:37):
for this, is paying for the UW system, is paying
for the K twelve public school system, and needs to
demand that just like every other industry that is dealing
with a declining population, K twelve schools and the UW
system needs to adapt fewer faculty members, fewer programs if necessary,

(24:58):
and it's entirely possible that even more campuses need to
close because this demographic shift is not changing anytime soon. Unfortunately,
neither is governmental greed, and one of the two needs
to otherwise we are going to fall over an even

(25:18):
steeper cliff. The broader implications of the declining birth rate
coming up next here on the Dan O'donalds show. American
colleges are falling off a demographic cliff, but those operated
by government, of course, can simply soak the taxpayers and

(25:41):
soak tuition payers for more and more money. That is
exactly what the University of Wisconsin's system is doing. Welcome
back to the Dan o'donald's show. The broader problem, though,
is a declining US birth rate that has been frequently
cited by the advocates of open borders as being necessary.

(26:03):
That that necessitates that declining birth rate and the fact
that we are falling well below replacement level replacement population levels.
This is why we need to import not the highest
skilled workers from across the globe. No, no, no, the
entire Third world. This is a massive problem, and this

(26:25):
is something that is actually going to impact every single
one of us. What I mean by replacement level birth
rate or replacement population level is two point one births
per woman. Now, I know I may have to explain

(26:45):
to Democrats why it is per woman and not per person,
but there are you see gender differences, and yes, as
my producer Eric said, two point one births per inseminated person.
If you prefer Governor Reavers, if you are listening, two
point one berths per inseminated person. Because women, obviously are

(27:10):
the only human beings who can give birth men are
also needed in this equation two point one, because in
order to replace the mother and the father and increase
the population, you need a number that is higher than two.
Right now, the birth rate in the United States one

(27:34):
point five eight, the lowest ever on record. By the
mid twenty thirties, the Congressional Budget Office expects it to
decline even further, and in fact, over the past twenty
five years, the US has been well below replacement level
birth rates, meaning without immigration, without people coming into the

(27:55):
country from outside of it, if you're just relying on
people giving birth having children to replace your population, you're
not going to ever be able to do so. And
this really kicked up with the Great Recession of two
thousand and seven to two thousand and nine, and it's
really never recovered and doesn't really show any signs of

(28:16):
being able to do so. Now, why was it in
the Great Recession? Well, I can tell you as somebody
who was in child bearing age in that period, it's
because people simply couldn't afford anything. They were out of work,
their savings were wiped out, couldn't buy a house. It
was just everything collapsed. Now we're seeing the exact same

(28:40):
sort of problem, because it's not that you can't find
a job, it's that your job simply isn't going to
be able to pay enough to be able to support
your lifestyle, almost regardless of what that lifestyle is. Basic
necessities shot up so much under by I cannot even
express to you, lady and gentlemen, the generational harm that

(29:02):
four years of Joe Biden, two years of a Democrat
controlled Congress, and hyperinflation that miraculously sort of leveled out
the second that Republicans took back the House and there
was at least some check on the nearly limitless spending
of the first two years of the Biden administration at
precisely the wrong point at which government should have been

(29:25):
just printing more and more and more money. This is
going to be a massive, massive problem for generations to come.
And it's not just that we are having far fewer children.
It's that the children that we are having, the people
who are on this planet right now, are living far longer.
And I don't mean it's a problem in that I

(29:48):
wish all of you folks who are over a certain
age would just sort of die. That's been like the
plot of several horror movies or dystopian futuristic movies that
after a certain age in order to you know, benefit
the population. I believe midsom are very very popular horror
movie of a couple of years ago. There's this cult
in like Denmark or Norway or something like that where

(30:10):
once you turn seventy five you ritualistically throw yourself off
a cliff to benefit the community. Tripped Out movie. It's
a very very well done horror movie. It is quite
disturbing though. What I am saying though, is once you
reach a certain age, and once you reach a certain
level of infirmity, and once you reach a certain level

(30:32):
of financial security, you don't work anymore. But you're still
getting benefits from the government. You're still getting Medicare, you're
still getting Social Security, you are still consuming social services,
hospital services, private sector resources as well. There are far
fewer healthy, active workers to support that through their taxes,

(30:55):
to take care of you as you get older and
older and older. In nineteen seventy, the average lifespan for
an American was seventy point eight years. Today, seventy nine
women on average are living about eighty one years. And
that's all population. That includes people who die young, suicide,

(31:18):
drug addiction, homicide, cancer, whatever. That is a staggeringly high
birth rate. In fact, if you can avoid drugs, if
you could avoid killing yourself through your appetite a sedentary lifestyle,
if you avoid the scourge, the horror of cancer, or
just some random illness that strikes you down, random accident,

(31:40):
that sort of thing. Average lifespan once you reach sixty
years old climbs dramatically into the late eighties and nineties,
and with medical technologies and breakthroughs happening almost hour by hour,
it is very possible that the first one hundred and
fifty year old human has already been born or will

(32:03):
be born very shortly. Unfortunately, there are far fewer human
beings being born. And this is not a problem that's
limited to America. By the way. China, if you can
believe it, is dealing with a massive population crunch because
of generations of their notorious one child policy. Japan, Germany, Italy,

(32:26):
a whole lot of Europe is dealing with an aging population.
Now why is that such a big problem. Well, if
there are fewer workers in the workforce, you need labor
to drive GDP, you need people to drive innovation. We
are not a manufacturing economy. Here in the United States,
we are an innovation economy. There's a reason that almost

(32:48):
all of the technology and almost all of the dramatic
technological advances that the world has seen over the past
century plus since the Industrial Revolution, have come from the
United States. Because we have a big population, we have
a free population, we have a government that for the
most part, stays out of the way of innovation and

(33:09):
industry and entrepreneurship. Well, if you have fewer people who
are going into business for themselves you are coming up
with these world changing ideas, well, then naturally you're not
going to have quite as big of an output as
measured by GDP. And if you've got an increasing number
of retirees aka dependence, people who need support from the

(33:35):
federal government, who net take from government, and I don't
mean that in a pejorative sense, but I mean get
more net benefits than they are paying in taxes, you've
got a government that goes on tilt and needs to
simply print money until its money has absolutely no value
or it needs to raise taxes. So dramatically on the

(33:57):
people who are producing all of the la paper, are
producing all of the innovation are producing all of the
revenue that those people simply say enough is enough and
we're going to leave. You're already seeing this happen on
a state level basis. People are fleeing California for Florida,
for Texas, New York too, Illinois to high tax Democrat

(34:21):
controlled states that are essentially suffocating innovation and encouraging government
dependence on all citizens, not just those who already have services.
It is encouraging the productive classes, especially especially those who
are most able and most likely to create jobs. Yes,

(34:43):
the billionaires and millionaires, the entrepreneur class, the business class,
the class of people who are the ones controlling essentially
not America's wealth, but America's opportunity. That opportunity can leave
in an instant. California is dealing with the results. New

(35:08):
York is dealing with the results. America itself could be
dealing with the results unless something changes. That's something is
not Immigration. In fact, immigration unchecked, unfettered, and undisciplined, unlimited

(35:28):
under Biden, has been a big driver of a lot
of this mess because we are importing not more productive people.
We're not getting the best and brightest engineers. We're getting
people who are coming in and using government services, even
if they never get a single dime from welfare, and

(35:48):
we obviously know they are getting welfare. Why else do
you think Governor Evers and Josh call and every Democrat
in this state is so desperate not to let the
federal government audit our snap food benefit. Well, they know
that there are illegal immigrants on this thing. But even
if there are none, they are still sending children to
our schools, taxpayer services, hospitals, They are using law enforcement services,

(36:12):
fire services. They are net taking and accentuating the problem
because we are importing not a population that is going
to contribute to the tax base and contribute to America's growth,
but rather to contribute to America's dependency. The only solution,

(36:36):
ladies and gentlemen, if you've got kids who are twenty
thirty years old, tell them to have kids. Tell them
to have more kids than they think they can afford.
Offer to help them with babysitting so they can go out,
you know, watch the kids. Do what you can, because

(36:57):
we need American citizens to have more American children. Otherwise
America itself could be in some trouble. We have do
have time to take a break now, Eric you know what,
let's just we're gonna take We're gonna We're gonna back
time this uh, this last break to the top of
the hour, because this, folks, I know, I want to

(37:20):
get to the unhinged liberal of today. We skipped it
both days this week, and I'll try to sneak it
in later on in the show. But this is such
an important topic, folks. The population that that we have
needs to grow, needs to expand, and not through unchecked immigration,

(37:42):
and not through legal immigration either, because what we see
there as well is people coming in who are no
longer assimilating into broader American culture, but are essentially setting
up their own little cultural fiefdoms, rejecting broader culture and
of seeing America not as a land of opportunity in

(38:03):
their new home, but an economic opportunity zone to be exploited,
taken advantage of, and then have money sent back to
the country of origin eventually with the aim of bringing
more people over and to essentially have a whole bunch
of different countries operating within the United States of America. Well,
that just causes the Disunited States of America. If people

(38:27):
are coming in fully assimilating into American culture, we welcome them,
we want them, we need them. Quite frankly, all right,
we got to leave it right there, fascinating discussion, and
we will be back with more of it here on
the Dan O'Donnell show. Wisconsin Democrats at each other's throats

(38:48):
pretty much all over the state. And I'm not kidden
from Governor Evers reigniting an absolute war with Democrats in
the Wisconsin legislature on his way out the door, to
Democrats actually primarying four different Milwaukee Dems who dared to

(39:11):
in some way displease the party. To our old friend
brewery psycho Kirk Bangstad being denied a speaking spot at
the upcoming Democratic State Convention despite appearing to qualify for
the ballot for Wisconsin governor. This is a party that

(39:31):
I dare say looks to be in a little bit
of disarray, disunified before a very very important gubernatorial race. Meanwhile,
the GOP has put all of the infighting about the
chairman of the Republican Party, Brian Shimming, behind it. It
is united around Tom Tiffany Eric Tony. There are some primaries,

(39:55):
of course, for various state legislative seats for Lieutenant governor
and Secretary of s state, But none of those have
gotten anywhere near as contentious as the Democratic cubernatorial primary,
where the knives are out for front runner Francesca Hong
and Democrats are trying to do their level best to
take her out, not nearly as how shall I put

(40:19):
this forcefully as they are with Graham Platinum, the deeply,
deeply troubled senate candidate in Maine. But make no mistake,
they want Francesca Hong gone. We will get into all
of that in this the four o'clock hour here on
the Dan o'donald Show, as always, carpetland, usay, flooring center,
talk and text line. It's open four one, four, seven, nine,

(40:42):
nine eleven thirty DoD at iHeartMedia dot com the email
address you can reach me. On social media, Please do
follow the show at Dan o'donald show x, Facebook, Instagram,
watch us streaming live on YouTube and across social media,
and of course, please do subscribe to the Dan o'donald
Show Show podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to podcasts.

(41:05):
A reminder about an hour from right now, the two
hundred and fifty k USA giveaway in honor of America's
two hundred and fiftieth birthday. We are giving away twenty
five hundred dollars every single day from now until the
fourth of July. Here on the Dan O'Donnell Show in
the five o'clock hour, be listening for your chance to win.

(41:26):
Time now for the daily Trump Day.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
We're gonna win so much you may even get tired
of winning.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Trump just keeps winning. It is a win for the administration.
It's also a big win for the United States. We
have to keep winning.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
We have to win. Bar We're gonna win Moore.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
President Trump announcing on truth Social Today that the White
House Correspondence Dinner is going to be rescheduled for July
twenty fourth, with dramatically stepped up security. Of course, an
attempted assassination marred the previous attempt back in April at
a White House Correspondent's dinner, and a rescheduled one, which

(42:03):
the President and the White House Correspondence Association both pledged
to hold, will take place in late July. The big
story today, of course, as it has been really for
the last four months or so, is Iran. And actually,
if you could, Eric, I want to fade down the music,
fade down the music because Secretary of State Marco Rubio

(42:27):
testified before both House and Senate committees today and he
basically talked through what is going on in Iran, why
we needed to act, how effective Operation Epic Fury was
in dismantling pretty much every arm of defense that Iran has,

(42:49):
how it was still able to close the straight of
horror moves, and why it's so difficult to negotiate in
good faith that I want, I want people to really
hear this because this is an important thing coming from
the White House. There are a lot of people. First
of all, President Trump did say today that the reports

(43:09):
that the Iranian and American negotiators had stopped speaking to
one another are totally false, that there's no truth to
them whatsoever. That negotiations are of course still ongoing. Rubio today,
testifying before the House Committee, explained what it was that
Iran was attempting to do. Remember, we all but destroyed

(43:33):
their nuclear program in Operation Midnight Hammering conjunction with the Israelis,
which struck the four to nuclear facility. They're still nuclear
material that could be converted to weapons grade nuclear material
if you go down and get it underneath the rubble.

(43:53):
It is also believed that some of that nuclear material
was stored elsewhere, although there are conflicting reports on that.
The Uranians were apparently planning to try to go down
and get it and then resume their nuclear program. They
also had a whole lot more material, or at least
the capability to create more highly enriched uranium very very quickly,

(44:20):
and then to build up what Marco Rubio, the Secretary
of State today called a shield to defend it.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
Aroan's desire to build a nuclear weapon was going to
be built, was going to be effectuated behind a conventional shield.
They were going to build for themselves so many missiles,
so many drones, so many conventional weapons, including a navy,
that at that point there's nothing you could do about it.
What they tried to do is they were going to
try to build a conventional shield and hide behind that

(44:50):
conventional shield and basically say to the world, if you
come and do anything about our nuclear program, we will
overwhelm you with missiles, we will overwhelm you with drones,
and we will overwhelm you with our navy, and you
will not win.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
You will not be able to do anything about it.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
They were seeking that point of immunity, which is why
the President chose to act to deny them that point
of immunity.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
So what Rubio is saying is once the build up
was sufficient so that there was no way that the
United States or any country, or any coalition of countries
could stop Iran from its nuclear ambitions, which were apparently
much closer than anyone had thought, according to the best
intelligence from both the United States and from Israel. And

(45:31):
before you say, oh, Israel, Israel has easily the best
intelligence service in the entire world by necessity because there
are so many Muslim nations that want to eradicate it.
So because of the intelligence that suggested Iran was not
only so close to be able to have nuclear armament,

(45:51):
they were also building up a conventional military shield which
would have made it impossible to strike that new clear
stockpile without a massive ground war that could have led
to thousands, if not hundreds of thousands killed. And oh yeah,
Iran would also have the natural deterrent of nuclear weaponry.

(46:14):
So Rubio said, Operation Epic Fury was launched in order
to stop Iran from building this shield.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Operation Epic Fury.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
Some of you didn't like it, some of you did
was highly successful in achieving its military objectives, which is
dramatically reducing the defense industrial base of Iran. The ability
to build these missiles and to build these drones, especially
the missiles program substantially degraded a substantial percentage, and all
the exact numbers to the Department of War because I'm
not a general and I'm not here to speak as

(46:44):
a military planner, but a substantial degradation and the number
of launchers that they have as well. They still have
a lot of drones because these are easy to make.
We all know it's not an Iran challenge. This is
a global challenge and it's playing out every single day
around the world. I mean, Mexican cartels are using UAVs
against each other. We should imagine at some point may
even use it against our own, against our interest. So

(47:06):
this is a pervasive problem around the world. The economics
of it is something we have to solve for. But nonetheless,
even their drone building capability has been eroded.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
Today there is no Iranian Navy. There is no such thing.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
There's a bunch of Boston whalers with machine guns on them,
but there is no navy. There is no Iranian navy
it lies at the bottom of the ocean.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
However, the remnants of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps defensive
and offensive capability, was still able to use the drone
manufacturer and to use the attack apparatus that they still
had to effectively shut down the Strait of Horn Moves. Now,

(47:44):
this was always seen as a last second, almost Comakazi
style attack that Iran would never resort to, because the
rest of the world would find it so intolerable, so
much commerce, especially oil, flows through the strait that it
would effectively, well do what it's doing now. It would

(48:07):
dramatically increase the cost of oil, dramatically increase the cost
of production of doing business, and it would dramatically harm
every single one of Iran's erstwhile allies, as well as
the rest of the world, which would, it was presumed,
unite against Iran. This wasn't a show of strength by

(48:29):
the Iatola, or we think. By the way, Rubio did
say today that the Iotola's son is alive, the new
Iatola who's believed to be gay and missing a leg.
Now I'm not making that up. He is believed to
be gay. US intelligence has assessed that he is a
gay man, and Trump apparently giggled when he heard the

(48:51):
Iatola's son is gay. Apparently, you get stoned to death
in Iran if you're gay, unless you're the Iatola son.
In any event, this was not a show of strength.
It was a sign of desperation, but it was relatively effective.

Speaker 4 (49:07):
Here's rue and the aftermath of that. Two things have happened.
The first is they entered into a ceasefire. They agreed,
we agreed to stop, but part of that agreement is
that they would reopen the straits. They did not, at
which point the President decided, and I think appropriately, we
can't have a world in which Iran only Iranian.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Ships get through the Straits.

Speaker 4 (49:25):
And so if they're gonna shut down the straits for everybody,
we're gonna shut down the straits for them. And we
have done that through a very effective blockade, and by
the way, through the seizure of sanctioned ships in the Indo.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Pacific as well.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
The cost to Iran every single day and lost revenue
is in the hundreds of millions of dollars that they
are losing and lost revenue that they're not generating as
a result of that.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
So the point is that when Iran seems to think
that it can outweigh President Trump, that it can simply
be intransigent in negotiations and keep the straight closed and
accused the US and Israel of violating ceasefires and so forth,
and just keep those negotiations going. They can't because they

(50:08):
are losing so much revenue. Their economy such as it is,
is essentially being choked off that eventually they are simply
going to run out of money. They can't continue to
do this forever, whereas the United States, with its near
limitless wealth and military capability, absolutely can continue to enforce

(50:29):
in NAVO blockade as long as we damn well please.
One of the biggest challenges, though, Rubio said, and one
of the reasons that negotiations are taking so long is
precisely what the Trump administration. I almost said the Obama administration. Boy,
was that a weird Freudian slip. Yeah, the Obama administration

(50:51):
was negotiating with Iran, all right, although instead of dropping bombs,
they were dropping gold boulon on them. The Trump admitted
has been intimating that they don't know who's actually in charge.
They don't know who it is that they're negotiating with
because think about it, logically, do you want the head guy?

(51:14):
You're the head guy of Iran, You're Iran's president. Do
you want to say to Trump, Hey, Trump, I'm the president,
negotiate with me. What did the US do to the
last guy who was in charge who ticked off President Trump?
They dropped a bomb right on his head and the
heads of pretty much everybody else who is in charge.

(51:37):
So because of that, there needs to be negotiation through
trusted intermediaries that aren't going to reveal the literal names
of the people who are negotiating back with the United States.
Because of this, Rubio said, it's taken a while.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Now we are in talks.

Speaker 4 (51:55):
And I say talks because talks with Iran are not
like talks with Switzerland.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Okay, they're very different.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
They require the use of intermediators, unfortunately, but there is
the prospect before us which could happen today, It could
happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, that for the
first time, certainly in my memory, they have agreed to
negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago,
just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention

(52:20):
much less in discussions about that is not a guarantee
that ultimately will lead to a deal it's acceptable to
the Senate or acceptable to the American people, but we'll
be able to engage them in a process to truly
test the proposition of how far they're willing to go.
Complicating that process, unfortunately, is their internal regime is somewhat
fractured in the sense of it takes days to get.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
Responses from their system.

Speaker 4 (52:42):
We can go into more depth in your follow up questions,
but we're hopeful that something like that could happen in
which the straits would reopen. We would enter into a
period of negotiations on very specific topics, delineated negotiations in
the hope of reaching an outcome that's acceptable to us
and something they would be able to do as well.
If it doesn't work out, then obviously we still have

(53:03):
a problem with respect to.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Their nuclear ambitions.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
But what they won't have is the conventional shield behind
behind any longer.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
That is why Operation Epic Fury was so necessary, because
if Iran was able to build up its shield, if
it was able to satisfy its long standing nuclear armament ambitions,
there would be nothing to stop it and If you
thought Iran was a menace before, you ain't seen nothing
yet there was. Rubio said, no choice but to act now.

(53:36):
Iran has been defeated. It does not have any military capability,
It could not shield a nuclear program. Its leadership is dead,
its navy is at the bottom of the ocean. And
while it's talking tough and trying to project strength, because remember,
it still has to keep the people of Iran from
rising up and under its thumb, the regime does. So

(53:57):
they have to say, well, we are slaying the great
Ama and dragon by closing down the straight of horror moves.
Look at how strong we are. No, they're not. They're
most definitely not. They understand that they need to get
out of this so that they can live because if Trump,
if Bibi Netanyahu get ticked off enough, there's another round

(54:17):
of bombs dropping, and there's another round of dead Iranian
regime leaders. They all know this. Everybody knows what the
steaks are. Iran is begrudgingly coming back to the negotiating table,
but these things take a long time to negotiate. The
broad framework it has been reported for weeks now is accepted.

(54:41):
It's just the quibbling over how exactly the remaining nuclear
material that is under the rubble of the mountain facility
at FDOH is going to be disposed of, how inspections
are going to take place, how compliance is going to
be monitored for the nuclear material. All of these are

(55:01):
small deal points, but in the immediate future, Rubio is
saying that we can get the straight open, we can
get oil flowing again, we can get as normal a
relations as we have ever had with Iran or the
rest of the region restarted. It's just going to take

(55:22):
some time. It's just going to take some patience. And yes,
this is taking a lot longer than I think the
most optimistic people within the Trump administration thought it would take.
And yes, I do believe they were overly optimistic and
overly confident, given how easy it was to take down
the Venezuelan Maduro regime by just going in and plucking

(55:44):
him in and subjecting him to American criminal charges. I mean,
we just went in with special forces. Iran's not Venezuela.
Iran is a much more difficult enemy to defeat, but
it is defeated. It has been defeated. Now it's just

(56:05):
negotiating the terms of its survival. You're listening to the
Dan o'donald Show. When we come back, Ebers versus Legislative Dems,
Milwaukee Dems versus one another, Democrats in disarray here on
the Dan o'donalds Show, Intelligent discourse, Irreverend fun it is
the Dan o'donald Show, and you get both as well
as a chance at two thousand, five hundred dollars about

(56:27):
a half hour from now. In our two hundred and
fifty k USA give away. Every single five o'clock hour
from now until the fourth of July, we are giving
away two thousand, five hundred bucks twenty five hundred in
celebration of America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. We are
playing this eight AM, eleven AM, two pm, and five pm.

(56:49):
Next chance to win coming up just after the five
o'clock news Here on the Dan o'donald Show. Yesterday, Senate
Minority Leader Diane Hesselbein, leader of the Democrats in the Senate,
and ed, well, no, we're not going to come back
and pass the failed budget surplus bill. Remember Governor Evers
also a Democrat, and the two Republican legislative leaders Assembly

(57:13):
Speaker Robin Voss and Senate majority of Leader Devin Lemaheu
negotiated a one point eight billion dollar bill that would
spend down a huge portion of Wisconsin's projected two point
two billion dollar structural surplus on tax relief on direct
tax givebacks to Wisconsin taxpayers, property tax relief, no tax

(57:34):
on tips, no tax on overtime. It would also spend
a whole ton of money on K twelve public education
for special ed reimbursement, something that Governor Evers really wanted.
It was a true bipartisan negotiated bill that almost every
Republican got behind and supported. Because you know, we're supposed
to want to have our two parties work together, right.

(57:57):
Isn't this what liberals always say, isn't this with democ
we want bipartisanship, We want you to reach across the aisle. Well,
that's exactly what Voss and lema Hue and Evers did.
Ninety six percent of Republicans voted for this bill. Eighty
two percent of Democrats, including one hundred percent in Diane

(58:18):
Hesselbin's Senate, voted against it. One hundred percent. There wasn't
a single Democrat vote. Well, yesterday, wisn twelve. Reporter Matt Smith,
also the host of Upfront, caught up with Hesselbine at
the Gay Pride flag raising ceremony and asked her, you know,

(58:39):
assemply speaker Voss told us on Upfront yesterday Sunday that
he wants another kick of the can. He wants another legislative,
a special session in order to pass this surplus deal.
She said, Well, I asked Senate Majority Leader Lemaheu if
there's a chance, and he said absolutely not. So there's
not a chance.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Well.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
Smith asked Evers today about Hesselbin's comments. He wasn't having it.
He said, no, it wasn't Devin Lemma Hugh, it's Diane
Hesselbine telling all the Democrats not to vote for this deal.
Have you talked with any Senate Democrats? Is anyone going

(59:19):
to change their mind on this tax reef?

Speaker 5 (59:21):
I have not in any time recently. I am not,
and I doubt if if their leader is saying no way,
I guess says it's going to be no way because
she controls what.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
People get to do.

Speaker 5 (59:37):
You know, who's going to be head of the joint
finance to many on the Senate side, if and I'm
I'm sure she's given promises there. She gives promises just
like other leaders to I haven't spent a lot of
time doing that, but so happened. Someone has a social
I'm sure she's got people wrapped around her finger, everybody
giving them.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
John said they want Okay. I think Smith is a
fantastic reporter. I think he's great. I think he's awesome
at what he does. Is it possible for him to
interview somebody not right next to like a freeway? There
was so much background noise in there. I understand if
you couldn't really hear what Evers was saying. He was
accusing Hesselbine of essentially horse trading no votes for future

(01:00:22):
committee assignments. He said, she is the one who's responsible
for making committee assignments, and she can put you on
the Joint Finance Committee, which is the committee that creates
the state budget, the most powerful committee in the state
by far on the Senate side. So she will trade

(01:00:43):
for those positions as all legislators do, as all legislative
leaders do. I've never done that before, but I'm sure
she's talked to people about those positions in the future.
He's basically accusing the leader of the Senate in his
own party of sabotaging a massive bipartisan deal that some senators,

(01:01:09):
clearly in swing districts, might have wanted to vote for
because obviously you want to say I voted to give
money back to you right before an election. But they
were potentially bought off by Hesselbine because she was promising
them positions on the Joint Finance Committee, or you can
chair this committee if we win the majority. That is

(01:01:31):
a real serious allegation that the governor of the same
party is making against the Senate minority leader. Hesselbein, of course,
did come out immediately after this deal was announced and
said very publicly, as far as I'm concerned, there is
no deal. It was obvious that she was the one,

(01:01:53):
and Assembly Minority Leader Greta Nubauer in her caucus, they
were the ones who killed it. Puplicans wanted to pass
this thing. They nearly unanimously passed it. Democrats sank it.
Evers knows it, and as a result, he and his
team are furious at legislative Dems. And it's not lost
on anybody that a number of them, including Senator Kelder Royce,

(01:02:17):
voted against the deal. Assembly Rep. Francesca Hon, the gubernatorial
front runner, voted against the deal. That they're running for
governor and it would certainly be a help to have
Evers campaign with them to maybe get his endorsement, But
it seems as though Evers has If you've ever watched
professional wrestling, you know what a heel turn is. That's

(01:02:39):
when a good guy wrestler goes bad. The most famous
thirty years ago when Hulk Hogan joined up with Scott
Hall and Kevin Nash to attack Macho Man Randy Savage
and join the New World Order or nWo. If you
don't know what I'm talking about, seriously look it up.
It's one of the most famous moments in professional wrestling history.

(01:03:02):
That's sort of the equivalent of what Governor Evers is
doing now because every time he opens his mouth. And
I don't think it's a coincidence that the only person
who he has seemed to talk to since the budget
deal went south is Matt Smith of Upfront, because it
seems to me like no other reporter has any real
interest in interviewing him, or potentially no other reporter is

(01:03:23):
going to get Evers to open up like Smith can
and has, but every time he opens his mouth, every
time Smith has talked to him over the past three weeks,
he has done nothing but crap all over his party,
and I, for one am here for it. More Dems
at each other's throats in Milwaukee and at the state convention.

(01:03:50):
Stay tuned, You're not gonna want to miss this. You're
listening to the Dan O'Donnell show back before you know it.
Nomination paper is to appear on with Johnson's November ballot.
We're due at five pm yesterday And now that the
ballot is pretty much official. So if you want to
get into the August eleventh primary, you needed to submit

(01:04:11):
the requisite number of nomination signatures on your petition. All
your campaign paperwork needed to be in by five pm yesterday.
And we now know who is basically going to be
running in primaries. Not one, not two, not three, but
four different Democrat legislators in Milwaukee, just in the City

(01:04:37):
of Milwaukee face primary challenges. Every single one ran a
foul of the power structure of the Democratic Party in
this state, every single one. This is the top story
right now at Heartlandpost dot com. The Heartland Post, of course,

(01:04:57):
is our new digital media initiative. I serve as editor
in chief, and our staff put together a pretty incredible
look at what it is Democrats are doing to four
different Dems in the State Assembly, their own members. They're
running primary challenges against them. And it's not as though

(01:05:18):
these are just you know, random people who are challenging
the incumbent because they want to make a name for
the person. No, these are all Democrats who have done
something to tick off the powers of the best known,
most likely Ryan Clancy, the socialist. This is the second
time that Democrats in Milwaukee have tried to get rid

(01:05:39):
of him. In twenty twenty four, he beat a challenger
who is backed by the mayor, the county executive, pretty
much every powerful Democrat in the city. Well, now you
might not be surprised to know that Sylvia Ortez Vallese
in the eighth Assembly district is facing a challenge this.

(01:06:00):
According to The Heartland Post, the roots of Ortes Valees
is riffed with Democrat leadership could be traced back to
Wisconsin's redistricting fight. While Democratic leaders pursued their preferred strategy
or Tees Vales publicly expressed support for a Republican backed
Iowa style redistricting system. The move reportedly enraged Democrat leadership

(01:06:22):
and sparked a confrontation with Assembly Minority Leader Greta Nubauer,
which resulted in Orties Valees being sent home from the
Capitol and not being able to vote on final passage. Now,
that led to a very famous incident that we reported
on extensively when it happened, in which she actually faced

(01:06:43):
a criminal charge that she subsequently pleaded no contest to
of threatening her fellow Democrat legislators. That's how badly they
want ortiz Vales out. They were willing to catch a case,
to have her catch a case, so she faces a
primary challenge. No real surprise here. Ishmael Luna is a

(01:07:06):
community advocate and nonprofit professional or ties. The last also
frequently will side with Republicans on votes. And you might
remember also that the reason she got in this big
fight with her fellow Democrats was because she was not
included on a nominat or a declaration of Hispanic Heritage month,

(01:07:29):
and she got in a very public spat. We called
it the dem cat fight with State Rep. Priscilla Prado Prato,
who represents the ninth Assembly district, also Milwaukee's South Side,
being challenged by Milwaukee Public Schools board member Mimi Reza.

(01:07:50):
The race pits two Democratic office holders against one another
in a heavily democratic district. Reiza's entry into the race
follows the aforementioned, highly public sized feud between Orties Vales
and Prado. Ortiz Vllez, of course, publicly praised Rasa's entry
into the race, calling her a wonderful person. This is

(01:08:11):
another example of the growing political infighting within the Democratic establishment,
with disagreements that once played out behind closed doors increasingly
being settled through primary elections. Prado, simply because she was
embroiled in this public feud with Ortiz Vales, is being
targeted for a primary. State Rep. Russell Goodwin, representing the

(01:08:35):
twelfth Assembly district, another freshman legislator. He's a reverend, and
he's being challenged by Jordan Roman, a progressive activist. He's
secured the endorsement of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, one of
the state's most influential left wing political organizations.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
Goodwin, as a reverend, was the only Democratic lawmaker to
break party lines and join Republicans in voting for bills
that would have barred biological males from competing in girls' sports.
Democrat leadership was Apolectic leaders asked that Goodwin subsequently take

(01:09:19):
a leave of absence for the remainder of the floor session.
Goodwin didn't return to the floor for votes on additional
legislation related to transgender athletes, a proposal barring biological males
from competing in women's collegiate sports, and a bill prohibiting
chemical gender transition procedures for minors. Of course, Evers vetoed

(01:09:39):
all of them. He was actually put in time out.
That they put Russell Goodwin in time out because he
voted with Republicans and now they're primary ing him. Clancy
is Ryan Clancy, nineteenth Assembly District, probably the most recognized

(01:10:00):
and easily the most controversial. He's a Democrat socialist. He
is a classic East Side leftist. He's being challenged by
Bridget Maniacci, a small business owner, former Milwaukee older woman.
Not the first time Democrats have attempted to remove Clancy.
According to The Heartland Post. In twenty twenty four, he

(01:10:21):
faced a primary challenger backed by prominent Democratic figures including
Milwaukee's Mayor Cavalier, Johnson County executive David Crowley and WECK
commissioner and Jacob's. Much of that opposition stemmed from Clancy's
outspoken support for Palestine. Despite the establishment backed effort, Clancy
prevailed with fifty four point eight percent of the votes.

(01:10:46):
Unlike some of the other incumbents facing primary challenges, Clancy's
vulnerability is not rooted in frequent disputes with Democrat leadership. Rather,
many establishment Dems view him as a political liability whose
far left positions can dis tracked from the party's broader
message and provide Republicans with easy attack material. In other words,

(01:11:09):
the exact same rationale for why they're also going after
fellow Democratic socialist Francesca Honk, the current front runner for
the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Hey, speaking of the gubernatorial race,
which candidates made the ballot, which did not, which appear
to have enough signatures to make the ballot, and are

(01:11:32):
still not being allowed to speak At the upcoming state
Democratic convention, we will discuss that even more divisions within
the state Democratic Party. You're listening to the Dan o'donald show.
We'll be right back. So let's see, you've got the
Democratic governor of Wisconsin very publicly beefing with the Democratic

(01:11:55):
Senate minority leader over the failed budget surplug steal. You've
got the Democratic leadership in the state Assembly very publicly
beefing with its own members who dared to go against
what leadership wanted them to vote. And all of this,
by the way, a lot of the opposition to some

(01:12:19):
of those Assembly reps that I was talking about in
the last segment here on the Dan O'Donnell show, especially
Sylvia ortiz Velez. She would be very often the only
Democrat vote on a Republican bill. What does it matter
if she voted with the Republicans. The measure was going
to pass anyway, because Republicans are in the majority. Why

(01:12:42):
would leadership, Why would gret A Neubauer? Why would Democrats care?
Because they don't want This is how cynical and calculating
Democrats are. They don't want a single Democrat to vote
for a measure because they don't want Republicans to be
able to call it a bipartisan bill. That's why Democrats
don't vote for measures even when their members actually want.

(01:13:05):
Russell Goodwin would have voted for every single one of
the Republican trans bills, but he got sent home. He
actually got put to bed without his supper by mommy
Greta Nubauer because he dared to vote with Republicans on
the first transgender bill, so they wouldn't allow him to
vote on any of the others. That's absolutely hilarious. I'm sorry,

(01:13:30):
that is just objectively funny. So we've got assembly reps
beefing with other assembly reps. Now you have got the
state Party desperately trying to keep Kirk Bangstad our old friend,
and I use that term very very facetiously. Kirkbangstad, of course,

(01:13:55):
is the nutjob Minoqua brewing company owner who uses his brewery.
It's not even a brewery, it's a tap room, like
the beer is brewed elsewhere. There is no Minoqua brewery.
It's the Monoqua Brewing Company. So he buys somebody else's

(01:14:15):
beer and slaps AOC's picture on the wrapper and sells
it to basically fund his own political ambitions and his
scam pack. So he apparently is qualified for the gubernatorial
ballot he did turn in. It appears enough valid signatures. Now,

(01:14:37):
Democratic Party officials were reportedly going to challenge his nomination signatures,
and they still might. I believe the ballot isn't finalized
until tomorrow or possibly Thursday at the latest. There is
the potential for challenges for reviews, that sort of thing.
But even though it appears that Bangstad has made the ballot,

(01:14:58):
Democratic Party just put out out the speaker's list for
the upcoming Democratic State Convention that is going to be
June fourteenth. Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez, former DA Secretary Joel Brennan,
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, State Senator kel de Royce,

(01:15:19):
former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, State Rep. Francesca Hong, and
former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes all going
to speak to delegates Brett Hulsey and that random college
kid who were running for governor. They didn't turn in
enough signatures. Their campaigns have ended. Kirk Bang's dads has not. Hmmm,

(01:15:48):
why is it that Democrats don't want Kirkbank's dad to speak? Well,
the answer is simple. If they think, uh, Francesca Hong
is too nuts to represent their party, Kirk Bangstad is
way two nuts. What he is likely to say. Remember,
this is the same guy who is still offering free

(01:16:10):
beer the day President Trump dies and Democrats are apparently
just fine with this. They just don't want the media
attention and have to answer uncomfortable questions about what a
nut job this guy is, so they want him as
far away from their convention as possible. I say to you, Kirk,
fight the power. The revolution starts with you. The people

(01:16:35):
must hear Bangstad at the state convention. It's amazing how
much disarrayed Democrats are in will dive into the biggest
election I think of the summer. Weirdly enough in La
Los Angeles mayoral primary is today, and we will discuss

(01:16:56):
whether the buzziest candidate left or right in America actually
has a chance to pull off a massive upset. Folks,
what were we just talking about before the top of
the hour? Democrats are attempting, potentially to get Kirk Bangstad,
the sociopath Monocua brewing company owner, off the ballot. Well.

(01:17:19):
A while back, we at the Heartland Post, my new
digital media company, Heartlandpost dot com, by the way, wrote
about the fact that on his nomination petition, when he
first announced in a random backyard event at his Madison
tap room that he was going to run for governor

(01:17:42):
because when he said after the White House correspondence, did
are attempted assassination of President Trump? That he lamented the
fact that yet another attempt had failed. Either that or
Trump had faked the attempted assassination. So either whither he
was sad. He's not sure which. Either he's said it

(01:18:03):
was a legitimate attempted assassination that failed or it was
a fake assassination. Either way, he still stands at the
ready to give free beer out. The day that President
Trump dies, pretty much every Democrat came out and spoke
out against him, and this got Kirk very mad, so
mad in fact, that he decided to run for governor himself.

(01:18:24):
Well at the Heartland Post, we noticed that instead of
listing first of all, he listed instead of his home address,
the address of his tap room on his nomination signatures
on his candidate papers. This is not legal. He got
a list in an actual address, and he also wrote

(01:18:47):
the date of the primary instead of the date of
the November election. It's just I mean, is this serious stuff? No,
but it's careless oversight from a complete and total buffoon
who has complete in total buffoons working for him. It appears,
and we said, while this is a minor mistake, it
could result in the invalidation of signatures collected on the

(01:19:11):
pages that have the error if someone were to challenge them.
Just within the last six minutes, JR. Ross, our good
friend longtime contributor to the Jayweber Show at wispolitics dot
com tweeted out, wouldn't you know it that a number
of the nomination signatures are on pages that have August

(01:19:36):
eleventh the date of the primary instead of the date
of the general election. Jr. Ross Bangstad listed the wrong
date for the general election on dozens of nomination papers
he turned in. The error could invalidate the signatures on
those pages he listed August eleventh the date of the primary.
Seymour in today's p M update, where do you suppose

(01:20:03):
Ross got that? I'm not saying he's stealing material from
the Heartland Post. We wrote that like a month ago,
Democrats are challenging his signature. Do you think Tom Tiffany
I would publish I would run against Tom Tiffany if
Tom Tiffany tried to get Kirk Bangstad off the Democrat ballot.
Kirkbangstad is the best thing to happen to Tiffany and

(01:20:23):
the Republicans since Francesca Hong, the guy is a complete
moron and he makes every other Democrat look bad simply
by standing next to him. Democrats are clearly challenging his
nomination signatures based on this error, and I'm willing to
wager that it was indeed us at the Heartland Post

(01:20:47):
who first noticed it and in fact brought it to
the attention of Democrats who let it go and let
those nominations signatures simply be piling up on page that
would be invalidated later. And it seems that their efforts
to take out Kirk Bang's dad, their efforts to take

(01:21:09):
out candidates that they don't like that could embarrass them,
continue on abating. We'll see, my guess. Apparently the deadline
to challenge and final decisions are going to be made
on Thursday, June fourth, so we shall see who exactly
is on the ballot, and if Kirk is going to

(01:21:30):
be one of the gubernatorial candidates, my money would be
on absolutely not, because Democrats want nothing to do with
him whatsoever. Each and every day here on the Dan
O'donalds show leading up to the fourth of July, America's
two hundred and fiftieth birthday. We are taking part in
the two hundred and fifty K USA Giveaway and giving

(01:21:51):
away twenty five hundred dollars in cash. Normally we give
away one thousand bucks, this time two thousand, five hundred
dollars and all you need to do is to go
to our website and enter the nationwide keyword liberty, as
in America celebrates two hundred and fifty years of liberty

(01:22:14):
after the declaration of Independence on July fourth, l I,
b ert Y, I'm taking a wild guess. You can't
just text in a picture of the cracked bell liberty.
Go to our website. You have got until five point
fifty five enter the keyword liberty, and if your entry
is picked at random, two thousand, five hundred dollars in

(01:22:40):
your pocket. It is a massive contest be fitting a
massive anniversary for these great United States. The USA two
hundred and fifty K Giveaway each and every five o'clock
hour here on the Dan o'donald Show. If you'd like
to join the show, Carpetland, Usay Flooring Center, Talk and

(01:23:00):
line always open four one, four seven, nine to nine
eleven thirty DoD at iHeartMedia dot com at Dan o'donald's
show on Xfacebook dot com slash Dan o'donald show, and
you can find us on Instagram. JR. Ross has just
updated the Wisconsin Elections Commission has in fact tossed five

(01:23:26):
hundred signatures that were on invalid nomination pages from Kirk Bangstad,
Ross posting on X just three minutes ago, and now
the Elections Commission says Bangstad has one thousand, five hundred
four valid signatures below the two thousand valid ones needed

(01:23:47):
to qualify for the ballot. Candidates have the opportunity to
file affidavits to rehabilitate signatures tossed out by weck.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:23:57):
Bangstad has been intimating, Yeah, I do well. I have
staffers at Heartland post follow this nut on Facebook. I
can't even tolerate listening to him because he's just such
a crazy son of a gun. He has been intimating
for the past couple of days that they would try
to keep him off the ballot. Who they are, I

(01:24:20):
don't know, nefarious Nazi aligned forces who knows. Clearly the
Wisconsin Elections Commission either was tipped off about this that
there was a challenge filed to the signatures that Bangstad collected,
or somebody just noticed, hey, the date is wrong on this. Now,

(01:24:40):
this is such like a pick a unish thing that
I'm not sure Weck would figure it out on its own.
Meaning it's such a small, barely noticeable defect on the
nomination petition page that my guess is someone pointed it
out to them, and that someone very likely came from

(01:25:01):
the state Democratic Party. Folks, the Democratic Party doesn't want
the candidate with the grassroots momentum, Francesco Hon to be
its nominee. Do you think they're going to tolerate Kirk Bangstad,
the crazy brewery guy? Now, obviously Kirk has he has

(01:25:23):
about as much chance of being the Democratic nominee for
governor as that crazy sign sealing wackadoo from Milwaukee last week.
By the way, he still hasn't been arrested. What's his name,
Carlos Dixon, the guy who literally did a media interview
in front of a police station. Insisted on doing a
media interview in front of a police station because he

(01:25:45):
said there was no way he was going to get
arrested for stealing candidate signs. Sure enough, he has not
been arrested for stealing candidate signs. He said he was
holding them hostage and would not give them back until
all of which Wisconsin was liberated from who who knows,
probably the same nefarious Nazi aligned forces that are conspiring

(01:26:07):
to keep Kirk Bangstad off of the ballot because of
Kirk Bangstad's own stupidity. Bangstad isn't going to be the nominee.
Carlos Lamar Dixon isn't going to be the nominee. Both
are massive embarrassments. Why because both are way closer to
the mainstream Democrat voter than is Sarah Rodriguez or David Crowley.

(01:26:32):
These are seriously demented people. The true believers who constantly
post weird, vile Trump memes, who are so obsessed with
Trump they can't stop thinking about him, They can't stop
talking about him every discuss I guarantee you know at
least like five or six people in your life. Chances

(01:26:53):
are you have got at least one liberal wine aunt
who turns every conversation back to Trump, or any time
anything is discussed politically, it gets back to Trump. Spencer
Pratt is running for mayor in Los Angeles and he
is conservative. He is a very creative guy. He of course,

(01:27:14):
is a reality show star. He was the villain on
the show The Hills. He lost his home in the
Malibu fire a couple of years ago and it hasn't
been rebuilt. He blamed Karen Bassford. He decided to run
for mayor against her Basses, seeking her second term. She's
term limited after that. Today is the primary, and it

(01:27:35):
is an open primary, meaning this is not a Republican
or Democratic primary. California has an open system and the
reason for this it's remarkable how much Democrats will attempt
to rig their own elections because they were worried about Republicans, ever,
actually advancing out of a primary. California changed its primary

(01:27:58):
system so that two Democrats and actually emerge out of
it and run in a general election. So Pratt is
facing not only Democrat Mayor Karen bass but also a
socialist Democrat member of the La Common Council named Nithia Rothmann.
This is also a runoff primary, meaning that if none

(01:28:21):
of the candidates gets over. If if a candidate gets
fifty percent plus one vote, the election is over and
that candidate is named mayor. If that doesn't happen, which
is almost certain, because of how divided the electorate is.
Then the top two candidates advanced to a runoff. On

(01:28:42):
the day of the general election November three, it is
looking like Bass is probably leading, but she's only going
to get thirty three thirty four percent of the vote.
Maybe it is very likely, in fact, I think more

(01:29:03):
likely than not that Pratt actually advances out of this
primary in a runoff. However, you're just running into cold,
hard math. There are way more Democrats in Los Angeles
than Republicans, and no matter how badly Democrats fail, I've

(01:29:23):
been saying for nearly two years now that Donald Trump
won in twenty twenty four because of how badly Joe
Biden and Democrats failed, because a whole lot of voters,
not just Republicans but crossover Democrats' independents, were willing to
give Trump a second chance because they realized just what
a rolling disaster Biden and Democrat rule was because of hyperinflation,

(01:29:47):
dramatic increases in crime, a porous border that let ten
million illegals flood in. On every possible metric, Biden was
a failure on every possible metric. Karen Bass is a failure,
but Biden had to face a general electorate in many

(01:30:08):
more cities than just LA. Had Biden run against Trump,
even after you could have held the vote twenty minutes
after forcing every resident of LA to watch that debate
between Biden and Trump, you hold a vote twenty minutes
after that. Biden wins with something like eighty percent of

(01:30:29):
the vote. That's how liberal Los Angeles is. I don't
believe that Spencer Pratt really has a chance. However, what
he has done for politics has been nothing short of remarkable,
and we will get into that and explain why Pratt's

(01:30:49):
campaign has sort of heralded the future of politics in America.
When the Dan O'Donnell show returns, sure looks like Kirkbangstad
is out. According to J. R. Ross of wispolitics dot
com because of a date error on his nomination signature petitions.

(01:31:14):
The sociopath Monoqua brewing company owner turned in about five
hundred too few valid signatures. If there are any errors
on your nomination pages that you have circulators, go out,
you see the people with the clipboards and you sign yes,
I want to see Kirkbankstad on the first of all,

(01:31:35):
anyone who is signing saying they want Kirkbangstad to be
their next governor. I think we need a publicly available
list like that Walker recall list, so we can just
avoid you at all costs as a potential next political assassin.
That's how crazy I think Bankstad and his merry band
of Kouk's really is. But if there is any part

(01:31:57):
of the paper that you sign that he is in correct,
it can't be counted as a valid signature because you
as the voter, and this isn't just kind of like minor,
you know, let's enforce some ridiculous rules for the sake
of enforcing ridiculous rules. You need to know exactly what
it is that you're signing. You need to know exactly

(01:32:17):
who the candidate is, exactly what office they're seeking, exactly
when the election is. Well, Bangstad put on his nomination
papers at least a dozen of them, that the election
was on August eleven, that's the date of the primary.
The general election is on November third.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:32:36):
JR. Ross Over at wispolitics dot com reported just about
ten minutes ago that wek has struck five hundred signatures.
At least he is now at one five hundred four
valid signatures. You need at least two hundred. So it's
looking right now like Kirk Bangstad is not going to
have enough valid signatures. And it strikes me that the

(01:32:59):
Democratic Party may have known this, probably because they were
the ones who tipped off Weck about this, because they
didn't schedule Bangstad as a speaker at the state party
convention next week. Also, Bangstad himself, i think, seemed to

(01:33:19):
know that there was going to be a problem with
these signatures because he's on Facebook and has been for
the past couple of days complaining about powers conspiring against him.
So we'll keep you updated on that. Coming up in
about ten minutes, we're going to talk with our friends
over at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. We have just a big,

(01:33:45):
big problem in Wisconsin. We have the second highest healthcare
costs in the entire region. This on top of one
of the most unaffordable states overall in Wisconsin. So we
are going to talk with WMC Associate VP of Government Relations,

(01:34:06):
Rachel Valverde, who wrote a fantastic column in the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel about the healthcare costs. That is coming up
very very shortly. But tonight we potentially could see Spencer
Pratt reality show villain become the next mayor of Los Angeles.
Results are gonna start coming in eight pm Pacific time,

(01:34:27):
that is ten pm Central. No, I am not staying
up late to watch the results. Do you know why?
Because there aren't gonna be any results. California will accept
ballots mailed in like a week from now. We're not
gonna know who wins this thing. We're not gonna know
who advances, probably for the next week. In fact, I'll

(01:34:49):
make a bet with you, you want to bet on
the prediction markets. I'm hoping that Calshi opens up a
prediction market on the date that we actually know the
resul results of this mayoral primary. Spencer Pratt is in
all likelihood not going to be the next mayor of
Los Angeles, which is a shame because frankly, anybody but

(01:35:13):
Karen Bass or any other leftist Democrat couldn't help but
be an improvement. But I actually like Spencer Pratt. I
believe Spencer Pratt is the most electrifying candidate that Republicans
have run since well Donald Trump, primarily because Pratt, also
a reality TV stalwart, learned all of the right lessons

(01:35:36):
from Trump, and frankly doesn't have all of Trump's baggage
and is very very good at doing his homework on
issues where Trump, at least initially was not. In twenty sixteen,
Trump blew out of the gate. He came down on
the escalator, and he immediately generated controversy talking about illegal

(01:36:01):
alien rapists on the southern border. He did a very
infamous interview with Don Lemon then of CNN, in which
Lemon said, as Trump cited all of the statistics about
rapes along the southern border, and Lemon said, well, no,
those numbers you cited are people being raped, not rapists.
And I think Lemon immediately knew what he did because

(01:36:23):
he ted Trump up and he goes, well, who's doing
the raping, Don, somebody's doing the raping. It was just
classic Trump that went megaviral, and Trump touched on an
issue of government failure that the entire country was feeling.

(01:36:44):
Our border is a disaster. We are allowing way too
many people into this country. You have no earthly business
being here, and it certainly feels like it's a deliberate
choice to do this to the American people. Spencer Pratt
is on a very similar anti incumbent, anti powers that

(01:37:06):
be wave of populism, and he is focused on a
very specific issue that he happens to be a victim
of the wildfires that devastated parts of California. Los Angeles
in particular, were caused by Karen Bass and other public

(01:37:27):
officials just complete and total incompetent. Bass herself was not
even in the country when the fires broke out. Not
only that, it's been a year and a half Pratt's
house burned to the ground and nobody has been allowed
to rebuild. He's been living in a trailer on the

(01:37:48):
burned out lot in the hills that his house once
stood on. He, as a victim of that tragedy, talked
very passionate about government incompetence. It's not just government doesn't
want to or is unable to get things done. It

(01:38:11):
is completely unable to. And as your mayor, I will
I will rebuild houses, I will rebuild this community. I
will clean up the crack dens and the homelessness, and
I will crack down on all of the crime that
has taken over our streets. His ads and his use
and his fans use of AI to inject a level

(01:38:35):
of fun into the campaign is also something that needs
to be studied. Not only that. Pratt isn't just some
media creation. He knows his stuff. And if you watch
the mayoral debate with Rothmont and Bass, he ran circles
around them, just like Trump very surprisingly did against every

(01:38:58):
single Republican in debates. Go back and watch the twenty
sixteen primary debates, go back and watch the general election
debates against Hillary Clinton. Trump cleaned up in everyone because
he was so good, not just at the medium of TV.
And everybody said, oh, well, he's so good on TV,
so could I know? Because he is very quick on

(01:39:19):
his feet, he is very intelligent, and he is very
quick witted, and he's funny. He is he is very funny.
Pratt is very much like Trump in that regard, but
he is also whereas Trump is very much a baby boomer,
he is very much on policy, very much on technology.

(01:39:42):
He's a man of his generation. Spencer Pratt is what
is he He's about my age, maybe a little younger,
so's he's very much a millennial, but he is even
younger in terms of his imbrasive technology. And he is
so good at co communicating intelligently, passionately, forcefully, and humorously

(01:40:06):
that his campaign the way he went from basically zero
percent just like Trump, to people thinking he might actually
have a chance of being the next mayor. That's really something,
And no matter what happens tonight, no matter what happens
in November, Spencer Pratt absolutely has a massive, massive future

(01:40:28):
in Republican politics. We talk healthcare policy here in Wisconsin.
You are listening to the Dan o'donald show back in
just a secon Sure looks like Kirk Bangstad is not
going to be on Wisconsin's gubernatorial ballot. Nobody is more
upset than I am. After weck struck down several hundred

(01:40:51):
signatures that Bangstad turned in, he only has fifteen hundred
valid ones. You need two thousand to qualify for the ballot.
He can file an AFFI David in which he challenges
wex determination, But as of right now, the crazy brewery
guy is off the Democrat ballot, and nobody is happier

(01:41:11):
about that more than Democrats who didn't want Kirkbangstad to
be talking on behalf of their party for the next
two months. But don't worry. Don't worry, folks, everyone in
the media got the memo. Nobody would be interviewing Kirkbangstad
nobody would be reporting on his campaign. He would be

(01:41:34):
basically the forgotten man. Already, Democrats said at their state convention,
even though he appeared to have enough valid signatures, he
wasn't going to speak. Just keeping you updated on that
story that he is literally breaking right now. Does not
look like the crazy brewing guy is going to be
on the ballot. Did you know Wisconsin's hospital costs are

(01:41:55):
the fourth highest in the entire nation. You wouldn't think
Wisconsinites are paying so much, but they are on the
phone right now with our good friends at Wisconsin Manufacturers
and Commerce, Rachel Verveldi, who wrote a very very good
op ed piece on this exact topic. And since we

(01:42:19):
were talking about Rachel in the three o'clock hour, just
how much government intervention in the student loan industry has
pumped up costs there, I thought i'd bring you in
to talk about how much government intervention in healthcare policy
has led to even more out of control costs. Welcome
to the Dan O'Donnell show.

Speaker 2 (01:42:39):
Hi, Dan, that's absolutely right. The government has its swingers
all over healthcare, and it's.

Speaker 1 (01:42:45):
Not like the quality of care has gotten any better.
Not care itself, I mean doctors do a great job.
I just had knee surgery and my recovery has gone fantastic.
I couldn't thank the surgeon and physical therapists enough. I mean,
healthcare coverage, health insurance is a labyrinthine nightmare as it
always has been, despite Obamacare adding tons of cost and

(01:43:10):
tons of government bureaucracy.

Speaker 2 (01:43:13):
That's absolutely right, particularly for employers who have had to
comply with all the compliance of Obamacare. And you know,
lot though, the research shows that lower cost healthcare is
actually typically higher quality. So you know that's right there.

Speaker 1 (01:43:31):
Wait wait wait, wait wait wait, how does that work?

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
Well, the higher quality providers tend to have lower costs,
and that that's what our employers are telling us. Our
members at WMC are saying, we're shopping around trying to
find the best cost because we know that they have
the best quality.

Speaker 1 (01:43:50):
Oh so you're saying, when companies compete on price as
well as compete on services and compete to provide the
best service for the best price, the customer wins. This
This is this is at wow. I can't believe this,
that this is actually how the world works.

Speaker 2 (01:44:11):
The free market wins again every.

Speaker 1 (01:44:13):
Time, It just every single time.

Speaker 2 (01:44:17):
I mean it just it.

Speaker 1 (01:44:19):
It never ceases to boggle my mind, Rachel, that people
still don't understand that market principles exist literally everywhere, that
that capitalism essentially isn't some American construct, that it is
innate in human beings, that if you have a profit

(01:44:40):
motive and if you uh insulate people from the cost
of what it is that they're actually paying for, they're
not going to shop around. They're not going to be
cost conscious. They're going to accept whatever it is that
government is subsidizing. And the companies that are getting government
subsidized loans or government subsidized whatever have no incentive because

(01:45:05):
the customer isn't going to be looking for the best
service or the best price. When that is stripped away,
the customer wins because companies need to be in direct
competition against each other without the backdrop of government picking
up the tab, regardless of what the outcome is. So
WMC has been all over. I cite the Affordability Report

(01:45:32):
that was put out earlier this year and the competitive
report Competitiveness Report, I should say, and affordability is wrapped
up in that. Well, you've got that healthcare piece, and
what is it about Wisconsin that the engine of the
free market just doesn't seem to be as strong here.
Why is it that we're paying so much more than

(01:45:54):
other states?

Speaker 2 (01:45:56):
So you're absolutely right, we are paying significantly more here
in Wisconsin than in the other states. In fact, Wisconsin
has the second highest healthcare costs in the nation, and,
as you said previously, the fourth highest hospital cost.

Speaker 1 (01:46:09):
Wait, oh my goodness, I'm going to have to apologize, Rachel.
I read that as second highest in the Midwest. You're
saying we have the second highest healthcare cost in the
entire nation.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
That is correct.

Speaker 1 (01:46:21):
Talk about burying the lead. Dan, Holy cow, I seriously
read that. I read your piece a couple I'm like, wow,
that's terrible in the Midwest. Wow, we're worse than Illinois. No,
turns out we're worse than everybody. Let me guess the
one state that we don't beat California.

Speaker 2 (01:46:38):
Well, actually, you know, the highest cus states are Alaska
in West Virginia. They have some really geographics.

Speaker 1 (01:46:44):
Oh well, okay, yeah, I get I Alaska especially, I guess, yeah,
West Virginia in the mountains. Yeah no, I get that.

Speaker 2 (01:46:50):
Yeah yeah, But honestly, every one of us, as Wisconsin,
I should be annoyed that we put pay significantly more
for healthcare than patients in other states. It's not acceptable.
There's absolutely no reason that we are paying more here
in Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (01:47:06):
Why is it that we are?

Speaker 2 (01:47:09):
Well, here's the deal. There are federal price transparency regulations
that Trump started, they're continued under Biden, and they were
expanded under Trump again, but not every hospital it's fully
complying with these regulations. And the thing is, until you
have complete price transparency, people can not shop around for care.

(01:47:30):
They can't be informed consumers, they can't create competition, which, then,
as you said earlier, that lowers costs for everyone when
you can be that informed consumer.

Speaker 1 (01:47:41):
That's it exactly, and it WHI which are the hospital
systems that are not complying and why are they allowed
not to comply?

Speaker 2 (01:47:52):
Well, you know, prior to during WC, I was chief
of staffed Congressman Glenn Grossman out INBC, and so I
saw how government has an inability to manage anything out
in BC. But in particular, you know, Congress struggles just
to fund the government much less have oversight over all
of the different agencies, and CMS is just not enforcing

(01:48:15):
the regulation the way they should be. You know the
the HHS OIG, the Inspector General for Health and Human Services.
They found that only forty six percent of hospitals nationwide
are fully complying with the regulation. In what Shahnson, there's
been reports that show only thirty percent of hospitals are
fully compliant.

Speaker 1 (01:48:38):
Thoroughly unaccess to.

Speaker 2 (01:48:40):
Yes. Yes, and that's like we ATC thinks it's incredibly
important to have state level hospital price transparency. We think
that our Department of Health Services knows what's best, understands
our healthcare marketplace, and that they would be able to
see the hospitals and are not applying and help them

(01:49:01):
get into compliance. We at the WMC do not dislike hospitals.
Our employer members don't dislike hospitals. We need hospitals. All
of our employees have to have services at hospitals. But
the thing is we want compliance with the regulations so
that we can have that ability to shop around for care.

Speaker 1 (01:49:21):
Couldn't have said it any better myself, Rachel. Thank you
so much. Rachel Belverdi, she is the Associate VP of
Government Relations at Wisconsin Manufacturers in Commerce. I wanted to
make sure that I got your full title in there.
It is a mouthful. Rachel, I will say, excellent writer,

(01:49:41):
with a great piece on just highlighting the research that
WMC has done on just how expensive healthcare costs are
here in Wisconsin. Rachel, great job on that. Thank you
so much for joining us, really to appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:57):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:49:58):
You are listening to the danode Donald Show. We are
back to wrap things up. Will we get a final
decision on Kirk Bangstad's ballot access, We shall see our
thanks once again to Rachel Belverti and our friends at
WMC Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. They did, Folks, this competitiveness

(01:50:20):
report I have been citing all year long. It is
really a must read because it shows just how badly
governor eavers and Democrats and Democrat policies have failed this
state and how far behind Wisconsin has fallen in And
when you say, well, Dad, Wisconsin legislature has been a

(01:50:41):
Republican all of these years. Yes, I'm talking about things
like the University of Wisconsin's system continuously demanding tuition increases.
The board of regents all liberals, maybe one or two conservatives,
but would very strongly doubt it they're approving all of

(01:51:04):
these increases the utility hike, utility rate increases. Governor Evers
appoints the commissioners of the Public Service Commission. They're the
ones who approved the rate hikes. The four hundred year
property tax veto. Republicans had no say in that. That
was Governor Evers himself using his partial veto authority, and

(01:51:25):
the liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court approving it, even though it
was grossly unconstitutional, as both of Frankenstein and Vana White veto.
What I'm talking about here is just what Rachel was
talking about in that last segment, that you have got
hospital systems just refusing to comply with price transparency rules,

(01:51:48):
contributing to massive health care costs. K twelve schools continually.
And this was also in that competitiveness report that WMC
put out earlier in the year K twelve schools in Wisconsin.
Even though we have lost sixty five thousand students from
twenty five years ago, in the year two thousand, there

(01:52:09):
is sixty five thousand more students in Wisconsin's K twelve
public schools than there are today. We have thousands more.
I believe the number was eight thousand more administrators bureaucrats,
two thousand fewer teachers. Okay, that makes sense since we've
had to close schools since there are so many There

(01:52:34):
are just so many less students than there were in
two thousand. Today, of course we're going to need to
get rid of two thousand. How do you explain eight
thousand non teaching staff members. That's what WMC found again
liberal policy. Even though as I found and I used

(01:52:58):
the WMC report as the basis for my research. Today
we led the show with and did pretty much the
entire three o'clock hour on the UW tuition increase and
sort of use that as an entree into the broader
discussion of population decline and how everybody sort of needs

(01:53:19):
to adapt to a world in which just fewer people
are being born, at least here in America, in the West,
in the developing world. I mean, the birth rate in
Nigeria is absolutely exploding. I believe Nigeria is going to
pass China as the second most populoust country on Earth
behind India, very very shortly. However, government doesn't ever adapt

(01:53:44):
because government always has its hand in your pocket and
always just looks for more money from you. But the
tuition increase, I actually found that while the student population
at the UW system increased by just one point eighty
six percent. We had an eighteen percent increase in the

(01:54:04):
number of faculty positions. Now, how do you explain that,
and how do you explain the fact that the UW
system budget increased by a nearly identical eighteen percent in
those twenty six years. The money is going to staff.
The money is not going to student services, it's not
going to education, it's going to bureaucrats. It's going to

(01:54:27):
people who government employees, and who in turn elect the
people who populate government that then get into office and
continually increase the budgets and salaries of the people who
vote for them. You see how this works at a
time talk to you again tomorrow three h six pm

(01:54:48):
right here on the Dan O'Donnell Show.

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