Here & Now

Look Ahead: Ross, McCoshen Preview State Budget

Frederica Freyberg:

A look ahead to Governor Walker’s state budget is next, but not before getting our political panelists’ response to President Trump’s first couple of weeks on the job. Welcome to One Wisconsin Now’s Scot Ross and managing partner of Capitol Consultants, Bill McCoshen. Thanks for being here.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thanks.

Frederica Freyberg:

So how about Donald Trump’s first two weeks of shock and awe? What do you guys make of it?

Scot Ross:

I think, first of all, the Muslim ban is exactly the way the country didn’t need to start with the Trump years. It’s something that’s unconstitutional. It turns out it wasn’t even vetted by actual security, national security folks. And there are people who are really suffering because of what he’s been doing. And I think that that sort of typifies the way he’s been running things, which is reckless and without regard to the implications of what he is doing.

Bill McCoshen:

It's all about results. It’s exactly what voters wanted when they voted for Donald Trump, including in the state of Wisconsin first the first time since 1984. He’s off to an unbelievable pace in two weeks. Look at the things he’s been able to accomplish already. The TPP, which voters wanted for the U.S. to get out of, the acceleration of the Keystone pipeline which the Obama administration had rejected, the nomination of a conservative Supreme Court justice. These are all things he promised on the campaign trail, and he’s actually delivering. I think what’s surprising to the other side is they’re not used to politicians who actually deliver on what they promised and Donald Trump’s doing that.

Frederica Freyberg:

You were citing some of those things and I had almost forgotten them, they are coming at such a rapid pace. Is that part of the idea here?

Bill McCoshen:

It’s the business model. He’s really the first true businessman we’ve had in the White House in a very long time, maybe at his level ever. And he’s used to working 20 hours a day and seems like he goes to the private quarters and tweets once he’s done working in the office. But he’s getting stuff done. For him, this is all about results. He’s tired of the status quo. Voters were tired of the status quo. They want action in Washington and Donald Trump’s bringing it.

Scot Ross:

I don’t know. I don’t know that they wanted action like what he’s doing. For instance, like a four-year-old child in Iraq whose grandparents are citizens being denied the ability to come here for the heart surgery that’s going to save her life. I don’t think that’s what people were asking for. And I think what we’ve seen more than anything else is just how quickly Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are going to roll over and do whatever Donald Trump wants and that is scary because they are supposed to be a check.

Bill McCoshen:

Saving jobs at Carrier, saving jobs at Ford, making the focus on American jobs, that’s what people wanted. I think they’re excited about it. Rasmussen Polls show his job approval is at 53%. Maybe not as high as other presidents 12 days in to their presidency, but I’ll tell you what, results are going to take some time. He’s making bold actions early in the administration and I think it’s going to play out pretty well for him politically and policy-wise.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let me ask you about Obamacare. We had Tommy Thompson on who said that repealing Obamacare is so last week. So now they want to do surgery and repair it. What do you make of that?

Scot Ross:

I think that Paul Ryan has had more than 2500 days since the ACA passed the House of Representatives and he still doesn’t have a plan. He doesn’t have a plan to prevent 30 million people losing their health care. He doesn’t have a plan to ensure that preexisting conditions are no longer denying people health care or the fact that being a woman is a preexisting condition. I mean they have had time to do this. They have no answers. I think they’re delaying, delaying, delaying. What’s going to end up happening is they’re going to put it off so that the effects of the cuts don’t come until after the 2018 election but the cuts are coming.

Bill McCoshen:

Tommy Thompson’s my mentor. He’s a surrogate father to me. I wouldn’t question him because he’s certainly involved both with Paul Ryan, with the president himself and with Reince Priebus. But I would say this. ACA repeal was last week. It’s this week. It’s next week. It’s going to happen. The Republicans ran on this time and time again. The House Republicans actually passed it 67 times, the repeal of it, and the Senate rejected it. They’re going to do and they’re going to do it in 2017.

Frederica Freyberg:

As your mentor says, “It's complicated.” Let me ask about Act 10 going national.

Bill McCoshen:

Yeah.

Scot Ross:

Well, what have been the results here? We are near the bottom of job creation in the Midwest. Just last year we lost 2700 manufacturing jobs. We are divided as never before. Education has been able to be cut by nearly $2 billion and student loan debt has gone up so those are the results of Act 10.

Bill McCoshen:

Act 10 has proven to be successful. Wisconsin saved more than $5 billion since it’s been enacted. And I’ll tell you what. This is one where Donald Trump is probably a little bit different than what we did here in Wisconsin. You saw that he had union leaders in the White House, literally in the Oval Office on day two or day three of his administration. They left there saying nicer things about him than they said about the previous president, Barack Obama. So there is a difference between public sector employees and private sector union employees and I think Donald Trump is going to try and walk that line.

Frederica Freyberg:

Looking ahead to Scott Walker’s budget, it looks like he’s going to be talking about the earned income tax credit, giving more money to rural schools and then a little bit of Tommy Thompson's kind of welfare reform with FoodShare beneficiaries. So this seems like a budget that’s like something for everyone.

Bill McCoshen:

Yeah. In the third year you try and build a budget, especially if you’re going to run for reelection. What we used to say in the Thompson administration is you win reelection in the third year. You lose it in the fourth year. In other words, do the right things in the budget and the politics should take care of itself unless you make a big mistake in the fourth year. I think Governor Walker calls it a reform dividend. There is extra money this time around, which is new to Wisconsin for the last three budget cycles. So look for Governor Walker to spread that to K-12 schools, to higher education and to take care of some of the needy here in the state.

Scot Ross:

Let's take the earned income tax credit. We have raised taxes under Governor Walker $144 million on the working poor as a result of what he did with the earned income tax credit in his first budget. Now he’s going to give back $20 million. That I think makes him $124 million short. His rural schools initiative. He literally had his three events at three schools that have seen their aid drop by double digits under Scott Walker. So yes, he is trying to do his reelection budget and he’s very good at that because it is all he knows. But the fact is our budget is in a mess. We can’t pay for education. We can’t pay for higher education, and we certainly can’t pay for our roads.

Bill McCoshen:

We know that he inherited a mess from the previous administration and he fixed it.

Scot Ross:

Come on.

Bill McCoshen:

Made some tough decisions. Had to make very tough choices. Now as he calls it, we have a reform dividend and he’s going to start to give that back.

Scot Ross:

Jim Doyle was on the ballot last 11 years ago. It’s time to let go of that talking point.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there. Thank you very much.