Here & Now

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin On Upcoming Legislative Session

Frederica Freyberg:

I spoke with Senator Johnson earlier today. Now to the Democratic side of the aisle, and for that we welcome Senator Tammy Baldwin. Senator, thanks very much for being here.

Tammy Baldwin:

It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So we know that the GOP is moving quickly to try to repeal at least parts of the Affordable Care Act, but what happens to that law if the subsidies go away and the individual mandate and even expanded Medicaid?

Tammy Baldwin:

Yeah. So, you know, the people of Wisconsin did not send me to the United States Senate to take away people’s health care and that’s exactly what they are proposing to do right out of the box, starting this first week of the new session. They have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has implications also on Medicare and Medicaid, has so many implications for all Americans who have health insurance because of the protections that are part of that. And even though the Republican establishment in Washington has said for seven years that they want to have some sort of replacement, they have nothing to show for it at this point. And in fact it’s apparent on Capitol Hill that there are huge disagreements even within their own party about whether it’s repeal but delay that repeal, repeal and replace, when that will happen, how that will happen. The bottom line right now is that they are organizing to take people’s health care away, and that is something worth fighting tooth and nail against.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what can you tell the more than 230,000 people in Wisconsin that are covered by Obamacare?

Tammy Baldwin:

You know, several things. One is I have no information to share with them about what the Republican establishment plans to do to replace it, because they have no replacement plan. That is scary and therefore it is absolutely irresponsible for them to undertake the repeal of the current protections for Wisconsinites and, you know, coverage for well over 200,000 Wisconsinites. But I also think it’s really important that they speak out. That they ask those questions to their members of Congress, to those of us in the Senate, and have their voices heard. I mean, if you think about this recent election, it was a lot about people feeling that they didn’t have a voice, that the system was rigged, that hard-working people were struggling to get ahead. Well, isn’t our health security and health care coverage a huge piece of that? They need to continue to speak out even beyond having participated in the election.

Frederica Freyberg:

A lot of people are also, of course, worried about Medicare. And what happens to Medicare if the surcharge on the high-income earners goes away as any part of this repeal of the ACA?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, first of all, there’s lots of implications on Medicare if one — if they truly go ahead with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. The passage of the Affordable Care Act extended the solvency of Medicare multiple years, and so we will be immediately dealing with that very significant concern. We have to understand that they have no plan right now to replace this, and it’s why we absolutely have to fight right now to prevent them from carrying out this undertaking.

Frederica Freyberg:

What’s your response to Speaker Paul Ryan saying he’d like to defund Planned Parenthood again as part of this repeal?

Tammy Baldwin:

I think about the millions of Americans, women and men, who receive needed preventive and primary care through Planned Parenthood. The impact of defunding, as they call it, is going to further impact people’s health. You know, some have likened this endeavor on the part of the Republicans in Washington as make America sick again, playing off Trump’s motto. That is going to be the consequence. There is real harm that will befall Wisconsinites and Americans with this multi-pronged attack on health care.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, you wrote a letter to the president-elect Trump soon after the election saying that you hoped that he would appoint strong, independent-minded staff to police the financial sector during his administration. Now that you’ve seen some of his cabinet picks, do you think he followed your advice?

Tammy Baldwin:

Oh, my goodness. I have a lot of concern. And of course we’re about to undertake the confirmation hearings, which will give the American public a greater sense of who these individuals are. But there’s two things I want to note. One is that most of Trump’s nominees have not yet done the financial disclosures, the ethics disclosures, the tax return disclosures that are required during the confirmation process. So we at this point are going to be hindered in seeing where there might be conflicts of interest. Where they might be more loyal to their former corporate ties than they are to the American people. And we need to be sure that when people enter government service, that they are serving the people of the United States, not their former corporations. Also, as you know, I've been a leader on reform that would sort of end this revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, where you put the fox in charge of the henhouse. And I'd like to see the principles in my legislation adopted as we examine these nominees.

Frederica Freyberg:

Moving just quickly to the Russian hacking, you’ve called for a Senate investigation into that. The president-elect seems to reject the intelligence reports coming in. Although today he had the briefing and he did praise the intelligence apparatus. But what do you make of his response kind of going through this?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, several observations. One is he doesn’t seem to take what we now know seriously. We’re talking about Russian interference with our democracy, something that we prize, something that any patriotic American should be defending at all costs. The idea that there was not only hacking, but, you know, involvement in this phenomenon of fake news, is deeply disturbing to me. And I feel like our president-elect needs to take this much more seriously. Then the added element of his deciding to trust Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and Vladimir Putin of Russia over the intelligence agencies that serve this country and protect our security against cyber espionage? That has been just, you know, again, deeply disturbing. And I think we have to hold this president-elect accountable, and, you know, I believe that’s more than ever a reason why we should move forward with a select committee to get to the bottom of this. It needs to be bipartisan and the American people need that transparency.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We leave it there.

Tammy Baldwin:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Senator Tammy Baldwin, thanks very much.