Frederica Freyberg:

We’ve talked a lot about the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan as it affects Wisconsin. Not a single Republican member of our Congressional delegation voted in favor of the funding so there’s a divide. And there’s a divide over the COVID-19 vaccine. According to recent polling, nearly half of Republican men say they will not get vaccinated. So the politics of the pandemic apparently persist. On these and other matters, we turn to our political panelists, Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. Thanks for being here once again.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Hello.

Frederica Freyberg:

So polling shows that over 60% of people supported this $1.9 trillion relief package. Bill, that’s not hard for Republicans to ignore?

Bill McCoshen:

Well, I think the notion of unity that the president said in his inaugural address went out the window, right? Ten Republican senators went to the White House, pitched the president on a smaller package that they would actually support. All of the COVID relief packages during the Trump administration were bipartisan in nature. This one was totally partisan and there was actually bipartisan opposition to it. Two Democrats voted against it in the House.

Frederica Freyberg:

So I was just going to say that I was pretty sure Scot had something to say about this.

Scot Ross:

First of all, thank goodness for the American Rescue Plan. It’s $20 billion for the state of Wisconsin. 4 million adults and 1.5 million kids are going to benefit from that $1400 check. We’ve got $7.8 billion coming back to the people in that form. $5.7 billion coming to state government, local government, city government, county government. This is a plan that helps everybody across the board. It is unconscionable that the Republicans didn’t support this. They’re the ones who are going to have to ask guys like Bryan Steil, guys like Fitzgerald and Gallagher are going to say why you voted for hundreds of millions of dollars against your constituents?

Frederica Freyberg:

Bill, in the midst of the pandemic, do people feel like enhanced unemployment benefits and stimulus checks are just too rich?

Bill McCoshen:

No. They would have voted for it. They would have voted for that. They would have voted for additional PPE money and more money to get our schools back reopened. There’s no question about that. What they —

Scot Ross:

It’s in there.

Bill McCoshen:

Yeah, but so was —

Scot Ross:

There was a billion and a half dollars.

Bill McCoshen:

There was an additional trillion dollars that might not be needed. Remember, there’s still a trillion dollars from the last Trump CARES package that hasn’t been put out on the street. We now have almost $3 trillion that’s about to be flooding our streets.

Frederica Freyberg:

Lots of money going on. But Scot, another divide of which we spoke. Republican men don’t want to get the COVID-19 vaccine. What do you think that’s about?

Scot Ross:

Well, that’s about a consistent disinformation campaign on the part of Republicans. Let’s not forget the reason the pandemic has been so disastrous, 500,000 people dead, 7200 dead in Wisconsin, is because Republicans led by Donald Trump thought if they acted as though the pandemic were real, it would hurt him politically and so they all went in on this. It has been an absolute disaster. Thank goodness Governor Evers is leading us here in Wisconsin where we are number one in the country in vaccine distribution in terms of going out.

Frederica Freyberg:

Right.

Scot Ross:

Can’t be happier for that. Old people are getting vaccinated, young people are getting vaccinated. Now, we’re going to go a week earlier in terms of opening up for the next people to get vaccinated.

Frederica Freyberg:

That vaccination stuff in Wisconsin is great news. But, Bill, in your mind is there a better way to reopen America than to beat back this virus?

Bill McCoshen:

No. I can’t. I can’t wait to get my vaccine. As so as I’m eligible I’ll be first in line so I think more people will ultimately get it, more than 100 million out of 330 million people in the United States have already gotten it. We’re on a pretty good pace as Scot said. We’re doing pretty well here in the state of Wisconsin. I think it is the key to reopening and getting back to normal is more people getting the vaccine. What I don’t agree with is forcing people to get vaccines. If they choose not to for whatever reason, I think that should be their choice.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot, our Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson in a fundraising email yesterday said that there is, “No doubt that Democrats have targeted me,” he said, “for extinction.” In fact, he said, “I am target number one.” Is that true?

Scot Ross:

Well, he is definitely the number one targeted incumbent senator, Republican senator in the country, that’s for sure. Now the question is, is he going to break the promise he made to the people of Wisconsin when in 2016 he said he wouldn’t run again and now go D.C. as they say, break your word and run again. If he runs again, he’s gone. The Democrats are going to take him out. He has just gone so far down the hole, we call him QAnon Ron at this point. He is the proponent of the big lie, of the racist big lie. He is traveling in every possible — supporting the insurrection, it’s ghastly. Wisconsin deserves better. They’re going to get better in 2022.

Frederica Freyberg:

So Bill, there is this. Senator Ron Johnson saying he wasn’t afraid during the January 6 Capitol insurrection, but he would have been had the crowds been Black Lives Matter protestors. How is that defensible?

Bill McCoshen:

I think some of it was taken out of context. What we do know is all of the riots over the summer, some of which were led by BLM or antifa were violent in nature, whether it was in St. Paul or Portland or Kenosha or Wauwatosa. And in some cases even here in Madison. So I think that’s what he was pointing to, that the riots we saw all summer were more violent in nature and those were on the left. Obviously what happened on January 6 was more on the right so I think he was trying to draw a comparison.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot, final word?

Scot Ross:

I think it’s a case of the Republican Party has been taken over by racism. It’s unfortunate. We see it with passing Rush Limbaugh resolutions here in Wisconsin. We see it with every single Republican buying into the big lie that because Black people voted there’s election fraud and Joe Biden is not on the president. It’s really, really sad and I think people are going to really turn against this in 2022.

Frederica Freyberg:

I just want to allow Bill to make some comment on that.

Bill McCoshen:

I would say this. Republicans want free and fair elections. They want them to be transparent. You’re going to see that continue here in the state of Wisconsin and across this country, where you want more transparency on elections so people can be confident in the outcome.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there. Sorry it got kind of heavy, but thank you very much, Bill McCoshen and Scot Ross.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thanks.