Senator lays out success, challenges; listens to concerns
By Eileen Persike
MMC Staff
RHINELANDER – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin is making stops throughout Wisconsin while the Senate is in recess.
Baldwin, a Democrat, was in Rhinelander this week to meet with Northwoods supporters during her Dairyland Tour.
“This is about meeting people where they’re at and listening to their concerns, their challenges, their aspirations and taking that knowledge back to Washington and having that inform my work there,” Baldwin said. “Partly a listening tour and partly to make sure we’re addressing the kitchen table issues that people are concerned about right now.”
Those concerns, she said, include the cost of healthcare and medicine, plus the price of groceries and other items such as diapers, despite news headlines that say inflation is down.
“We’re going after those companies that are deceiving consumers,” Baldwin said. “Their input prices may be a lot lower, and yet they’re still charging what they did at the height of inflation.”
Baldwin served seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate in Nov. 2012.
Trying to prevent her from being elected to a third Senate term is Republican businessman Eric Hovde, who entered the race in February. Hovde was born and raised in Madison and now serves as President and CEO of Sunwest Bank in California.
Wisconsin is predicted to be a battleground state in November.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that Wisconsin could well decide who occupies the White House next year,” Baldwin told her supporters. “Wisconsin could well be decisive in who controls the United States Senate. This seat, if we lost it, would hand control of the Senate to the Republicans.”
The Senator touted what she said were some of her successes in Washington, such as championing “Buy America” policies that require American products be used for public projects funded by taxpayer dollars.
“Wisconsin is a state that makes things,” Baldwin said. “I think about our iconic manufacturers – so many of those manufacturing jobs have been lost over the decades because of really poor industrial policy as well as bad trade policies.”
Buy American, Baldwin said, helps to level the playing field for American workers, who she said are at a disadvantage compared to corporations that choose to have production facilities in places with no minimum wage, no worker safety protections or environmental laws.
“I believe that when we’re spending taxpayer dollars that we shouldn’t be spending those dollars supporting workers overseas,” Baldwin said. “We should be using our taxpayer dollars to support U.S. jobs and U.S. small businesses. So over the years, I have become ‘the’ Senate champion of buy America policies.”
Baldwin is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, where she said she has been involved in some successes.
“We’ve been able to bring down the price of insulin for seniors on Medicare,” Baldwin said. “We’re working right now to bring down the cost of asthma inhalers, and we’ve had some real breakthroughs just in recent weeks. And with Medicare now negotiating with drug companies – really powerful drug companies – to bring their prices down for seniors and others, we’re going to see some real breakthroughs that make it affordable for people who have life-threatening diseases and illnesses to be able to afford the medicines they need to stay alive.”
The General Election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
