Baldwin Vs. Johnson on Pandemic Stimulus Plan
Could any state’s two senators be more different?
The U.S. leads the world with 28.9+ COVID-19 cases and over 524,000 deaths. Wisconsin has had 566,000+ cases and about 6,500 deaths. This catastrophe and resultant economic carnage could have been mitigated if the previous administration had been more competent and informed. President Joe Biden is moving forward to end the pandemic and restore the economy.
Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin supported: “Senate passage of (the) American Rescue Plan (ARP) to vaccinate more Wisconsinites and expand access to affordable healthcare coverage during (the) COVID-19 pandemic.” Baldwin is not alone. The American Hospital and Medical Associations, private healthcare insurers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said: “Despite decades of evidence linking coverage to better healthcare access and health outcomes, the COVID-19 pandemic has put the link between the two in stark relief.”
However, Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson continues to act like a know-nothing. Opposing the ARP, Johnson forced Senate clerks to read the entire bill out loud (11 hours!) to obstruct passage. Some GOP senators questioned Johnson’s tactics. North Dakota GOP Senator Kevin Cramer said: “I’m not sure it really makes a point. It doesn’t punish anybody except members of the staff … and pretty much all 100 senators.” But Johnson hears conspiratorial voices, calling the ACA “the greatest single threat to my freedom … .” Moreover, he has repeatedly voted to repeal the ACA, ending coverage for over 20 million, including 200,000+ Wisconsinites and consumer protections, covering preexisting conditions (one million+ Wisconsinites). Johnson doesn’t hear those without healthcare coverage.
Despite Johnson’s grandstanding, the ARP is near final passage. All Wisconsin Democratic members of Congress supported the ARP, while all Wisconsin GOP members opposed. Baldwin said: “We have not beaten this pandemic (variants) and people are still struggling in Wisconsin and across the country. We need to take bold action to address the ongoing public health and economic crises … The American Rescue Plan is the investment our state needs to beat the pandemic, save our economy, and start getting our lives back to normal.”
President Biden already took immediate executive action to expand healthcare coverage. He reopened the ACA federal marketplace for three months to enable Americans to purchase ACA private insurance. During the first two weeks of February, 206,000+ Americans, including 3,000+ Wisconsinites, signed up. The Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance is promoting enrollment. However, if the Wisconsin Stop the COVID Spread coalition joined their national counterparts in supporting expansion more could be achieved by the group’s running Wisconsin focused PSAs, TV-radio and social media ads. Let’s all defeat COVID-19 and extend healthcare coverage. There is a clear link between the two.
Bill Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.
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More about the Coronavirus Pandemic
- WI Daily: 727 New COVID-19 Cases Reported - Urban Milwaukee - Apr 17th, 2021
- WI Daily: 709 New COVID-19 Cases Reported - Urban Milwaukee - Apr 16th, 2021
- MKE County: Children Contributing to Rising COVID-19 - Graham Kilmer - Apr 16th, 2021
- Wisconsin Unemployment at 3.8% - Erik Gunn - Apr 16th, 2021
- White House Announces $1.7 Billion Investment to Fight COVID-19 Variants that Senator Baldwin Worked to Include in American Rescue Plan - U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin - Apr 16th, 2021
- Federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care (LTC) Program Ending - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Apr 16th, 2021
- Council file seeks Health Department information on Johnson & Johnson vaccinations - Ald. Milele Coggs - Apr 16th, 2021
- Vaccination Numbers Going Down - Graham Kilmer - Apr 15th, 2021
- WI Daily: 943 New COVID-19 Cases Reported - Urban Milwaukee - Apr 15th, 2021
- DHS Releases Improved COVID-19 Hospital Data Webpage - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Apr 15th, 2021
Read more about Coronavirus Pandemic here
Ro Jo the no show. Heard tell his friends will throw a mofo party in Moscow mid-summer.
And the there’s Lyin’ Paul Ryan. handing out play money to his rich friends instead of investing intro communities during the best of times.