By Lena C. Taylor
In November, when Wisconsin voters head to the polls, they will face a clear choice between someone who is going to fight for Wisconsin and someone who is going to put special interests in Washington ahead of the middle class. Tammy Baldwin has stood up to special interests her entire career in Washington, including taking on the big insurance companies and helping pass Health Care Reform. I support Tammy Baldwin because of her strong record of taking on corporate special interests who have too much power and influence in Washington. She has always been a fighter for the working families of Wisconsin and I know that in the U.S. Senate she will do what she has always done: fight for the middle class and work to create an even playing field where everyone plays by the same rules.
A key part of Tammy’s biography is that she was raised by her grandparents, giving her a firsthand look at the important roll Social Security and Medicare play in the livelihood of many Wisconsinites. Very early in life Tammy was able to learn the value of Social Security and Medicare by witnessing how crucial it was to her family’s economic security.
Tammy has not forgotten her upbringing and continues to believe to this day that seniors should continue to have access to free preventive care, as well as affordable prescription drugs under Medicare.
But Tammy’s opponent, Tommy Thompson, was the point man for President George W. Bush on cutting a sweetheart deal with the drug companies that made it illegal for the government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices under Medicare Part D –increasing the costs to taxpayers, $156 billion.
Thompson says that Senior- Care and BadgerCare were his ideas and that he can do the same thing at the federal level, but the fact is that Thompson supports the repeal of prescription drug savings provided to seniors in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Thompson’s plan would repeal rebate checks provided to seniors and increase the cost for prescription drugs for Wisconsin families. Today, seniors across Wisconsin rely on Medicare, and the program provides coverage for nearly a million Wisconsinites.
While Tammy doesn’t believe that seniors should be forced to choose between paying their monthly bills and paying for the prescription drugs they need, Thompson supports the Republican plan on Medicare that will provide billions in new profits for big insurance companies and a voucher for seniors instead of the guaranteed benefit they paid for, sticking them with $6000 more in out of pocket costs.
Tammy simply gets it and Thompson does not. Tommy Thompson has an agenda that puts the big moneyed special interests in Washington first and leaves Wisconsin’s seniors and middle class families behind.
Tammy understands that people in Wisconsin want a fair shot and a chance to succeed. With the economic security of the middle class on the ballot this fall it is crucial that we all support Tammy Baldwin as our next U.S. Senator because she will continue the work to create an even playing field where everyone plays by the same rules.
Tammy knows that this is how we can move Milwaukee, the great state of Wisconsin and our nation forward.
