Thursday host Allen Ruff speaks with Lindsay Koshgarian, research director at the National Priorities Project, about the federal budget. The National Priorities Project is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that strives to make the federal budget accessible to the public. Ms. Koshgarian’s primary focus at the NPP is how the decades-long policy of outsized military budgets […]
Randy Bryce Declares His Candidacy for Congress
In May, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan held a national approval rating of just 25%, similar to the low approval numbers of the Congress he leads. But Ryan continues to win elections by staggering margins, so who can possibly beat him? One former ironworker in eastern Wisconsin believes he can. Bryce, a blue collar […]
Lead the Way, Wisconsin
Wisconsin has a history of leading the nation in public policy discussion. According to Blue Jean Nation’s Mike McCabe, it’s time for Wisconsin to lead the way on healthcare reform. In this week’s Democracy Checkup, we talk healthcare and how the current conversation is falling short.
The Sky is Falling! Again!
The sky is falling! The sky is falling! – Chicken Little I honestly don’t know how many more times I have to write this story. First Trump proposes an interim budget, lasting through September, that defunds the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Then, Congress passes an interim budget that restores funding to the CPB. Now, […]
Congress Preserves the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, For Now
In a slap to the face of President Trump, a bipartisan Omnibus Appropriations bill was passed out of committee on Monday, May 1 and, among other things, preserves funding levels for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a lifeline to WORT. The spending bill that preserves funding until the end of September 2017 will soon […]
Framing John Boehner’s Resignation
Although the resignation of Speaker John Boehner of Ohio might have come across to some observers as abrupt, the departure of the House Republican leader was precipitated by a long career in government marked by political battles, the most recent of which manifested itself in publicly visible tension with some of the more conservative members […]