President Trump’s Budget Proposal: Gutting Safety Net for Wisconsin Workers to Pay for Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

President Trump releases budget proposal outlining continued cuts to programs helping Wisconsin’s middle class, while boosting billionaires and big corporations  

MADISON, Wis. — Today, President Donald Trump released his 2021 budget that will serve as a roadmap for his allies in Congress over the coming year, and into the future. President Trump’s proposal significantly slashes programs and services that support Wisconsin workers such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, while shifting these funds to help foot the bill for his tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected.  
The proposal cements this administration’s track record of tax cuts and giveaways for the wealthy. The president’s budget calls for an additional $1.4 trillion to extend the tax cuts for the wealthy to 2035, which nonpartisan economic experts agree will disproportionately benefit the wealthy. 

Trump plans to pay for these tax cuts for the wealthy by continuing to slash safety net programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — today’s proposal outlines $2 trillion in cuts to these programs. Experts anticipate these cuts would lead to a reduction in both benefits and the number of people enrolled in the Medicaid program. 

“Over the past three years we have seen the devastating impacts of President Trump’s economic agenda across Wisconsin,” said Kirk Bangstad, Opportunity Wisconsin Steering Committee member. “As a small business owner, I know that budgets are a reflection of your priorities and your values. This proposal from President Trump is no different, as it continues to demonstrate he does not value our friends and neighbors struggling to make ends meet, and instead prioritizes the same big businesses that have already wreaked havoc on workers across the Badger State.”  

Under the 2017 tax law championed by President Trump and his allies, 1 in 4 Wisconsinites will ultimately see a tax increase. The tax law also drastically reduced the corporate income tax rate, providing a massive windfall for large corporations. Instead of the benefits trickling down to workers, companies like Wisconsin’s own Kimberly-Clark enriched their shareholders while laying off 74 workers in Neenah and shutting down a once profitable plant.  

About Opportunity Wisconsin Opportunity Wisconsin is a coalition of Wisconsin residents fighting for an economy that works for working people. Through our stories, we’re elevating the real consequences of the destructive economic policies championed by President Trump and his allies these past three years, and showing how they have made Wisconsin’s economy worse off. Join us in demanding our elected officials focus more on growing the economy for middle class folks and expanding opportunity for all Wisconsinites, not just the wealthy few. To learn more about Opportunity Wisconsin, visit OpportunityWisconsin.org or stay connected on Twitter at @OpportunityWI and on Facebook at Facebook.com/OpportunityWI.
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Working Wisconsinites Will Be Watching Tonight

Tonight, President Trump will deliver his third State of the Union address. For Wisconsinites like us, the stakes couldn't be higher. Over the past three years, Wisconsin has seen a record number of family farms file for bankruptcy, longtime manufacturers lay off workers or shutter their plants altogether, wages remain stagnant, and health care costs continue to climb. Here in Wisconsin, President Trump has a lot of explaining to do.

In 2016, Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Wisconsin in more than 30 years. Wisconsinites, who had seen our state’s economy weakened by the loss of manufacturing jobs—once a mainstay in the Badger State—were drawn to Trump by his promise to bring industry and jobs back to the upper midwest. 

But now that he’s president, Wisconsinites have seen that Trump’s rhetoric was nothing more than empty campaign promises. In fact, the economic policies championed by the Trump administration and his allies in Congress have actively hurt Wisconsin working families’ bottom line. 

Take the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act - a law that promised tax relief for the middle class, but instead delivered major tax breaks to big corporations and the already wealthy. Now, workers here in Wisconsin are still facing skyrocketing living costs, and wages that are not keeping up. Folks are working multiple jobs, saving every penny, cutting corners where possible, and still struggling to make ends meet.   

This massive tax giveaway for big corporations was supposed to “trickle down” to workers. But if you ask around in our communities, that benefit is nowhere to be found. Instead, companies are using their tax breaks to enrich their shareholders and executives — Wisconsin’s own Kimberly-Clark used their tax cut to fund plant closures and lay off 74 employees in Neenah. By the time the law is fully phased in, 1 in 4 Wisconsinites will pay more in taxes while the wealthiest 1 percent will see a tax cut. 

Many anticipate that President Trump will use his State of the Union tonight to say his first tax cut helped working families and that more sweeping tax cuts for the wealthy are needed. But for workers here in Wisconsin, more trickle down is not the answer. 

To add insult to injury, President Trump also blocked a federal minimum wage increase for Wisconsin workers, a move that denied more than 800,000 of our family, friends and neighbors a pay increase. Many of these same workers are now facing sky-high debts and are being forced to decide between daily necessities like food and medicine just to survive. In 2017, 22 percent of Wisconsin residents stopped taking the prescription drugs they need because the costs were too high. Tonight, Wisconsin families expect to hear how President Trump is going to take meaningful, bipartisan action to curb the rising prescription drug costs, not launch another campaign to take health care coverage away.

Wisconsinites can’t afford any more of President Trump’s economic policies. His trade wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and cozy relationships with Wall Street have led many Wisconsinites to fall further and further behind. Tonight, Wisconsin families want to hear how the President is going to fight for them, not the 1 percent.

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This op-ed originally appeared in the Cap Times.

Kirk Bangstad, Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company; Opportunity Wisconsin Steering Committee

Anna Landmark, Co-Owner and Cheesemaker, Landmark Creamery; Opportunity Wisconsin Steering Committee  

Chantia Lewis, President, My Lewis Company.; Alderwoman, City of Milwaukee; Opportunity Wisconsin Steering Committee   

Mark Westphal, Industrial Electrician, Essity Tissue Corporation; President, Fox Valley Labor Council; Opportunity Wisconsin Steering Committee

WPR: New Group Seeks To Tell Stories Of Struggle In Wisconsin's Rural Towns

A new progressive group wants to tell stories of how the economy is failing working people in Wisconsin. It's part of a broader push among liberal political groups and donors to try to get their message out ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Anna Landmark is part of the steering committee for Opportunity Wisconsin, a group which has its official launch Thursday. She's co-owner of Landmark Creamery, a small cheesemaker headquartered in Paoli, southwest of Madison. She said she wanted to join the advocacy group after seeing the way the dairy crisis hit farmers across the state and in southwestern Wisconsin in particular.

"It's been really painful watching what’s been happening and … watching all these small farms going under," Landmark said.

Throughout 2019, she said, she regularly fielded calls from dairy farmers desperate to find a new buyer for their milk. 

"It was kind of heartbreaking to have to say, 'I'm sorry, I can't buy any more milk at this point,'" she said. For small farmers, "there's so much that we could be doing."

Landmark hopes Opportunity Wisconsin can help to highlight those farmers' stories, as well as the stories of workers who’ve faced layoffs or are working multiple jobs to stay afloat. Opportunity Wisconsin plans to host listening sessions and roundtable discussions in different parts of the state. They'll help members write op-eds and letters to the editor, and try to build a grassroots campaign through organizing and social media.

Opportunity Wisconsin is not directly focused on the 2020 elections right now, Landmark said, "but there is an opportunity for us to educate the public. We're seizing an opportune window."

The nonprofit organization is officially nonpartisan, and an Opportunity Wisconsin spokesperson declined to release information about its donors. But it's clearly situated on the left side of the political spectrum, with a focus on critiques of the Trump administration's tax and trade policies. It's one of a number of new liberal groups ramping up ahead of the 2020 elections, where Wisconsin is expected to be a crucial swing state.

"We're just going to be inundated by (political) spending," said Matt Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. 

Some of that will come from campaigns and outside advocacy groups in the form of political ads and mailers. Increasingly, though, Rothschild said both sides of the political spectrum are trying to create their own media infrastructure, too.

Conservatives have long dominated the commercial talk radio airwaves. In Wisconsin, conservative organizations help to fund right-wing news online as well at outlets such as the MacIver Institute. Another conservative Wisconsin outlet, Right Wisconsin, is ad-supported. In recent months, though, two new online news outlets with left-wing ties in Wisconsin have launched: the Wisconsin Examiner and Up North News. 

"Frankly," said Rothschild, a former editor of The Progressive magazine, "it's taken forever for left-wing donors to recognize the importance of competing in the media arena."

A widening division between right-wing and left-wing media raises concerns, Rothschild said, if there aren't shared spaces for open debate. But having more voices and more outlets in Wisconsin’s conversation, he said, can be a good thing.

Landmark said she's concerned about the affect a decline in newspaper journalists has had on rural areas in Wisconsin, which may find there are fewer chances to have their stories heard.

"I want to tell what's happening in our rural places," she said.

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Story originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

New Advocacy Campaign, Opportunity Wisconsin, is Fighting for an Economy That Works for Working People

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2020                                                                            

MEDIA CONTACT                                                                        
press@opportunitywisconsin.org                                                         

New Advocacy Campaign, Opportunity Wisconsin, is Fighting for an Economy That Works for Working People

Opportunity Wisconsin aims to inform Wisconsinites about the destructive economic policies championed by President Trump

MADISON, Wis. — Today, a growing coalition of working Wisconsinites launched Opportunity Wisconsin, a statewide issue advocacy campaign focused on highlighting the impact President Trump’s economic agenda has had on everyday Wisconsinites. Over the past three years, the Trump administration’s policies have actively hurt the Badger State by putting Wall Street first and leaving working and middle-class Wisconsinites behind. Opportunity Wisconsin will focus on sharing the personal stories from people across the state who are worse off because of these economic policies.

Over the coming months, the Opportunity Wisconsin coalition will continue to grow. Initial members of the group’s Steering Committee include:

• Kirk Bangstad, Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company

• Anna Landmark, Co-Owner and Cheesemaker, Landmark Creamery 

• Chantia Lewis, President, My Lewis Company.; Alderwoman, City of Milwaukee 

• Maiyoua Thao, Vice President, Tongxeng Homecare, LLC

• Mark Westphal, Industrial Electrician, Essity Tissue Corporation; President, Fox Valley Labor Council 

“With a record number of family farms facing bankruptcies, Wisconsin’s farmers are hurting enough as it is. Whether it’s the no-winners trade war or elected officials playing politics with our livelihoods, we can’t afford this continued uncertainty,” said Anna Landmark. “Unfortunately, the president's economic policies aren’t helping this uncertainty. Between rigging the tax code in favor of the wealthiest, and getting rid of the rules that kept big banks from discriminating against and harassing borrowers, it doesn’t seem like our leaders in Washington have working Wisconsin’s interests first.”  

Under the 2017 tax law championed by President Trump and his allies, 1 in 4 Wisconsinites will ultimately see a tax increase.  The tax law also drastically reduced the corporate income tax rate, providing a massive windfall for large corporations. Instead of the benefits trickling down to workers, companies like Wisconsin’s own Kimberly-Clark enriched their shareholders while laying off 74 workers in Neenah and shutting down a once profitable plant.  

“Between rising housing costs, wages not keeping up with the cost of living, and nearly non-existent benefits, too many folks in Milwaukee and around the state are just barely getting by,” said Chantia Lewis. “As a local elected official, I need a partner in Washington who is going to help grow our economy and support the economic engines of our state. Unfortunately, the president’s economic policies aren’t doing that.”  

Wages have been stagnant in Wisconsin for decades — adjusted for inflation, the median wage in Wisconsin has only risen 73 cents since 1979. Instead of giving hard working Wisconsinites a boost, President Trump blocked a federal minimum wage increase, a move that denied more than 800,000 Badger State residents a pay increase and resulted in $3 billion in lost wages. 

“As a small business owner in northern Wisconsin, many of my customers and neighbors were excited about the prospect of a president that promised to bring jobs back to our part of the state. Instead, all we have to show for the last three years are depressed wages and increased economic anxiety.“  said Kirk Bangstad. “The bottom line is that policies like the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act have actively hurt us. It's time our leaders in Washington put Wisconsin families over Wall Street when deciding their economic priorities.”

Opportunity Wisconsin will be launching on-the-ground efforts the week of February 10, with statewide events highlighting the damage President Trump’s economic policies have caused for working Wisconsinites. These events will be advised to the media and open to the press. 

To learn more about Opportunity Wisconsin, visit OpportunityWisconsin.org or stay connected on Twitter at @OpportunityWI and on Facebook at Facebook.com/OpportunityWI.

Interested media wishing to interview members of the Opportunity Wisconsin Steering Committee should email press@opportunitywisconsin.org. 

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