Last week, I was immensely frustrated when I heard Sen. Tammy Baldwin endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposal for government-run health care — deceptively titled “Medicare for All.”
At its core, Sanders’ proposed legislation runs contrary to our American values of free markets and personal liberty. And, unfortunately, it is hardly the first time Baldwin has supported ultra-liberal policies in Washington while she pretends she’s one of us here in Wisconsin.
Let’s be clear: “Medicare for All,” which would establish a single-payer — or entirely government-controlled — health care program, is one of the most extreme left-wing pieces of legislation ever introduced in the U.S. Senate. It’s more extreme than Obamacare. It’s so extreme that both Senate and House Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are opposed to it.
Yet Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin is wholeheartedly embracing this legislation the same way she embraced Obamacare, amnesty for illegal immigrants, massive tax increases and countless other policies that have real-life negative effects in Wisconsin.
As a nurse, I know a thing or two about the American health care system. I’ve seen firsthand, both in personal experience and by talking to voters across this state, the effects of implementing health care legislation drawn up by government central planners.
And of course, Sanders and Baldwin never want to answer the most fundamental question: How are we going to pay for all of this? Here’s their answer: an enormous tax increase.
In 2016, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders proposed to pay for it with a tax hike of $1.4 trillion per year. That’s not a typo. His plan has an annual $1.4 trillion price tag, at a time when our nation is running up a national debt of $20 trillion, and that’s just what is paid for by a new tax hike on all Americans. Sanders even wanted a new tax on employers as well.
This isn’t what’s best for Wisconsin, and we need a senator who recognizes that.
I’ve been proud to roll up my sleeves and work with Gov. Walker in the state Senate where we’ve implemented real, conservative reforms to our health insurance markets that are improving lives and making a difference. Senator Ron Johnson needs an ally to fight back against schemes like this in the Senate and do what’s best for Wisconsin. Government-run health care isn’t the Wisconsin Way. It’s the Bernie Way.
Last November, voters sent a clear message to members of the swamp like Baldwin and the rest of the liberal Democratic elite. While they may run the show in Brooklyn and San Francisco, they were rejected in the Badger State.
Over the coming months, I look forward to continuing the conversation with Wisconsinites about the conservative reforms I have in mind to get our nation back on track. We did it right here in Wisconsin, and we can do it in the U.S. Senate — we just need the right person there fighting for us.
Leah Vukmir is a nurse, military mom and state senator from Brookfield, Wis. She is a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018.
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