Eau Claire Hosts Senator Tammy Baldwin for Medicaid Roundtable

Eau Claire residents and healthcare workers met with Senator Tammy Baldwin at Marshfield Medical Center on Tuesday for a Medicaid roundtable.

Attendees for Senator Baldwin’s “Hands Off Medicaid Tour” shared their own personal experiences with Medicaid, both as recipients and for helping family members who rely on the services provided through the program. Senator Baldwin is traveling the state this week in an effort to push back on potential cuts to Medicaid.

A budget resolution recently passed by the House of Representatives and Senate before being signed by President Donald Trump calls for significant funding cuts to mandatory spending programs. While the resolution did not specifically name programs like Medicaid, an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office found that the proposed spending reduction goals would not be possible to achieve without slashing it.

Those proposed cuts have prompted strong opposition from voters on both sides of the aisle. Following the Eau Claire roundtable, Senator Baldwin said “Today we heard the stories of individuals and families that rely on Medicaid as a lifeline for the care that they need or that their children need. I am so proud of their courage in speaking out because right now we are in a huge fight at the federal level to protect Medicaid against Republican efforts to slash it to the tune of $880 billion.”

Democrats have limited options for opposing those proposed cuts, with Republicans controlling Congress and the Executive Branch.

Asked what the most realistic path to protecting those programs is, Senator Baldwin called on a handful of her Republican colleagues to help. “I’m asking my Republican colleagues to have courage. To think about the oath of office they took to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States, against all enemies foreign or domestic, and to do some soul-searching.”