EDGERTON — Count Sen. Tammy Baldwin as a “maybe” on supporting a single-payer health insurance proposal.
“Ultimately, I’ll look at the bill when it comes in, but I anticipate I will (support it),” the Wisconsin Democrat told reporters Thursday. “It’s been a long position of mine, and frankly, it’s really time that we address this partisan nonsense that’s been going on.”
…isn’t Senator Baldwin the member of a governmental body in which she can write and submit bills herself? Why does she have to “look at the bill when it comes in”? Can’t she write her own?
Senator Tammy Baldwin is one of 23 lawmakers calling for increased TSA funding to help alleviate long wait times at airports.
“Recent reports indicate that some TSA security lines have stretched for several hours, in extreme cases, causing individuals to miss their flights. Security is absolutely paramount and these long wait times indicate not only a discomfort to our constituents, but more importantly a severe lack of security resources at some of the busiest airports in the country,” the lawmakers wrote. “For this reason, we urge continued funding to ensure TSA has an adequate number of staff and resources to meet the needs of the traveling public.”
The funding would increase staffing levels, reinforce screenings, and expand security programs to ensure passenger safety.
This is a typical liberal government response. We have an agency that is failing in one of its core missions, so what does Baldwin want to do? Throw more of our money at them! Baldwin wants to reward the TSA’s poor performance with budget increases. Why? Because it gives the politician the cover that she “did something” without actually doing the hard work of taking corrective action.
If Baldwin gets her wish, the TSA will simply continue to fail while spending more money. The money isn’t the problem, so more of it can’t fix it. The problem is the leadership and policies at the TSA.
“Certainly the first amendment says that in institutions of faith that there is absolute power to, you know, to observe deeply held religious beliefs. But I don’t think it extends far beyond that.”
Notice that she extends the right to exercise religion to religious institutions and not to individuals. The last time I checked, the Bill of Rights enumerates and protects individual rights – not institutional rights.
You always have to be wary about complaints from fired employees, but the accusations in the complaint are very specific and there is a lot of documentation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A former state director for U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has filed an ethics complaint against the Wisconsin Democrat saying Baldwin placed blame about problems at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center on her.
Marquette Baylor, who was fired in January, in the complaint filed Monday said Baldwin used her as a scapegoat in the office’s mishandling of reports of overprescribing of narcotics and retaliatory behavior at the hospital.
Baldwin in February said Baylor was terminated due to long term performance issues that weren’t exclusive to her dealing with concerns about the hospital. Baldwin later admitted responsibility for her staff’s mishandling of reports.
“I am in a very detailed and careful fashion, comprehensive fashion, seeking to understand everything that happened in my office in terms of the handling of a whistleblower case,” the Madison Democrat said. “And I will have lots more to say when we come to the end of that process.”
It was the first time she has answered questions about the issue since USA TODAYreported January 19 that her office got the report in August but didn’t do anything with it, despite repeated emails from a former Tomah employee in November and December asking her to investigate. Baldwin didn’t call for an investigation until last month, when news reports revealed a veteran died from an overdose as an inpatient in the Tomah facility in August.
Baldwin did not indicate when her internal review will be completed, saying only “as soon as we can.”
How long should a review like this take? The facts are pretty simple. Baldwin was contacted about the issues in Tomah and didn’t do anything. Either a staffer or Baldwin herself decided not to look into it. This “investigation” should take about 5 minutes and it’s already been almost a month and a half.
Furthermore, Balwin fired a staffer presumably because of this. In the process, that staffer got a great severance package, which is odd if she was fired for cause. Why was that action taken if an investigation had not already been completed?
This isn’t about investigation. It’s about delay and cover up.
A whistleblower who learned in November that Baldwin had had a copy for months and hadn’t acted, repeatedly emailed her office asking that she do something to help the veterans at the center, according to copies of the emails obtained by USA TODAY.
In them the whistleblower — former Tomah VA employee Ryan Honl — asked that Baldwin call for an investigation, that she push colleagues on the Veterans Affairs committee to take action, and that she help bring the issues in the report to public attention. The report had not been made public, but Baldwin’s office received a copy in August.
When she still had not taken public action in December, Honl sent a message to her staffer with the subject line: “Final plea for Help from Senator Baldwin.”
“All we ask is that our senator publicly support our desire to have an open forum rather than remain silent publicly, which is what the VA does in hiding reports from the public,” Honl wrote.
Honl, a Gulf War vet and West Point graduate who left the Tomah facility in October, said in an interview Monday he believes Baldwin’s inaction after receiving the report is a “travesty.”
Baldwin’s office declined to explain what she did between receiving the report in August and last week, when she called for an investigation after the Center for Investigative Reporting published details of the inspection report outlining opiate prescription amounts at the center and recounting the overdose death in August of a 35-year-old Marine Corps veteran while he was an inpatient.
