Tammy Baldwin on the campaign trail.
Wisconsin's working families, at least those in WI-02, have had solid support from Rep. Tammy Baldwin since 1999. Now, she wants to represent all of the state's residents and is running for Senate. Daily Kos is more than happy to help, and to
endorse Tammy as an Orange to Blue candidate.
Tammy Baldwin's presence would definitely upgrade the Senate Democratic caucus, not to mention diversifying it just a tad. She's Congress's first out lesbian, and is co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. She's worked, uphill, leading efforts to advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and other civil rights initiatives. She signed onto Medicare for All all the way back in 2004, saying “We must form a health care for all movement that matches Martin Luther King’s movement for civil liberties." Hear, hear. And there's no question where her loyalties lie when it comes to income inequality. She made it very clear in her Senate announcement.
“Just like Herb Kohl, I’ve made standing up for the middle class my top priority,” she said. Baldwin touted her 1999 vote, along with Feingold and others, to oppose the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and separated commercial and investment banking. "It's time politicians looked out for seniors, working families and the middle class -- instead of protecting the profits of big oil and Wall Street,” Baldwin said.
She's also lead sponsor in the House for the Buffett Rule, the legislation that would ensure that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share.
You need only look at Baldwin's enemies to see that she's definitely a progressive threat. In what is generally a scary, massive $6 million ad buy by the Chamber of Commerce, $846,000 is targeted at Baldwin, even though the Republican primary won't be decided for another week. The ad takes aim at her opposition to the Republican agenda of repealing Obamacare and gutting health and safety regulations, what they call being anti-free enterprise and we call an excellent resume for the Senate.
Please, click here to give $3 to Tammy Baldwin on Act Blue.
Daily Kos Orange to Blue Questionnaire:
1. Do you support:
a) A public health insurance option, offered by the federal government and tied to Medicare reimbursement rates plus 5% (H.R. 3200, Subtitle B, including § 223(b)(1)(A), as introduced in the House, 111th Congress)?
Yes. I have long been a supporter of Health Care for all. It is the issue that brought me to Congress. In the fourteen years that I have served in the House of Representatives I have sponsored and cosponsored a variety of bills that would achieve that goal. In the 112th Congress I am a cosponsor of H.R. 191, which provides for a public option and sets reimbursement rates at Medicare plus 5% for the first three years, and allows HHS to set the rate thereafter.
b) The Medicare You Can Buy Into Act (H.R. 4789, 111th Congress), which would allow all citizens or permanent residents to buy into Medicare?
Yes, I cosponsored this legislation.
2. Do you agree that any immigration reform bill should:
a) Contain a meaningful path to citizenship — one that does not include overly-punitive fines or a touchback requirement — for law-abiding undocumented immigrants currently in the United States;
Yes.
b) Ensure that expanded legal permanent immigration, rather than expansion of temporary worker programs, serves as the United States' primary external answer to workforce shortages; and
Yes.
c) Ensure that any non-agricultural temporary worker programs maintain current caps on the total number of non-agricultural temporary worker visas issued, and also include a meaningful prevailing wage requirement keyed to the Service Contract Act and the Davis-Bacon Act?
Yes.
3. Do you oppose each of the following changes to Social Security and Medicare:
a) Raising the retirement age;
Yes.
b) Eliminating or reducing the cost of living adjustment;
Yes.
c) Directly reducing benefits;
Yes.
d) Means-testing recipients; and
Yes.
e) Privatization, so-called "personal accounts," and vouchers?
Yes.
4. Do you support the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1409/S. 560, 111th Congress), including the provision known as "card check"?
Yes, I was a cosponsor of this legislation.
5. Do you pledge to vote against any efforts to extend the temporary tax cuts for income over $250,000 (Public Law 111-312)?
I strongly support the President’s efforts to extend the tax cuts for working Americans on their first $250,000 of income. I oppose tax cuts on income above $250,000. In addition, I am the author of legislation in the House of Representatives to enact the “Buffett Rule” to ensure that they wealthiest Americans pay at least as high a tax rate as working families.
6. If elected to the Senate, do you pledge to restore majority rule to the Senate and work/vote to end the filibuster?
Yes.