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