MADISON, WI – Last night, U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02) joined MSNBC’s The Weekend Primetime with Ayman Mohyeldin, Antonia Hylton, and Elise Jordan to discuss the GOP Shutdown, rising healthcare costs, and Trump’s recent executive order attacking free speech.
Click here to watch the full interview, and findexcerpts of Rep. Pocan’s remarks below.
Rep. Pocan on Furloughed Federal WorkersI’m so impressed with our federal workforce. They are trying to work in these awful environments. Since January, we’ve seen the Project 2025 playbook every single day going into place, and a big part of that is to fire many, many people in the federal workforce. And they’re trying to use this now as a Trojan horse, or maybe it’s a Trumpian horse, in order to try to claim this is the reason… This is all Donald Trump, Russ Vought, and Project 2025. It’s nothing that people are asking for in my district. In fact, it’s quite the opposite of what people are asking for. Federal employees like Jenna and so many others are going to be hurt, and many people will eventually realize that these federal services matter. We’re fighting quite honestly on the issue of healthcare, because in the Big Ugly Law, 15 million people may lose healthcare, but also all of us will have increased rates, and that’s what this fight’s really about.
Rep. Pocan on Cuts to HealthcareThis is about healthcare. Because of the Big Ugly Law, there’s a half a trillion dollar cut to Medicare that rarely gets talked about. That’s going to affect every single person. With the cuts to people on Medicaid that happen after next year’s elections, but more importantly right now, the losing of the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, 22 million people are going to see their health insurance affected, but we’re all going to see increased rates out of this. For people on the Affordable Care Act, I’m told by the Kaiser Family Foundation in my district, a 60-year-old couple making $85,000 a year will see a $16,000 increase in their healthcare next year because of what the Republicans did. So, this is a fight for Medicare. This is a fight for Medicaid. This is a fight for the tax credits for people. And this is a fight against rising rates for every single one of us. Democrats are solid. This is a fight worth having, and I’m just so impressed that the federal employees like Jenna get this as well. They know what’s happening, and they’re standing with the American people to make sure that we don’t have these problems in healthcare.
Rep. Pocan on Trump’s Authoritarian GovernmentI feel like I’m watching a movie by George Orwell as I see this signed into action. This is up to them how they interpret what “anti-American” is, what “anti-Christianity” is, what “anti-capitalist” is, and it’s all in this guise of going after “Antifa,” which is nothing. There’s no organization called “Antifa.” But this is part of the talking points that the Republicans have to try to take away our free speech rights and other rights that we’ve seen in some American cities. But now they’re gonna go after groups based on these loose definitions that Donald Trump himself decides. So Jared Huffman from California, Pramila Jayapal from Washington, and I just started circulating a letter among members of Congress. We’re trying to put a stop to this. Donald Trump throws a lot of spaghetti on the wall, and this piece hasn’t been noticed, and we really got to make sure people understand that their rights and freedoms are at risk if we don’t have more people know what he signed.
