MADISON, Wis. — Since announcing his run for governor, Tom Tiffany has been desperately avoiding questions on his plans for Wisconsin and new reporting from CBS58 shows why—Tiffany doesn’t have one. Recently, Tiffany used a flimsy excuse to duck the first candidate forum on the economy as Wisconsinites struggle under unpopular Tiffany-backed tariff policies and cost-of-living soars for working people. On Wednesday, he briefly appeared for a rare press conference just hours before he voted for a House funding bill that gutted ACA funding and will lead to skyrocketing health care premiums for up to 300,000 Wisconsinites.
“Tom Tiffany has been in politics for decades and somehow still doesn’t have a plan for Wisconsin,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Emily Stuckey. “The only plan Tom Tiffany has been able to follow is the DC playbook of passing trillions in tax cuts for billionaires like Elon Musk at the expense of Wisconsin families.”
CBS58: As shutdown ends, Baldwin willing to ‘play hardball’ on healthcare tax credits while Tiffany says ACA ‘clearly not working’
By: A.J Bayatpour
In Wisconsin, a little more than 270,000 people are receiving some form of the ACA tax credits. According to figures shared by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the state Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, a 60-year-old in Milwaukee making $63,000 a year would have to pay $2,100 more per month for an ACA Silver Plan.
If the House does vote on extending the tax credits, GOP Congressman Tom Tiffany won’t be supporting it. Tiffany, who’s running for governor, was in Milwaukee to accept the endorsement from the city’s police union.
“Look at the ACA at this point. It’s clearly not working,” Tiffany said. “Look at the massive subsidies that are going almost exclusively to health insurance companies at this point.”
Tiffany said rather than make the healthcare debate about whether the tax credits should continue, Republicans should consider the ACA as a whole. A CBS 58 reporter asked why Republicans don’t already have a plan to replace the ACA, since they’ve slammed the law for the nearly 16 years it’s been in place.
“That’s a great question,” Tiffany said. “Unfortunately, it has not been done, but no time like the present, right?”
Nancy Peske, a freelance editor from Milwaukee, said at the Baldwin event the ACA is working for her in ways health insurance previously did not. Having been diagnosed with breast cancer, Peske, 63, said the tax credits were saving her a substantial amount of money.
“I cannot afford $1,165 more a month,” she said. “And I cannot afford to have my cancer come back; it was Stage 3.”
