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By Ryan Ekvall | Wisconsin Reporter
MILWAUKEE — Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin touched on myriad topics related to fixing the economy Tuesday, but she failed to note her votes approving federal budgets that added trillions to the debt.
The Madison Democrat, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by long-serving Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Milwaukee, spoke to a business-friendly crowd at a Rotary Club-sponsored luncheon here.
Baldwin said it’s vital to reduce annual deficits — in the $1.5 trillion range— and the $16 trillion debt without “impeding growth” during the tepid recovery.
U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin
Baldwin, who holds one of the more liberal voting records in Congress during her seven terms, said Republicans during the President George W. Bush’s administration charged two unfunded wars and a prescription drug program on America’s credit card. She voted to authorize the use of military force in Afghanistan, was against the War in Iraq and voted no to the prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients, according to her website.
Baldwin said she would help alleviate some federal spending by “pushing for an end of engagement in Afghanistan.”
Like many candidates on both sides of the aisle, Baldwin called for the need of “a fair playing field” in international trade, and said she would support tariffs on Chinese goods benefiting from government subsidies.
Baldwin again criticized fellow Wisconsin congressman and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan‘s Path to Prosperity budget proposal, saying it would “end Medicare as we know it for future generations.”
Ryan and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney have countered the plan aims to save Medicare, a massive government entitlement program facing the possibility of insolvency in the next decade or so.
“I think Medicare is not just a program, but a promise,” Baldwin said, adding that because the Supreme Court has upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Republicans and Democrats should come together to determine how best to implement the health-care law.
She attacked her Senate opponent, former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, for his full fledged support of Ryan’s budget and campaign to fight the Affordable Care Act.
Thompson was set to campaign in Milwaukee later Tuesday.
Contact Ekvall @rekvall@wisconsinreporter.com
