MONROE - U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district returned to the state for a month-long recess, visiting communities throughout the district to gain information and take note of issues important to residents.
Here are some thoughts he expressed on a variety of issues Wednesday in Monroe:
Infrastructure
"A big problem we have right now in the state is we have the fourth worst roads in the nation, according to national reports, because Scott Walker's been unwilling to put additional money into our roads and bridges. There's a fight right now going on in the legislature around that. Most of that funding, because the federal bill is done, that goes for years into the future, it's the state funding. But beyond that, we're talking about broader infrastructure needs, which is at the federal level. ... I think we'd just like to see a big new investment in infrastructure, which would include roads and bridges, schools, broadband, water delivery systems and other things. From that perspective, you could certainly argue we could do a lot more. In fact, one of the interesting stats is that one in every six bridges in this country is old enough to be eligible for Medicare. Certainly, we could do more, we'd like to do more. We would just like to see a real investment in what has kind of been ignored for all too long at a massive, national level."
Health care
"One of the significant reasons we've seen spikes in health care costs have been because of prescription drug prices. A lot of the things people have wanted to do for a long time, that would make common sense for most people, haven't happened, like letting us negotiate for cheaper drug prices. In the U.S., we have one of the highest drug prices on the planet. If you compare us to, for example, Canada or Ireland or other places you think would be very comparable, you can pay up to 20 times less for a drug. We pick up an undue burden. ... If we're as taxpayers paying for the research, why should they continue to make money off of it later? It's one of those things if you're really going to address some of the health care concerns, you've gotta lower health care costs, and this is an area I would argue has largely gone unchecked."
Presidential transition
"One would be health care clearly. The bills that have been brought forward so far by Republicans in Congress are going to drop tens of millions of people nationally, but we've seen some of the Wisconsin-specific numbers and hundreds of thousands of people would lose access to health insurance and that's of concern, obviously. If we went back to the battle days, pre-(Affordable Care Act), people would go bankrupt if they got sick and people wouldn't get the care when they needed it. ... Two, I'm on the appropriations committee, I deal with the budget a lot. We've seen a lot of really tough cuts that the president proposed and some that the Republicans continued that would be bad for Wisconsin; everything from education to health care to apprenticeship grants completely zeroed out to help people get jobs and skills."
Future outlook
"I would have to say I'm concerned. I have great concern because of the direction with the White House mainly, although I've been very disappointed in Paul Ryan as the speaker. Last year, he stood up to the president rightfully so, as he should have and put his country before his party. This year, unfortunately, he seems to roll over and let the president rub his belly a lot. It's not exactly the position I'd like to see come from the speaker of the house. ... The president quite honestly doesn't know how to govern. We're having a lot of rough spots. Just this week he went out and threatened nuclear weapons, which is something you shouldn't take lightly if you're president, and he took it incredibly lightly while on vacation. There's a lot of checks and balances in the system when he puts out some bad ideas, but when he puts out a tweet at 4:30 in the morning, and Kim Jong Un decides he doesn't like it, that may be a genie you can't put back in the bottle. I've got a lot of concerns. He's not governing in a way that's responsible as any previous president in any previous party. It's a difficult time in Congress for that."
Here are some thoughts he expressed on a variety of issues Wednesday in Monroe:
Infrastructure
"A big problem we have right now in the state is we have the fourth worst roads in the nation, according to national reports, because Scott Walker's been unwilling to put additional money into our roads and bridges. There's a fight right now going on in the legislature around that. Most of that funding, because the federal bill is done, that goes for years into the future, it's the state funding. But beyond that, we're talking about broader infrastructure needs, which is at the federal level. ... I think we'd just like to see a big new investment in infrastructure, which would include roads and bridges, schools, broadband, water delivery systems and other things. From that perspective, you could certainly argue we could do a lot more. In fact, one of the interesting stats is that one in every six bridges in this country is old enough to be eligible for Medicare. Certainly, we could do more, we'd like to do more. We would just like to see a real investment in what has kind of been ignored for all too long at a massive, national level."
Health care
"One of the significant reasons we've seen spikes in health care costs have been because of prescription drug prices. A lot of the things people have wanted to do for a long time, that would make common sense for most people, haven't happened, like letting us negotiate for cheaper drug prices. In the U.S., we have one of the highest drug prices on the planet. If you compare us to, for example, Canada or Ireland or other places you think would be very comparable, you can pay up to 20 times less for a drug. We pick up an undue burden. ... If we're as taxpayers paying for the research, why should they continue to make money off of it later? It's one of those things if you're really going to address some of the health care concerns, you've gotta lower health care costs, and this is an area I would argue has largely gone unchecked."
Presidential transition
"One would be health care clearly. The bills that have been brought forward so far by Republicans in Congress are going to drop tens of millions of people nationally, but we've seen some of the Wisconsin-specific numbers and hundreds of thousands of people would lose access to health insurance and that's of concern, obviously. If we went back to the battle days, pre-(Affordable Care Act), people would go bankrupt if they got sick and people wouldn't get the care when they needed it. ... Two, I'm on the appropriations committee, I deal with the budget a lot. We've seen a lot of really tough cuts that the president proposed and some that the Republicans continued that would be bad for Wisconsin; everything from education to health care to apprenticeship grants completely zeroed out to help people get jobs and skills."
Future outlook
"I would have to say I'm concerned. I have great concern because of the direction with the White House mainly, although I've been very disappointed in Paul Ryan as the speaker. Last year, he stood up to the president rightfully so, as he should have and put his country before his party. This year, unfortunately, he seems to roll over and let the president rub his belly a lot. It's not exactly the position I'd like to see come from the speaker of the house. ... The president quite honestly doesn't know how to govern. We're having a lot of rough spots. Just this week he went out and threatened nuclear weapons, which is something you shouldn't take lightly if you're president, and he took it incredibly lightly while on vacation. There's a lot of checks and balances in the system when he puts out some bad ideas, but when he puts out a tweet at 4:30 in the morning, and Kim Jong Un decides he doesn't like it, that may be a genie you can't put back in the bottle. I've got a lot of concerns. He's not governing in a way that's responsible as any previous president in any previous party. It's a difficult time in Congress for that."