One-on-one interview with Tammy Baldwin at DNC
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina -- It's Tommy vs. Tammy in the heavyweight matchup for Wisconsin's open U.S. Senate seat -- as Republican former Governor Tommy Thompson and Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin battle for the seat. Last week, FOX6's Mike Lowe sat down with Thompson at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, and this week he spoke with Baldwin at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.
Baldwin is looking to make history by becoming the first woman ever elected in the history of Wisconsin. If that happens, she would also be the first openly gay Senator in U.S. history.
Baldwin says this election won't hinge on those issues. Instead, she says the focus will be on the economy.
"As Congress is debating what to do in response in to the financial meltdown, our duty and the duty going forward is to tell the American public this will never happen again, and I don't think we're quite there yet," Baldwin said.
FOX6's Mike Lowe: "Who is responsible for the economic crisis?"
"I look at several major factors.The Bush 2001, and Bush 2003 tax cuts were heavily weighted to the very wealthiest. That contained perverse incentive to outsource jobs. I look at two wars on the credit card -- that has trillions of dollars of impact. I look at an unfunded change in Medicare, for the sweetheart deal for the pharmaceutical companies. You just add up those five things that happened in the Bush years and you're talking really trillions of dollars," Baldwin said.
Mike Lowe: "The day President Obama was inaugurated, he also inherited a $1 trillion deficit and an economic crisis, so you have the looming fiscal crisis looming off in the distance with the debt and the deficit, and then you have the economic crisis -- credit markets that are frozen, and a recession basically in its infancy on day one. His solution was the stimulus package which was nearly $800 billion worth of spending. In retrospect was that the right solution?"
"You know, I think its saved us from going into a depression like what was experienced by our great grandparents," Baldwin said.
Mike Lowe: "There's a real sense that there's unfairness in this economy. To what extent do you see that unfairness and how do you solve it?"
"That's probably the major theme of my campaign for the United States Senate, because I think about the simple proposition that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to get ahead in this society. That's the American Dream. That's the dream of the middle class. Well, people are working hard, they're playing by the rules and they're not getting ahead. That's because we have two sets of rules," Baldwin said.
Mike Lowe: "Republicans last week were trying to make the case that it has been President Obama's polices that have kept us in the morass. How do you counter that?"
"I just think they're plain wrong," Baldwin said.
Baldwin said she wants to talk about how her vision for the economy would be better for the middle class than the Republicans when she addresses the Convention on Thursday night -- ahead of President Barack Obama.
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