Healthy discussion at listening session 
by Brian Wilson
The Star News
February 25, 2010 —  Healthcare, jobs, the environment and education were all discussion points in a wide-ranging listening session held by Sen. Russ Feingold at Medford Area Senior High School Friday afternoon.
Each year, since 1993 Feingold has held listening sessions in every county in the state. Friday’s session was the 25th of 2010 and the 1,249th since 1993. The sessions provide the opportunity for area residents to directly address issues to Feingold. More than a dozen area residents spoke at the meeting which ran just under an hour.
In each case, Feingold listened and directed comments back to those who asked the questions.
Healthcare was one of the big areas of discussion for both Feingold and the residents. With Dr. Mark Reuter, John Thurmaier and Dave Hemke calling on Feingold to continue the charge for healthcare reform in the senate.
“There has got to be something better than what we have now, because we have too many people going without,” Reuter said, noting that he was speaking on his own belief and not representing anyone else. “Having uninsured patients will bankrupt the system more than what it is now,” he said.
“A country that is as great as ours should not turn its back on insuring at the very minimum children,” Thurmaier said urging Feingold to stay the course on health care reform.
For his part, Feingold said he would continue to fight for health care reform. “At the last 10 listening sessions the majority of people say do something about health care,” he said. He noted that the day when the pubic option was defeated in the healthcare bill “there were huge celebrations on K Street in the offices of the insurance lobbyists because they knew they could keep ripping us off forever,” Feingold said.
He also noted the close connection between jobs and healthcare and said cleaning up the health care situation is one of the most important things Americans can do to help the jobs issue in this country.
On the jobs front, Cathy Danen, and assembly candidate Dana Schultz questioned what help the federal government would have coming on the jobs front. Feingold noted the senate was supposed to take up the jobs bill the week of the last snowstorm in Washington. “And it was a real snowstorm too,” he said, but they would be taking up the issue in the next week.
He also cautioned about the federal government stepping too much into the job creation area. “It is not the government’s job to create jobs,” he said noting that he was persuaded to support last year’s stimulus package because the government were the only ones able to step in and help out.
“You might have to use government sometime to prime the pump, but you don’t want to become the pump,” he said advocating instead the creation of job tax credits where employers have an incentive to add hours, wages or jobs and receive a credit.
On the environmental front, Feingold heard updates from residents of the Town of Little Black with the ongoing efforts to keep a 4,000 cow concentrated animal feeding operation out of the area because of environmental and water use concerns. The representatives asked for more efforts to be done to protect groundwater.
“That sounds like something that should be in properly written state legislation,” Feingold said, calling on a staff member present to take a note to contact Spencer Black in the Wisconsin State Assembly to see what is being done on that front.
In response to calls for more to be done at the federal, level Feingold noted it was typically left up to the states and cautioned about the power of corporations in Washington. “It makes me nervous to have federal government deal with this because it could make things much worse,” he said.
Mike Schaefer of Taylor Electric Cooperative raised concerns about the Cap and Trade legislation and about the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to regulate carbon dioxide.
“I think we need to do something about the climate change issues, but the house bill that was passed isn’t fair to Wisconsin,” he said expressing concern about what the wrong bill will do to heat and electricity prices in Wisconsin.
“We understand coal has to be part of it — those of us from midwestern coal states, we are not buying the bill as it passed the house,” he said adding that he would look into a proposal to keep the EPA from enacting a carbon dioxide rule on its own.
On the education front, Robert Rusch, a member of the Rib Lake School Board, raised the concern about the “Race to the Top” education program.
“It will produce $15,000 per year for four years if we accept the program, the school board at this point is seriously considering rejecting the funding because we suspect there will be a net loss to the district,” he said. Instead Rusch proposed the government “build the base” to support the programs already in place instead of creating new programs.
Feingold said he was opposed to blanket one-size fits all approaches to education and said he found Rusch’s suggestion to be “very useful” noting that it was the first time he had heard concerns about the Race to the Top program.

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