Senator Baldwin Calls Out Trump’s Disastrous Shutdown

Summary

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The MeidasTouch Podcast

Episode: Senator Baldwin Calls Out Trump’s Disastrous Shutdown
Date: October 12, 2025
Host: MeidasTouch Network (Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas)
Guest: Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the escalating consequences of the Donald Trump-initiated government shutdown, particularly focusing on threats to health care access, financial instability for working Americans, and the adverse impact on farmers and small businesses. The Meiselas brothers use a mix of humor, outrage, and detailed policy talk to break down Trump’s erratic messaging around the shutdown, expose Republican legislative maneuvers, and feature a candid, insightful interview with Senator Tammy Baldwin about real-world impacts in Wisconsin.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Erratic Messaging and Blame Shifting (00:00 – 04:17)

• The brothers open with an overview of former President Trump’s contradictory and aggressive language regarding the government shutdown, including threats to federal workers and misleading claims about budgeting.
• Trump and his allies, including “MAGA Mike” Johnson and Senator Thune, are blamed for creating and perpetuating the shutdown to “take away people’s health care.”
• Notable Quote:
  “He’s back to the threatening: ‘We will destroy the lives of federal workers, we will inflict pain, but our budget will be balanced.’”
  — Ben (Host 1), [00:51]
• Trump’s bizarre public statements, including calling the shutdown a “kamikaze attack,” are played and mocked.
• The brothers note the disconnect between Trump’s lavish imagery and the suffering of regular Americans:
  “I mean, the gold everywhere, it looks cheesy, it looks gross. Everything our country should be against, in poor taste as he’s talking about inflicting pain on the American people.”
  — Ben (Host 1), [01:29]

2. The Real-World Impact: Interview with Senator Tammy Baldwin (04:17 – 14:49)

Health Care Crisis in Wisconsin (and Beyond)

• Senator Baldwin describes how the expiration of Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits will cause millions—including hundreds of thousands in Wisconsin—to lose health coverage.
• She shares stories from constituents, including Kara, a small business owner running a nonprofit childcare center, whose ability to insure herself and her employees is at risk.
• Notable Quote:
  “These are small businesses, these are farmers. These are the backbones of our communities. And they are disproportionately, by the way, in states and congressional districts that voted for Donald Trump.”
  — Sen. Baldwin, [04:52]
• Premiums are set to skyrocket for many:
  Example: “A couple earning $82,000 a year, paying $541 a month, will soon be paying $2,180 a month. ... How could someone on $82,000 a year pay over $24,000 a year in healthcare premiums without the subsidy?”
  — Brett (Host 2), [04:03]

Critique of GOP Legislation and Priorities

• The “big ugly bill” (Republican tax and spending plan) is targeted for slashing Medicaid by almost a trillion dollars and for not extending the ACA premium tax credits.
• Instead of helping working-class Americans, the bill is portrayed as disproportionately beneficial to billionaires and profitable corporations.
• Notable Quote:
  “Remember, fundamentally, that was a tax measure, right? They made these cuts to programs that working people rely on in order to pay for nearly $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. Disproportionately helping billionaires like Trump and profitable corporations.”
  — Sen. Baldwin, [09:31]
• Senator Baldwin highlights the irony of Trump acknowledging rising costs during his first campaign, but then governing in a way that raises prices and restricts health coverage.

Urgency Around Universal Health Care Debate

• The hosts and Baldwin agree the system has problems, but the focus should be on preventing further harm rather than worsening dysfunction.
• The expiration of the tax credits is positioned as an emergency on top of a long-standing debate about how to improve or move toward universal health care.
• Notable Quote:
  “As long as we have Obamacare, we need these subsidies. Let’s keep the prices as low as possible so people can afford their health care and not go medically bankrupt.”
  — Ben (Host 1), [11:24]

Farmers and the Economic Toll in Wisconsin

• Baldwin details how tariffs and visa issues under Trump’s administration have hurt Wisconsin’s agricultural sector, especially dairy farmers.
• Cross-border tariffs have raised costs for supplies (e.g., fertilizer from Canada), and a significant share of farmers rely on ACA plans.
• Notable Quote:
  “A quarter of all farmers use the Affordable Care Act for their health care coverage. ... Our farmers don’t want bailouts. They want a level playing field and a fair shot at getting ahead.”
  — Sen. Baldwin, [13:03]

3. Baldwin’s Broader Concerns About Trump’s Leadership (14:13 – 14:49)

• Senator Baldwin expresses widespread concerns about the Trump administration’s lack of accountability, lawlessness, and potentially unconstitutional behavior.
• She urges vigilance and attention to the erosion of norms and public trust.
• Notable Quote:
  “There’s a lot of concerns about the lack of accountability of this administration and the lawlessness that we are seeing. ... That lawless, sometimes unconstitutional behavior is of deep concern to so many that I represent and hear from in the state of Wisconsin.”
  — Sen. Baldwin, [14:13]

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Memorable Moments & Quotes (with Timestamps)

• “We will destroy the lives of federal workers, we will inflict pain, but our budget will be balanced.”
  — Ben (Host 1), [00:51]
• “These are small businesses, these are farmers. These are the backbones of our communities.”
  — Sen. Baldwin, [04:52]
• “A couple earning $82,000 a year, paying $541 a month, will soon be paying $2,180 a month. ... How could someone on $82,000 a year pay over $24,000 a year in healthcare premiums without the subsidy?”
  — Brett (Host 2), [04:03]
• “They made these cuts to programs that working people rely on in order to pay for nearly $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. Disproportionately helping billionaires like Trump and profitable corporations.”
  — Sen. Baldwin, [09:31]
• “Our farmers don’t want bailouts. They want a level playing field and a fair shot at getting ahead.”
  — Sen. Baldwin, [13:03]
• “There’s a lot of concerns about the lack of accountability of this administration and the lawlessness that we are seeing.”
  — Sen. Baldwin, [14:13]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:00 – Hosts break down Trump’s shutdown rhetoric and blame shifting
• 02:10 – Trump’s position on federal workers’ back pay, “kamikaze attack” comments
• 04:17 – Senator Baldwin interview begins
• 05:00 – 08:15 – ACA premium credits, impact on small businesses and farmers
• 09:28 – Tax bill critiques and GOP priorities dissected
• 12:22 – Farmers' struggles and Trump’s failed promises
• 14:13 – Baldwin on lack of accountability and lawlessness in the administration

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Tone and Takeaways

The episode balances pointed critique, urgent policy discussion, and the brothers' signature banter. Senator Baldwin provides sobering commentary and firsthand reports from Wisconsin, while the Meiselas brothers amplify the stakes and the absurdity of Trump and the GOP’s approach.

For listeners seeking a grasp of the shutdown’s real impact—from unaffordable health care to struggling farmers—this episode offers sharp analysis, personal stories, and clear calls to action straight from the heart of American communities.

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Transcript

[Host 1]

Donald Trump continues to spiral out of control as his messaging on this shutdown.

[Host 2]

Is all over the place because he and MAGA Mike Johnson and Senator Thune.

[Host 1]

And the Republicans are responsible for it because they want to take away people's health care. It's that simple. So Donald Trump started with posting, like, sombreros and weird AI and then he moved on to just kind of threatening, I'm going to inflict pain. What an opportunity. Then yesterday, he was pretending that he was actually engaged in negotiations that weren't.

[Host 2]

Taking place because he and MAGA Mike.

[Host 1]

Have ordered Republicans not even to talk to Democrats yet alone negotiate. And now he's back to the threatening. We will destroy the lives of federal workers. We will inflict pain, but our budget will be balanced. He says, oh, it will be balanced.

[Host 2]

This is what he said from the Oval Office. Let's play it now.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Who I'm talking. Say it again. How many permanent jobs are you talking about? Well, I don't. I can tell you. I'll be able to tell you that in four or five days if this keeps going on. If this keeps going on, it'll be substantial and a lot of those jobs will never come back. But you're going to have, you're going to have, you're going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget. Actually.

[Host 1]

I just have to also make the.

[Host 2]

Observation that he looks utterly ridiculous in there.

[Host 1]

I mean, the gold everywhere, it looks cheesy, it looks gross. Everything our country should be against, in poor taste as he's talking about inflicting pain on the American people. And also he's running record deficits, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on masked agents, disappearing human beings in this country into concentration camps and all of his other dis. Despicable stunts. Then Donald Trump also talks about, in response to a reporter saying, well, why are you saying that you won't even give government workers their, their back pay? Like, if the shutdown ends, like, why are you doing this?

[Host 2]

Here, play this clip.

[T-Mobile Spokesperson 1]

Why do you say some federal workers should not get their back pay? Why do you say, well, you're gonna.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Have to figure that out. Okay, ask, ask the Democrats that question.

[T-Mobile Spokesperson 1]

Mr. President, just to follow up there, I think the, that when the government is reopened, that workers will receive their, their back pay. So are you going to decide the law there or what do you.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I follow the law and I, what the law says is correct and I follow the law.

[Host 2]

I always guys all over the place.

[Host 1]

And then he calls the shutdown, quote, a kamikaze attack. You want to know the truth, it's a kamikaze attack.

[Host 2]

Kamikaze attack. Here, play this clip.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

By the way, I'm not sure we would have even had a country. And now we have the most successful country in the world. Brian.

[Host 1]

Yes, sir.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

What is your message to Democrats ahead of a next vote to open up the government? The American people are saying open the damn government. What's your message to them right now? Well, they're the ones that started it. They're the ones that have it. And it's almost like a kamikaze attack by them. You want to know the truth? This is like a kamikaze attack.

[Host 2]

They that's their messaging, a kamikaze attack. By the way, that was. You want to know what a clown show is in there? That was Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend asking the questions. Let's bring in Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin of the great state of Wisconsin. So that's what was going on in the Oval Office. Let me show you what's going on in the United States of America. We've been tracking at the Midas Touch Network just how much people's monthly premiums are going to be going up if the Affordable Care act tax credits are not extended. You took a look at Mag and Mike Johnson's district, a couple earning $82,000 a year, paying $541 a month, will soon be paying $2,180 a month. And they will basically be going medically bankrupt because how could someone $82,000 a year pay over 24,000 a year in health care premiums without the subsidy? So what's, what's going on, Senator? What's going on out there?

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

Yeah. Well, as we speak, people are getting those notices in the mail or online about what their premiums are going to be next year. And then when you take away this premium tax credit that's going to expire, there are so many millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who will lose health care because they simply cannot afford it. And I've been hearing from my constituents, meeting with them, lifting their stories. Just earlier today, I talked with Kara, who runs a small business. It's a nonprofit childcare center. And she and her family as well as her employees rely on the Affordable Care Act. But she feels as though she's not going to be able to pay for her own health insurance in the future if the tax credits expire. She's also worried about her workers leaving if she can't provide some help with health care benefits. And you know, these are small businesses, these are farmers. These are the backbones of our communities. And they are disproportionately, by the way, in states and congressional districts that voted for Donald Trump. I think we started to see a little bit of kinks in the armor, if you will, with some of Trump's statements and some of Speaker Johnson's statements. And they are beginning to understand just how critical this health care issue is. They created this crisis in their big ugly bill and now with the expiring tax credits, it would only get so much worse.

[Host 2]

And they love to criticize the Affordable Care act or Obamacare.

[Host 1]

And it does have issues.

[Host 2]

I mean, even when I showed the.

[Host 1]

Initial prices, I think $500 a month is a lot of money and needs to, I'd like to see that get lower. And I'd like to figure out ways rather than spending $20 billion in Argentina or $200 billion to ice tea to deport people and hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign countries doing things that are leading to atrocity. I would like to see the money be used for American people. But they don't come up. They don't go to the second point, which is, okay, well then what is you had your first administration and you said two weeks and you never came up with the plan. Now Donald Trump is posting weird AI videos of alien technology from outer space called med beds that secretly, he says cures cancer that the government's been keep secret. Then he deletes that. He talks about most favored nation provisions, but then doesn't accurately, doesn't implement it ever. Which would be nice if our drug prices were as low as other countries. But they have single payer, they have, they have the governments negotiate for the people to lower the price of universal health care. So there's, there's, they don't get to the second step. And all they know how to do, it seems, Senator, is destroy.

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

Exactly. And that's the big fear. Nobody is saying that our healthcare system was healthy to begin with. There are lots of problems that we have to resolve. Lots of problems. But the big ugly bill with almost a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid is going to cripple our health care system. And if we allow, and we just can't allow these premium tax credits to expire at the end of the year. But it would just make it even worse. It would get it so dysfunctional that it's hard to put it back together again. There are so many important reforms that we ought to be address. But fixing the chaos and damage that has put our health care system in crisis just in the first months of President Trump's second presidency. We've gotta fix those things first.

[Host 1]

And what this, to me is just emblematic of is just priorities. And it highlights priorities in such, I think, a clear way for the American people who just may not have seen it before, just were ignoring it because it's hitting them. You're either, if you're in the United States, you're on Medicare, you're on Medicaid, or you're likely on some Affordable Care act plan or some health care plan that your premiums are going up and you're struggling with groceries, you're struggling to afford your rent, you're living paycheck to paycheck right now. Everything's more expensive right now. And Trump's out there, given $20 billion to Argentina. He now has to bail out. We'll talk about this in a little bit. He has to do a farmer bailout because his tariffs were causing real pain. And now we have to, of course, help farmers. But he's just, he's. He's caused the problem. And then he talks about all the gold here, gold there. I'm just thinking about a farmer in Wisconsin. It's like, dude, why are you talking about all this gold? Like, remember us? Remember us? Like, what are you hearing from farmers?

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

Well, first of all, just still anger at the big ugly bill. Remember, fundamentally, that was a tax measure, right? They made these cuts to programs that working people rely on in order to pay for nearly four and a half trillion dollars in tax cuts. Disproportionately helping billionaires like Trump and profitable corporations. And yes, in this tax bill, they couldn't even see fit to extend a tax provision that makes people's health care more affordable. Not a tax cut for working people, just tax cuts for, you know, that disproportionately benefit billionaires. And so it is so out of touch. You know, what's so ironic is that Trump diagnosed the problem during his election. He ran on bringing costs down for everyone. And then he gets into office and he has turned around and done everything he possibly could to increase costs for Americans. It is appalling, and he needs to be held accountable. But first, you know, we need to make sure that these Affordable Care act premium tax credits are continued into the future so that we don't see millions of people lose their health insurance. And you were right when you were diagnosing the additional problems in the healthcare system. Once you have a whole bunch of people uninsured, you typically, if you don't have health insurance, you don't seek preventative care. You don't seek annual physicals. You don't seek care at all until it's so bad you go to the most expensive settings possible, urgent care centers, emergency rooms. And that drives up health care costs for everyone.

[Host 2]

Right? I mean, you could have universal health care.

[Host 1]

Let's have that healthy debate. I like it. Obamacare.

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

I do, too.

[Host 1]

Obamacare, Affordable Care act has its issues. I'd like to see it look like more like Universal Care Act. But as long as we have Obamacare, we need these subsidies. Let's keep the prices as low as possible so people can afford their health care and not go medically bankrupt. If you've got some third plan, stop posting stupid AI Alien videos and sombrero hats because this is real issues causing psychological torture and stress in the American people who need to come up with solutions. So come up with solutions. Before we go, I want to hear about the farmers and what's going on there and what you're hearing from people in your state generally, in addition to the health care issue. You know, Trump went out and said, I'm the best for farmers. I'm going to make you all so rich. And we've seen his tariffs against the world have not had the intent. Well, I don't know what the intended effect was other than for him to wake up and show that he can just post an and whatever. But what's going on in the state?

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

Well, there's a critical sort of bringing together of issues. Our farmers are facing incredible headwinds. And we are a dairy state. You may have heard of Wisconsin as America's dairyland. So a lot of our farmers are in dairy, and that is a lot of labor. So there's issues with regard to visas for their workforce. There are issues with regard to the tax tariffs that are wreaking havoc on a lot of their inputs and supplies. In Wisconsin and Northern State, we have a lot of back and forth with Canada. A lot of the fertilizer inputs come from Canada. Those have shot up because of tariffs. We have other supplies across the border. And then about a quarter of all farmers use the Affordable Care act for their health care coverage. And so this president is just going, he's just contributing to the headwinds that our farmers are facing. And he knows things are bad. He's talking about bailouts. But our farmers don't want bailouts. They want a level playing field and a fair shot at getting ahead.

[Host 1]

Before we go, Senator Baldwin, I always.

[Host 2]

Like to ask you this question because for a lot of reasons, but you're seeing things out there that I'm not seeing.

[Host 1]

There are issues that are just not.

[Host 2]

Being talked about that you think on.

[Host 1]

News or just out there that you're seeing right now that you just want.

[Host 2]

To bring attention to. With our 6 million subscribers, in addition.

[Host 1]

To the things that we discussed, are there things that you're concerned about or you think needs more attention?

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

Well, absolutely. I think there's a lot of concerns about the lack of accountability of this administration and the lawlessness that we are seeing. And people want that reined in. They are very concerned about the direction of the country and the direction that Donald Trump is taking us. And that lawless, sometimes unconstitutional behavior is of deep concern to so many that I represent and hear from in the state of Wisconsin.

[Host 2]

Senator Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin, thanks for joining us.

[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

Thanks for having me everybody.

[Host 2]

Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers.

[Host 1]

Thanks for watching. Be sure to add the Midas Touch podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts for new updates every single day.

[T-Mobile Spokesperson 2]

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[Host 2]

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[T-Mobile Spokesperson 2]

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[Senator Tammy Baldwin]

Nice.

[T-Mobile Spokesperson 1]

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[T-Mobile Spokesperson 2]

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[Host 1]

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[T-Mobile Spokesperson 2]

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[T-Mobile Spokesperson 1]

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