LAUREN FRAYER, HOST:
Affordability. That's a word we will hear a lot of for the next 12 months. It's what voters say is a top concern, and it could be consequential in the swing state of Wisconsin. Reporters Chuck Quirmbach and Maayan Silver with member station WUWM join us now from Milwaukee. Welcome to the program.
MAAYAN SILVER, BYLINE: Thank you.
CHUCK QUIRMBACH, BYLINE: Thank you.
FRAYER: So what are you both hearing from voters?
SILVER: How cost of living are affecting people? I stopped by a turkey giveaway where people talked about struggling with basic needs and really what they want politicians to do about it.
QUIRMBACH: Yeah. And I've been talking with folks about the Affordable Care Act and the expectation here that for hundreds of thousands of people covered under this Obama-era law, health care will be less affordable next year.
FRAYER: And, Chuck, you've been following some of the events that Democrats are already holding around the state about health care affordability. What are they focusing on?
QUIRMBACH: Well, the prediction that premiums are going up in January and that subsidies, including a federal tax credit that the state of Wisconsin says saves the average Care Act enrollee about $650 per month, may expire at the end of December. About 275,000 people here could be affected. One of them, freelance writer Nancy Peske, spoke at a news conference held by Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin. Peske says she may also have to pay additional costs for her son, who just landed a job with no health coverage.
NANCY PESKE: So he's going to have such an astronomical premium that I'm probably going to have to pay that, too. So, yeah, it's going to be very tight.
FRAYER: That's one concern. There's also the cost of living in general. Maayan, what are you hearing from some of the people you spoke with at this food giveaway that you mentioned?
SILVER: Yeah. There were plenty of people in line at the turkey giveaway who directly blamed Trump for rising costs, who said they'd be voting for Democrats. But I also found some people who said they didn't foresee voting. I talked to Sharol Britton (ph). She's a 57-year-old who's been struggling financially. She gets food stamps, is on supplemental security income. And these days, she's sleeping in a van. She used to vote for Democrats, but now says she's fed up with all politicians.
SHAROL BRITTON: The Trump administration, Democrat, Republican, liberal, right wing, left wing, back wing, horizontal wing, I don't give a freak. Get your stuff together, period.
SILVER: Britton doesn't plan to vote until, in her opinion, politicians stop focusing on the 1% and start thinking more about people like her.
FRAYER: And if voters like her stay home, that could really matter for congressional races. Chuck, tell us about some of those.
QUIRMBACH: Well, the GOP has a 6-2 majority in House seats here, with Democrats hoping next year to unseat Republican Derrick Van Orden in western Wisconsin and Bryan Steil in the district south of Milwaukee. Also Republican House member Tom Tiffany from northern Wisconsin is running for governor. It's an open seat as Democratic incumbent Tony Evers is retiring. Van Orden, Steil and Tiffany have all criticized the ACA, or Affordable Care Act. The hazard in doing so is that, according to a recent polling by Marquette University, 58% of Wisconsin voters back extending the Care Act subsidies. But the polling also says the GOP Congress members' stance seems to be in line with the views of the majority of Republican voters here. Brian Norby runs an engineering firm and is chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party west of Milwaukee. Norby says the ACA's enhanced tax credits are a political football.
BRIAN NORBY: Now they're essentially being used as a political tool to heighten up the Democratic base to come out and vote. So why should we continue to extend them when they're designed by the Democratic Party?
FRAYER: OK. So President Trump won Wisconsin by just under 30,000 votes in large part because of these pocketbook issues. And now, one year later, NPR polling shows that nearly 6 in 10 Americans say the Trump administration should focus on lowering prices. Maya, what are you hearing from Trump voters about this?
SILVER: So sometimes voters I talked to said that economic woes, for instance, the effect of the government shutdown, were exaggerated. Others told me their budgets are tight sometimes, but they generally gave a lot of grace to Trump and his administration. That includes Aaron Eckhart (ph). He's the president of a home building company. He's also a Republican who voted for Trump. And he says of the economy...
AARON ECKHART: So I think it's turning around.
SILVER: So you think that President Trump is delivering on the promises that he made to make life more affordable?
ECKHART: Correct. Promises made, promises kept.
SILVER: Other Republicans I spoke with say that Trump had only been in office this term for a year and that he could still right the ship.
FRAYER: So is affordability going to stay a strong issue in Wisconsin for the next, you know, 11 months until the election? Chuck.
QUIRMBACH: Well, it might depend on what, if anything, the White House and Congressional Republicans come up with on the Affordable Care Act. Senate Republicans have promised to vote on extending the subsidies by next month. Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin says she's willing to work with, quote, any Johnny-come-lately to help families avoid higher costs come January 1.
SILVER: And when it comes to higher costs overall, I'd say that Wisconsin is really a tale of two states, urban and rural, red and blue. And while voters around the state are concerned with prices, some really have unique concerns. There's manufacturers around the state grappling with tariffs. There's Wisconsin's big agricultural center. It's the dairy state that everyone knows about, but it also has a sizable soybean, corn, ginseng crops. So it's also the number one cranberry-producing state in the country, which is really relevant for this time of year. These farmers and rural voters have long been loyal backers of President Trump. But in part because of tariffs, Democrats are really trying to make inroads there.
FRAYER: That's Maayan Silver and Chuck Quirmbach of NPR member station WUWM in Milwaukee. Thank you.
MAAYAN SILVER AND CHUCK QUIRMBACH: Thank you.
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