Photo by Kaitlin Longhauser
Former president, Donald J. Trump visited La Crosse, Wis., to hold a town hall meeting at the La Crosse Center on Thursday, August 29. Former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard moderated the event.
The La Crosse Center reached maximum capacity for the event with a long line of people still waiting outside the entrance.
Brian Ostby of Fountain got the opportunity to witness the town hall meeting inside the La Crosse Center.
Ostby decided to attend the meeting after receiving an advertisement on his phone a couple of days prior to the event. Upon receiving the advertisement, he decided to sign up.
Ostby arrived to wait in line at 1:15 p.m.. He entered the building by 2:10 and sat for roughly 4 1/2 hours. The inside of the La Crosse Center had been packed full. The secret service did a head count of all the participants.
Former president Trump arrived around 7:15 p.m., he was originally scheduled to arrive at 6 p.m.
Ostby shared that it was a cool experience with the event being well organized. There were around 20 young adults on stage, Ostby thought these to be the people who submitted tickets with questions that were selected to be answered. Topics discussed were issues pertaining to the border and the cost of things. Trump spent half the time answering questions, with former representative Gabbard sharing a bit about herself. Trump responded to questions pertaining to the border, healthcare, and IVF (in vitro feritilization) coverage.
Overall, the town hall meeting lasted roughly 30-35 minutes.
Ostby did not ask any questions himself but if he had the opportunity to do so, he would have asked about the border and fuel costs.
Ostby felt that Trump’s town hall meeting in La Crosse had an impact on La Crosse residents and those residing in southeast, Minn. When standing in line, he was able to meet people from other cities. He would gladly attend another event such as this, so long as the event is within a 100-mile radius. Ostby had rearranged his schedule that week in order to attend.
Trump shook hands with people, greeted Gabbard, and greeted the audience as he made his way on stage. To the audience, Trump announced, “We love our country!” and “It’s a great country!”
Trump started the town hall meeting off stating, “It’s a great country, but we have to take it back because our country is not feeling so well nowadays.” Trump shared that the country will be brought back healthier and better. “Let’s have a good time. Thank you very much, everybody!”
Former U.S. representative Gabbard shared her personal experience involving IVF treatment. She acknowledged how IVF is a difficult expensive process. “Now, I know some of your political opponents are saying that you want to ban IVF,” Gabbard stated directly to Trump. She acknowledged that affordability and availability of IVF treatments are a concern for women and couples. She wanted Trump to talk to them in how they should feel. Trump told her, “I’m actually very much for it” (it being IVF). For people using IVF, Trump stated the government is going to pay for it or mandate the insurance company to cover such. The audience applauded to Trump’s response.
“I can’t tell you how life changing that would be for so many families because it costs a lot of money and a lot of people go into debt just for the hope of being able to start their own family,” Gabbard stated.
Trump added, “We want to produce babies in this country, right?”
Trump moved on to discuss the auto industry and referenced Michigan. “We’re going to bring back the car industry and we’re going to get a lot of it back to Michigan,” He informed that Mexico is building massive car factories that are being built and financed by China. In turn, the cars will be sold back into the U.S. “That’s not going to happen,” Trump stated. The U.S. will have every kind of car such as electric, gas powered, hybrids, etc.
Vice president Kamala Harris became Trump’s topic of discussion next. He mentioned he looked at Harris’ news conference. Trump commented Harris and her father to be marxists, her to be a terrible vice president, and her to be a terrible border czar where millions of illegal immigrants have poured through the border, many of which are from prisons, jails, mental institutions, insane asylums, and are terrorists themselves. Trump concluded with this upcoming election being one of the most important elections in U.S. history and that he loved Wisconsin.
A few people got the opportunity to then ask former president Trump questions.
Amber from Cameron, Wis, expressed concern about illegal immigration and how such is threatening opportunities for her children. She worries that jobs are being taken from Americans. Trump thanked Amber and agreed with her. He responded with illegal immigrants taking the jobs of both African Americans and Hispanics. Trump said he wants to turn this country around in that the border will be closed.
Luke, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse expressed concern in regards to inflation and questioned what Trump’s plan was to make life more affordable and to bring down inflation. Trump wants to bring energy prices down and for the U.S. to be the energy capital of the world, pay down their debt, reduce taxes, grocery prices to decrease, and lowered interest rates. “That’s called the American dream!” exclaimed Trump.
After questions, Gabbard asked Trump, “What’s going to happen if Kamala Harris institutes price controls?” Trump responded that such a plan is a communist plan in that it has never worked. Trump acknowledged such would lead to tremendous inflation, lack of product, and stores not being stocked.
After Trump responded to Gabbard’s question he went on to address nuclear weapons being the biggest problem the U.S. and the world faces. “They are a destructive force the likes of which nobody has seen before.” Gabbard agreed with Trump and referenced former president Ronald Reagan famously stating a nuclear war can never be won and never be fought.
Trump brought up Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, and commented on Walz’s bill in regards to boys’ restrooms needing to stock tampons. Trump also included that six states, Minnesota being one of them, allow the execution of a baby after birth. In closing, Trump stated Harris chose Walz because she is a marxist/communist, in that, “This woman has to be stopped.”
Bernardo, a Wisconsin voter and father of eight, questioned Trump, “How are we going to protect America from a terroristic attack?” Trump responded that the U.S. has radical Islamists pouring into the country and noted, “I had no radical Islam crime for four years.” He ended his response with the U.S. not allowing the wrong people into the country.
The town hall meeting closed with Gabbard thanking Trump for having this conversation. Trump concluded the meeting stating, “Thank you everybody! Vote! Vote!”
Anonymous says
If the MAGA presidential candidate made America as great as he claims that he did, wouldn’t he have won in 2020 in a historic landslide?
While he has said that he knows nothing about Project 2025, but then said that he disagrees with some of its provisions, how could he say something like that about something he knows nothing about it?
He said that he didn’t know E. Jean Carroll, and now says that he’s not familiar with Project 2025. Here’s CNN’s examination of that claim, aired two months ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd-81ZHe844&t=183s
If you listened to the preceding YouTube link, you heard the words, “Bloodless, unless…” Will citizens of Fillmore County end up shooting each other? What could go wrong with that?
Here’s a link to a PDF copy of Project 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd-81ZHe844&t=183s
O.K. It’s quite long, but isn’t it important to know what’s included in this recipe for governance?
There are more than a few farmers in SE Minnesota who might be particularly interested in knowing what’s included in the section addressing proposed changes for the Department of Agriculture, found on pages 289-318.
The following paragraph can be found on page 295-296…
“The overall goal should be to eliminate subsidy dependence. Despite what might be conventional wisdom, many farmers receive few to no subsidies, with most subsidies going to only a handful of commodities. According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), from 2014 to 2016, 94 percent of farm program support went to just six commodities—corn, cotton, peanuts, rice, soybeans, and wheat—that together account for only 28 percent of farm receipts. Although many farmers do not receive much in the way of subsidies, especially those in the areas of livestock and specialty crops (fruit, vegetable, and nuts), there are still a significant number of farmers growing row crops like corn and cotton that do receive significant farm subsidies.”
If the preceding is true, surely, one would think that no farmers in the area have been willing to accept federal governmental assistance, however, this list of federal farm subsidies from Fillmore County alone would suggest otherwise: https://farm.ewg.org/top_recips.php?fips=27045&progcode=total&Minnesota
If you copied and pasted the preceding link into a URL, you saw that the list includes a total of 4,377 recipients in Fillmore County alone. Surely none of the farmers in Fillmore County want anything to do with federal assistance anymore, right?
These two paragraphs can be found on page 297, which might also be of interest to farmers…
“Reduce the premium subsidy rate for crop insurance. On average, taxpayers cover about 60 percent of the premium cost for policies purchased in the federal crop insurance program. One of the most widely supported and bipartisan policy reforms is to reduce the premium subsidy that taxpayers are forced to pay. At a minimum, taxpayers should not pay more than 50 percent of the premium. After all, taxpayers should not have to pay more than the farmers who benefit from the crop insurance policies.”
“CBO has found that reducing the premium subsidy to 47 percent would save $8.1 billion over 10 years and have little impact on crop insurance participation or on the number of covered acres. In that analysis, there would be a reduction in insured acres of just one-half of 1 percent, and only 1.5 percent of acres would have lower coverage levels. This reform is basically all benefit with little to no cost. In its recently released report identifying options to reduce the federal deficit, CBO found that reducing the premium subsidy to 40 percent would save $20.9 billion over 10 years.”
I’m sure that for those farmers in SE Minnesota who choose to purchase crop insurance, they would feel much better if they paid a larger share of the premiums, thereby providing relief to all non-farm taxpayers. That would be a small sacrifice to benefit so many others, a sacrifice which I’m sure farmers would gladly make.
Deportation a Solution?
The MAGA candidate’s plan to deport between something like 11,000,000 to 21,000,000 foreign born people residing in this country is touted as a solution to all that ails us. It seems that many such individuals perform difficult and dangerous jobs on factory farms in SE Minnesota, while many others keep the slaughterhouses in the area running. What happens when all these people are shipped off elsewhere? Are there that many Minnesota-born citizens clamoring to perform this work, enough to fill those many jobs that would suddenly go vacant? Or will people simply decide to forgo a few Big Macs, because there won’t be enough slaughterhouse workers to maintain the current supply of processed meat?
How About Taxes?
Of particular interest to many would be the provisions on the wish list for reforms for the Department of Treasury, found from pages 691-716.
Here is a key paragraph that appears on page 696…
“Intermediate Tax Reform.
The Treasury should work with Congress to simplify the tax code by enacting a simple two-rate individual tax system of 15 percent and 30 percent that eliminates most deductions, credits and exclusions. The 30 percent bracket should begin at or near the Social Security wage base to ensure the combined income and payroll tax structure acts as a nearly flat tax on wage income beyond the standard deduction. The corporate income tax rate should be reduced to 18 percent. The corporate income tax is the most damaging tax in the U.S. tax system, and its primary economic burden falls on workers because capital is more mobile than labor. Capital gains and qualified dividends should be taxed at 15 percent. Thus, the combined corporate income tax combined with the capital gains or qualified dividends tax rate would be roughly equal to the top individual income tax rate. The system should allow immediate expensing for capital expenditures and index capital gains taxes for inflation.”
So, what will the preceding look like in practice? Let’s see…
Using 2024 Tax Tables and brackets, a retired married couple filing jointly would pay a 10% tax rate on their first $23,200 of taxable income, for an annual tax burden of $2,320. Under the provisions of Project 2025, with all income up to $23,200 then taxed at 15%, that annual toll would increase to $3,480, an increase of $1160/year, or about $97/month. All income falling between $23,200 and $94,300 is currently taxed at a 12% tax rate, but applicable tax rate for that income, as well, would increase to 15% under Project 2025. If that retired married couple had a taxable income of $94,300, their tax burden for income falling within that range would increase from $8,532 to $10,665. Adding both numbers together, under the present tax tables that annual income tax bill for that couple would be $10,852, but would increase to $14,145 (under Project 2025), an overall increase of $3,293/year or about $274.42/month, which would need to be paid with after-tax income. For many of the MAGAs,that additional cost would be well worth it for their own personal reasons? Maybe it would.
Some people receive income via long-term capital gains, which are taxed at 0% for taxable incomes of up to $94,050, and above that level they are taxed at a 15% rate. Under the provisions of Project 2025, all long-term capital gains would be taxed at 15%. If a significant portion of this couple’s income is derived from inherited dividend-producing stock that has been held for long enough for the dividends to qualify, that could represent quite an unpleasant surprise. Long-term capital gains tax for such a couple of $50,000 income would increase from $0 to $7,500. For all other taxable income up above that point to $94,300, the 15% flat income tax rate would be additional.
The preceding would seemingly add considerably to federal revenues, however, there is a tradeoff. Couples with taxable incomes above $615,000/year would begin to realize some financial benefit, as that would be about the break even point. Those currently taxed in the 35% and 37% would enjoy tax reductions to 30%, so that would be a bonanza for those people, particularly those whose taxable incomes are in excess of $1,000,000. But the benefits for the rich do not end there — the long-term capital gains rate for those people would decrease from 20% to 15%, which would also provide a nice benefit for the bottom line.
Despite all that, many SE Minnesota MAGAs seemingly believe that the rich are struggling and are willing to make personal financial sacrifices to improve the lot. of the uber wealthy And yes, that is their prerogative.
Keep in mind that the preceding is only considered an interim measure until all taxes can be replaced with a single tax, a value added tax of sorts, a euphemism for a national sales tax, which would have to be paid by everyone, regardless of income. Even little kids who mow a lawn or shovel a walkway to earn enough money to buy a candy car will pay this tax, which would likely be added to any applicable state taxes, including sales taxes. Every tax dollar that a poor person pays is a dollar that a rich person can avoid paying.
The MAGA crowd repeatedly insists that the border is a disaster. But is it?
Republicans had the trifecta from January of 2017 to January of 2019, control of the Oval Office, the House and the Senate. That presumably provided a golden opportunity to pass comprehensive border crossing legislation, so why didn’t that happen? That would seem to be a good question.
Around six to seven months ago, Congress was crafting some of the toughest border crossing legislation in more than a generation, the ultra-conservative Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma taking the lead role. The bill appeared to be well on its way to being enacted, when the MAGA candidate ordered Republicans in Congress to block it, because he wanted the problem to continue so he could use it as a campaign issue. You can see and hear him say those words here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iSffeEPRC0
How about inflation?
Inflation has been reduced to the point that the economy is beginning to slow, causing many economists to call for a reduction in interest rates to prevent a slowing of economic growth. The MAGA candidate for president told the Federal Reserve to not lower interest rates, hoping for an economic recession to coincide with the November election. The Chairperson of the Federal Reserve is a lifelong Republican, i.e., Jerome Powell. That being the case, he would not seem likely to be sympathetic to the Democrats. Despite all that, inflation had cooled sufficiently for the Fed to recently drop the interest rate by 1/2%, and it appears so far that the economy may be in the process of achieving a “soft landing”, a highly desirable result.
Social Security and Medicare…
According to snopes.com, when they investigated the matter of the MAGA candidate cutting Social Security and Medicare during the preceding presidential administration, that, they confirmed that, “|…His presidential administration also submitted budgets every year that proposed cuts both to Medicare and Social Security…” The article then proceeds to declare that “.. the cuts never passed through Congress…” He recently stated that he intended to be a “dictator for a day” and the U. S. Supreme Court has handed unprecedented, mostly unchecked power to whoever occupies the Oval Office. In essence, whatever guardrails were formerly in place have been removed. For those wanting to see the snopes.com article for themselves, here’s the link: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-cut-medicare-social-security/
Many SE Minnesota retirees are wealthy enough to not really need Social Security or Medicare? If so, they are most fortunate.
Attempts to end the Affordable Care Act (ACA)…
We may recall the history of Republican attempts to end the Affordable Care Act (ACA). One of its most valuable provisions was the measure preventing insurance companies from rejecting applicants if they had “pre-existing conditions.” Unless you and your family are quite young, it’s likely that one or more of you have something that qualifies as a “pre-existing condition.” In those cases, your premiums will be much, much higher (and in many cases, unaffordable). In other cases, the insurance companies can refuse to provide health care coverage at any price. In 2017, Congress came very close to killing the ACA. Only John McCain’s vote to preserve saved it from extinction. Yes, it came that close to being lost altogether.
Do you prefer the excitement of wondering if an unforeseen medical emergency might sink you into bankruptcy, losing everything you’ve ever worked to achieve? If so, voting MAGA might be just the ticket. I
Education…
Of course, anyone who has children and/or grandchildren who attend K-12 schools or institutions of higher learning would presumably be interested in the recommendation to eliminate the Department of Education. Teachers, school administrators and college level faculty should have a particular interest as to how that would change their world.
Are Tariffs the Magic Bullet?
The MAGA candidate for president has touted tariffs as the panacea for unlimited amounts of federal tax revenue, completely paid in full by other countries. But that is not true. Those tariffs will be paid by you. If tariffs were a viable solution, then why hasn’t such a system already been in place for decades? There’s a reason. Chris Hayes clearly explains why tariffs don’t work as advertised, in this video clip, which includes Republican experts who also confirmed that tariffs don’t work as the MAGAs have advertised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-rNxvt0TcQ
Health Care Coverage…
The MAGA candidate continually stated that they were developing a far better plan, however, even now, after more than nine years, he could only say that he has “concepts of a plan.”
The United States Place in the World…
If the MAGA ticket were to prevail, the United States would appear likely to abandon NATO, leaving the United States to stand alone in the world. Alternatively, a MAGA president could seek to link arms with Russia, North Korea, China, Hungary and Saudi Arabia? The damage which could conceivably result would require generations to repair, if ever.
In Summary…
We owe it not just to ourselves, but the rest of humankind, and generations yet to arrive to very carefully consider our vote. The outcome of our votes in November will affect this country, and by extension, the rest of the world for many generations yet to come.
Eric Luoma says
Thank you for your research.
Audrey says
President Trump is the only one who can save our Country.