What They’re Saying: Republican Candidates for U.S. Senate Criticize Baldwin for Supporting Government-Run Health Care

MADISON, Wis., Sept. 28 -- The Wisconsin Republican Party issued the following news:

Wisconsin candidates for US Senate have their focus on Senator Baldwin's record of picking Washington over Wisconsin. Both Leah Vukmir and Kevin Nicholson penned op-eds critical of Senator Baldwin's decision to cosponsor Bernie Sanders' government-run health care plan - becoming the only red-state senator to do so. The plan could carry a $32 trillion price tag.

Check out excerpts from the columns by Nicholson and Vukmir below:

Leah Vukmir, in the Wisconsin State Journal: I was immensely frustrated when I heard U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin had endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' proposal for government-run health care -- deceptively titled "Medicare for All."

At its core, Sanders' proposed legislation runs contrary to our American values of free markets and personal liberty. And unfortunately, it is hardly the first time Baldwin, D-Madison, has supported ultra-liberal policies in Washington, while she pretends she's one of us here in Wisconsin.

Let's be clear: "Medicare for All," which would establish a single-payer -- or entirely government-controlled -- health care program, is one of the most extreme left-wing pieces of legislation ever introduced in the U.S. Senate. It's more extreme than Obamacare. It's so extreme that both Senate and House minority leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are opposed to it.

Government-run health care isn't the Wisconsin Way. It's the Bernie Way.

Last November, voters sent a clear message to members of the swamp, such as Baldwin and the rest of the liberal Democratic elite. While they may run the show in Brooklyn and San Francisco, they were rejected in the Badger State.

Over the coming months, I look forward to continuing the conversation with Wisconsinites about the conservative reforms I have in mind to get our nation back on track. We did it right here in Wisconsin, and we can do it in the U.S. Senate -- we just need the right person there fighting for us.

Kevin Nicholson, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Families across Wisconsin are reeling from high premiums, and insurers leaving the market because of Obamacare, and a few days ago, the national debt surpassed an almost unimaginable $20 trillion.

In response, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) announced she is supporting the proposal from Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders to institute a government-run, single-payer health care plan that would cost taxpayers trillions of dollars more.

Bipartisan estimates of a similar plan proposed by Sanders last year showed a cost of $25 trillion over a decade, increasing taxes by $11 trillion and adding $14 trillion to the national debt. This Baldwin-Sanders approach to health care would dramatically increase taxes on every American while also skyrocketing our national debt by nearly 70%.

Obamacare is collapsing, but the right path forward isn't more government involvement, more spending, and more debt

We need conservative, market-based reforms that will lower premiums. We can start with a few common sense, conservative reforms. We should dramatically improve transparency in pricing, increase the portability of health care dollars by expanding options like Healthcare Savings Accounts and allow for more consumer choice by allowing competition.

Senator Baldwin has decided to throw in with socialists, rather than focus on common-sense solutions that will help all Wisconsin families. She's lost touch with the hard-working people of Wisconsin, who make our state great.