Tammy Baldwin’s Stolen Valor Problem

Throughout her reelection campaign so far, Tammy Baldwin has focused on taking credit for other lawmakers’ work and convincing voters that her bills became laws when they never made it out of committee. For some reason, no one has called her out for any of this, and she’s been able to tell these lies with impunity. However, now she’s lying about helping veterans and, speaking as a veteran myself, that’s just going too far.

Baldwin Never Passed a Law to Protect the American Steel Industry

In her first ad, “Wisconsin Jobs,” Baldwin attempted to take credit for America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (better known as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law). She was not a sponsor or cosponsor of either bill, and yet her ad claimed that “Tammy Baldwin got President Trump to sign her Made in America bill,” and “then she got President Biden to make it permanent” - both outright lies.

Baldwin did sponsor a bill called the “Made in America Act of 2021.” However, even with her own party in control of the Senate, her bill died in committee. Perhaps that’s why she feels compelled to try to credit for her colleagues’ bills.

Baldwin Knowingly Voted for the Law that Threatened Union Pensions

Baldwin’s next ad, “Fought Like Hell,” featured a group of Teamsters who were told their pension benefits were about to be cut by half. The ad claimed that Baldwin stepped in to stop that from happening. She introduced a bill and “she fought like hell to pass it,” the ad claimed. The ad failed to mention that the bill died in committee. The reality is that Baldwin helped create the crisis in the first place.

In 2014, Baldwin voted yea for H.R. 83 (an ominibus spending bill), which included the “Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014.” That law allows companies to reduce pension benefits if the fund is projected to go insolvent. The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 was bipartisan, written by a Republican and a Democrat, and President Obama signed it into law. Baldwin knew the provision that threatened pensions was in the bill, complained about it, and yet voted for H.R. 83 anyway. Many of her colleagues, including Sens. Blumenthal, Manchen, and Jack Reed, voted against it specifically because the law would threaten pensions.

In 2015, the Central States Pension projected it would go insolvent in 2025, and so it notified thousands of Teamster retirees that their pension benefits would be cut in half. The Treasury Department denied the request. Sen. Bernie Sanders then introduced the “Keep Our Pension Promises Act” in 2015 and again in 2017. Baldwin signed on as a cosponsor both times, but both times the bill died in committee. Either she didn’t actually fight “like hell to pass it,” or she’s completely ineffective.

Ultimately, the Teamsters’ pension fund was propped up by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Baldwin can, at least, say she voted for that.

Baldwin Did Not Fight to Pass the PACT Act

When not exposed, lies tend to escalate. Baldwin’s next deception was to take credit for a veterans’ health care law, part of a long-term effort to cover up her troubled past in that subject area.

Earlier this month, Baldwin’s campaign released an ad targeting veterans called “Poison.” The ad claims that “she worked with both parties to pass a law.” That law was the PACT Act, and it expanded VA benefits for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals while deployed. It’s a big deal in the veteran community, but unfortunately for Baldwin, she had almost nothing to do with it.

Baldwin did not sponsor the bill. She did not cosponsor it. She did not propose any amendments to it. All she did was sit on a 20-person committee that approved it by unanimous consent, and then she was one of 86 Senators who voted yea for it on the floor. Even her own office acknowledged her role was minimal at the time stating merely that, “Senator Baldwin voted for the [PACT Act].”

Yet now that she’s running for reelection, her office shamelessly refers to the law as the “Baldwin-Backed PACT Act.” Her campaign claims that passing the PACT Act “took a fight, but Tammy Baldwin, she’s a heck of a fighter.”

Again, the Senate passed the bill on an 86-11 vote. The House passed it on a 342-88 vote. It was massively popular on both sides of the aisle. It did not take a fight, and it certainly did not take Tammy Baldwin to pass it. Tammy just happened to be in the room.

Baldwin’s Troubled Past with Veterans’ Affairs

Baldwin’s record helping veterans has long been characterized by lies. Six years ago, a liberal veterans organization called VoteVets released an TV ad that tried to give Baldwin credit for solving the VA’s opioid problems. It was meant to cover up Baldwin’s own complicity that led to the death of a Marine at the Tomah VA from medical malpractice.

In the spring of 2014, a whistleblower from the Tomah VA contacted Baldwin’s office about the clinic dangerously overprescribing painkillers. The message obviously got to Baldwin, and she requested an investigation. In July, she received the final report and it confirmed the whistleblower’s story. Unfortunately, Baldwin ignored the report and hid it from the public.

A few weeks after Baldwin discovered that the Tomah VA was overprescribing painkillers, Marine veteran Jason Simcakoski died in the Tomah after being overprescribed painkillers. The whistleblower blamed Baldwin personally, calling her inaction a “travesty.”

After all this started to leak out in November 2014, Baldwin introduced S. 1641, the Jason Simcakoski Memorial Opioid Safety Act in June 2015. Three years later, VoteVets released its ad about S.1641, claiming that “Tammy worked with the American Legion and the VFW. She passed a bipartisan law changing the way the VA trains doctors and prescribes opioids.” 

It was a complete lie. S.1641 never even made it out of committee, but the ad certainly helped take the heat off of Baldwin.

Stop Letting Her Get Away with This

Obviously, Baldwin feels compelled to lie about her record in Washington, because she doesn’t have anything to brag about. If the Teamsters and the Steelworkers want to let her get away with lying about helping them, that’s their business as far as I’m concerned. But this veteran is not going to let Baldwin get away with lying about helping veterans, especially when it is so easy to prove that she’s lying.