With election day just over 3 weeks away, Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes joined Outside the Box with Ben Cominos earlier today to answer some questions about his what his vision for Wisconsin looks like.
The conversation covered several topics, the first of which was bail reform. The Lt. Gov. believes that the idea of being soft on crime has been tied to bail reform, and he took this time to highlight that nothing could be further from the truth. “What they are doing is taking a bill in the assembly that I supported completely out of context, and they are just trying to scare the Hell out of your listeners.”
He went on to explain how taking the finance out of the bail system would make the streets more safe, not less. “It would make sure that violent criminals were kept behind bars before their court date, regardless of their ability to pay.”
The conversation then switched to the economy, job creation, and inflation. A lot of factors have contributed to the growth of inflation, but Mr. Barnes made it clear he not only knows what is contributing to inflation, he has ideas about how to fix it. “A lot of these companies are using inflation as a smoke screen to jack-up prices.”
He focused on the price at the pump quite a bit, and then went on to highlight that his opponent’s campaign has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil and gas industry, which he believes may influence the decisions he would make pertaining to corporate profits.
When asked about a solution to this problem, he stated that he believes that a tax cut for the middle class is necessary for some relief, we need to make the child tax credit permanent, and we need to do what we must to continue to create jobs in the area. He emphasized that passing the CHIPS act will go a long way to bringing manufacturing back home.
The last question that he was asked pertained to his work history and how it lends itself to knowing how to create jobs across the state. “I’ve worked all kinds of jobs. I’ve been a server, a bartender, I’ve worked at department stores, you name it. I’ve worked all over the place.”
Note: Ben has reached out to the Johnson campaign for an interview and has received no response.
