UW-L political scientist Chergosky pulls all-nighter, as U.S. House, Wisconsin Legislature race to finish budget bills

Two storylines for Thursday’s La Crosse Talk with UW-L political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky — the all-nighter in Madison and the marathon vote in D.C., as a Wisconsin state budget gets signed and the US House continues to debate Donald Trump’s big bill.

La Crosse Talk airs weekdays at 6-8 a.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk wherever you get your podcasts.

The NFL Network has the RedZone channel. Meanwhile, Chergosky was watching the politics version of that Wednesday night into Thursday morning. We’re going to call it the “Red-Blue Zone,” as Democrats and Republicans in Wisconsin’s Legislature come together and we see Gov. Tony Evers sign the two-year budget at 1:30 a.m. Thursday.

Now, the Legislature has off until Sept. 1.

Meanwhile, the US House continues to try and pass The One Big Beautiful Bill Act in what’s been the longest vote in U.S. history and was ongoing as we wrapped up the show.

Among Chergosky’s takeaways from Wisconsin’s budget passage: both the Assembly and Senate were debating simultaneously — the earlier drama over Evers’ veto pen, artificial intelligence writing the budget, and a lack of trust in the governor, ended up being much ado about nothing. Plus we learned the state had to approve the budget before the U.S. House did, or risk losing $1.2 billion in hospital funding.

Chergosky closed by noting the only big political headline we might get out of Madison before September — whether Gov. Evers announces a run for a third term.