The concern was that Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, now 76, was dealing with too many health issues to effectively lead the Senate. But Ruggerio maintained the presidency, and some of those who opposed him fell out of favor with his leadership. So can the Senate make progress now on key issues facing Rhode Island? Is there a role for state lawmakers in responding to the Trump administration? And what is the way forward on such issues as healthcare and the environment?
This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in-depth with state Senator Linda Ujifusa.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Donnis: Welcome to the Public’s Radio.
Ujifusa: Thank you, Ian. It’s great to be here.
Donnis: Is there a role for legislative Democrats like yourself in responding to the Trump administration? And if so, what does that look like?
Ujifusa: So I think we have a huge role to play because obviously what’s happening at the federal government level is at best gridlock for us. And there are so many issues that we have to tackle, be it environmental, health care, fairer cost of living prices for folks. And it’s you know, we’re basically seeing a fire hose of proposals. And I think his goal is to divide and also to overwhelm. And I think the ability of legislators to focus on getting good bills passed is something that we have to act on.
Donnis: Do you think Governor McKee has been vocal enough in responding to the Trump administration?
Ujifusa: Well, you know, that’s the thing. Responding is not enough. That is actually, I think, his goal, the current president’s goal to make us continue to be responsive. I’m sure you played sports at some time, you know, that just puts you on defense and it distracts you from being able to pursue the goals you want to pursue.
Donnis: But the question really is about Governor McKee, and he seems a little more muted than some other elected officials in Rhode Island. Do you think he’s doing enough on this?
Ujifusa: I don’t think that it’s necessary again for people to sit around responding all the time to the president’s, frankly, outrageous behavior and statements, that is a distraction. And I think, you know, that happens far too much. We’ve got to focus on getting the things we want done accomplished.
Donnis: You were among the Rhode Island Senate Democrats this week voting against a resolution congratulating President Trump on his election and inauguration. Certainly, President Trump is unpopular among Democrats, but Republicans say this was bad form, that these kind of resolutions have been supported in a bipartisan way going back many decades. How do you respond?
Right. So I voted against the Senate resolution because it was not a simple congratulatory resolution. If you read it, it was a very long list of misleading statements that I did not want to even appear to support.
Donnis: All right. How many, how, how much blame do you place on Democrats for losing the support of a majority of American voters?
Ujifusa: I don’t blame the party so much as I do, frankly, individuals who are able to control the news that people are able to access. As well as the mountains of lawyers and lobbyists who exercise their control over the people who are in office.
Donnis: What do you think Democrats need to do differently to win back more voters?
Ujifusa: I think they need to address the issues that I’m hearing at the doors. You know, it’s very consistent. People are concerned about inflation. People are concerned about not being able to stay in the communities they grew up in. They feel that the government is wasting their tax dollars. And I think we need to just tackle those issues head on. Rather than somehow appear to pivot or make, not light of them, but more just smooth over concerns.
Donnis: You were among a group of senators that pushed unsuccessfully for different leadership in the Rhode Island Senate. That didn’t work out the way that your faction wanted it to. Now we’re a few weeks into the new legislative session. I wonder if your concerns about Senate President Dominick Ruggiero and how his ability to lead the Senate remain in place.
Ujifusa: I’ll tell you what I told him to his face and it is this: I voted against him for the same reasons that his closest family and friends probably advised him not to run. And that is that he has to prioritize his health. And that is impossible if he is Senate President. You can’t do both. I also want to add, even those of us who voted against him certainly have respect for his service. And I’ll tell you told me relax, be yourself, all right. I feel that what we really need to do to make the Senate function better, and it is not, at this point, we have the elected leadership we have, and it’s to do the following. We have to start treating each other like family and you might think, well, what does that mean? For me, it means don’t clean up for me, serve me leftovers and insult me to my face. And what I mean by that is we need to have the ability among all the people in the Senate, especially with leadership, to be able to say to each other, “Hey, you’re full of poop.” And the others to come back and say, “No, you’re full of poop.” Just as you would with your family. And that kind of conversation, I think, allows us to actually hear each other and have a discussion that illuminates all the pros and cons.
Donnis: You don’t think that’s happening now?
Ujifusa: I think there’s generational issues. You know, I didn’t grow up with leadership, they don’t know who I am, and I feel like it’s hard to build that kind of trust in the kind of interactions we’ve been allowed to have, and it just has to be that going forward that we’re able to communicate more with each other and not be, always You know, pussyfooting around.
Donnis: We’re talking here with State Senator Linda Ujifusa, a Democrat from Portsmouth, and health care is a big issue for you. We know that Rhode Island faces a lot of challenges with health care, a lack of primary care doctors, financially troubled hospitals, lower reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare than some other nearby states, and how that puts Rhode Island at a disadvantage. Do you think the state has an effective strategy for dealing with all of this?
Ujifusa: You know, frankly, I do not because I think the majority of health care policy folks believe that the reason health care is out of control, falling apart has to do with overutilization by patients and doctors. That is the theme that you’ll see repeated over and over again. And that is why they will push this idea that there should be capitation. Which means, “It’s those greedy patients and doctors. We’ve got to control them. The only way to do that is to hand them a bag of money and say, Hey, live within this, live within your means.”
Donnis: If that’s the problem, what is the solution?
Ujifusa: The solution really, well, first of all, that isn’t the problem. That is not the problem. The problem is that unlike every other industrialized nation in the world, we do not have single payer, which means that we have this group of middlemen health insurance companies that take money from patients, give some of it to healthcare providers and keep a big chunk of it. And it’s been estimated that one third of every health care dollar does not go to actual health care because it goes towards administrative costs and preventing us from negotiating for drug prices as a nation like Canada does.
Donnis: How would you pay for a single payer system?
Ujifusa: It’s already being paid for, believe it or not. We pay twice per capita what other industrialized countries pay for health insurance. And they have better health outcomes. They see their doctors more. They stay in the hospital more. They are not having hospitals go out of business. And so, you know, we are already paying for it. We pay about $11,000 per person. And Canada pays about, I think, $5,500. So we’re paying for it already through taxes. that pay for things like Medicaid, or the VA, or whatever, and through your premium payments.
Donnis: You first won election in 2022, the same year as your colleague, Senator Victoria Gu from Charlestown. The two of you were the first Asian American state lawmakers elected in Rhode Island. What difference, from your perspective, has that made in the legislature?
Ujifusa: Well, I think, you know, we’re always I think referred to as the model minority, and in some ways, very marginalized. I feel like Senator Gu and I have been able to bring attention to the contributions that different Asian groups in Rhode Island bring to the state. It’s an uphill battle because I think I read somewhere that when asked to name a famous Asian American, people were saying Jackie Chan, and first of all, he’s not American. And secondly, you know, it’s, very sad that so many business people, so many science researchers, so many other Asians who have contributed to our community are just completely under the radar. So I believe we have been having AAPI events to bring folks in and showcase what the Asian American community brings to the state.
Donnis: With about a minute left, tell me your top legislative priorities for the year.
Ujifusa: A lot of my bills have to do with health care. So my top priorities are to reform our medicaid systems, because which it is 90 percent run by private insurers. There are states like Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Connecticut that have removed or reined in the private insurance company middleman, and we should follow their lead. And I’m happy to say that some of my suggestions are in the governor’s budget and model contracts with insurers prepared by EOHHS. And I also want to get rid of prior authorizations as much as possible. I have a few bills on that, and it’s a top priority of the healthcare providers who are trying to take care of you, but being blocked, so please support them all. And also I’m not a one trick pony besides the healthcare bills. I also have bills to protect seniors, including ones to have tax breaks to help with rental and property tax bills. I have bills about the environment, including having the polluters pay and also getting more FTE in our RIDEM to handle forest fires.
Donnis: Let me stop you there if I could, because we are out of time. Thank you very much for joining us. State Senator Linda Ujifusa, Democrat from Portsmouth.
Ujifusa: Thank you.
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Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. is spearheading an effort to use eminent domain to short-circuit an envisioned housing development. Polisena argues the proposed 250-plus unit complex would pose too much of a burden on local services in Johnston, although some believe the project is needed to make progress against the housing crisis. The big question, though, is what would trigger House Speaker Joe Shekarchi to take a more punitive approach to communities that resist new housing. You can read more about that in my Friday TGIF politics column, posting around 4 this afternoon on X, Bluesky, Threads, Facebook, and at thepublicsradio.org/TGIF.
That’s it for our show. Political Roundtable is a production of The Public’s Radio. Our producer is James Baumgartner. Our editor is Alex Nunes. I’m Ian Donnis, and I’ll see you on the radio.
