Opportunity Wisconsin: Van Orden falsely attempts to take credit for $1 billion in hospital funding after voting to gut healthcare access last week

HuffPost: “Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) is peddling a bizarre claim that he was key to securing $1 billion to help hospitals in his state survive the sweeping Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s tax bill. Except that he wasn’t — and he voted for Trump’s bill.”

MADISON, Wis. – In case you missed it, Congressman Derrick Van Orden was caught falsely taking credit for securing $1 billion to help Wisconsin hospitals survive the very Medicaid cuts he voted for in the Republican Tax Law. 

Multiple reports have exposed the fact that Van Orden played no role in the state budget negotiations that secured the funding, despite repeated claims on social media that he was instrumental in the process. In fact, Van Orden voted twice for the GOP Tax Law that is threatening funding for Wisconsin hospitals and takes healthcare from hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites. 

“Congressman Van Orden is trying to have it both ways – he votes for a bill that could kick more than 276,000 Wisconsinites off their health insurance and put rural hospitals at risk, then tries to take credit for someone else’s work to fix the problems he created,” said Opportunity Wisconsin Deputy Program Director Rowan Gravlin. “Van Orden can’t hide from his vote. Wisconsin families know the truth and deserve a straight answer about why he voted to gut Medicaid and take healthcare away from his constituents.”

HuffPost: GOP Rep. Weirdly Lies About Helping His State Survive The Medicaid Cuts He Voted For

• Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) is peddling a bizarre claim that he was key to securing $1 billion to help hospitals in his state survive the sweeping Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s tax bill. Except that he wasn’t — and he voted for Trump’s bill.
   
• Until recently, Wisconsin had a very low provider tax rate compared to other states. Because Trump’s tax bill would have frozen that tax rate at its low level, state legislators rushed to increase the rate in their budget so Wisconsin could be grandfathered into Trump’s tax law at the maximum level, meaning it will now get an extra $1 billion in federal money every year.
   
• But Evers’ spokesperson told HuffPost on Tuesday that Van Orden played no role in the monthslong negotiations between the governor and state legislators on their budget, or on their efforts to move quickly to secure the extra $1 billion to offset Medicaid cuts.
   
• “Congressman Van Orden never personally advocated to the governor or our office for the hospital assessment provision to be included in the state budget until after it was clearly already part of the state budget, he had nothing to do with the hospital assessment being part of bipartisan state budget negotiations with Republican leaders, and he had nothing to do with the fact that the governor decided to enact the state budget before the federal reconciliation bill was signed,” Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a statement.
   
• Van Orden didn’t reach out to the governor’s office until June 30, after Evers and Republican state leaders had already reached a bipartisan state budget agreement.
   
• “If Congressman Van Orden wanted to take credit for supporting Medicaid and protecting Wisconsinites’ access to healthcare, perhaps he shouldn’t have voted to gut Medicaid and kick 250,000 Wisconsinites off their healthcare.”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Derrick Van Orden claims credit for Wisconsin’s extra Medicaid dollars after voting to cut the program

• After voting for the federal measure that threatened to cause tens of thousands of Wisconsinites to lose Medicaid coverage, the battleground district Republican has attempted to take credit for securing additional Medicaid funding through the state budget.
   
• Evers’s office, however, said Van Orden had nothing to do with that state’s scramble to secure Medicaid funding ahead of the enactment of the bill Van Orden supported that would slash federal Medicaid dollars.
   
• The governor’s office, though, has noted Evers had already planned to sign the state budget before Van Orden’s involvement and ahead of the federal bill’s enactment and had been working for months on a provision to raise the state’s provider tax on hospitals.
   
• “Derrick had zero role with what the state legislature and the Governor did, other than causing the problem that made them need to do something,” Rep. Mark Pocan wrote on X.