MADISON, Wis. — Today, an opinion piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel exposed WI-03 Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s betrayal of the people of Wisconsin. The piece details how Van Orden sold out Wisconsinites by voting for the GOP’s Big Ugly Bill, giving tax breaks to billionaires while threatening construction jobs and raising energy prices. It also highlights how his vote endangers rural health care, with Medicaid cuts putting rural hospitals at risk of closure.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Opinion: Van Orden chose GOP party bosses over workers on Big Beautiful Bill Act
By: Matt Gahns | 9/5/25
Key points below:
- Wisconsin’s building trades built the infrastructure that powers this state. We build the schools, the hospitals, the power plants. We’re the ones who show up every day, work hard, and keep Wisconsin running.
- Lately, a lot of that work is thanks to clean energy tax credits. The same tax credits Rep. Derrick Van Orden just voted to kill in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires. Those credits are supporting more than 30 projects across his own district.
- Here’s how it always works with Van Orden: His Republican bosses in D.C. snap their fingers, and he jumps. Doesn’t matter what it costs Wisconsin workers. Doesn’t matter how many jobs get killed. This time, they told him to kill the clean energy tax credits to pay for tax breaks for billionaires. And like always, he did exactly what they said.
- The result? Over $200 billion slashed from wind, solar, nuclear, and other energy projects across the country. In Wisconsin alone, we’re looking at $2 billion in threatened investments and thousands of construction jobs on the chopping block. In a true lose-lose situation, these cuts will also slow down energy supply while demand is at an all-time high — straining the grid and driving up everyone’s utility bills.
- Van Orden has bragged about vote that hurts constituents
- The risk to that investment and the loss of those jobs falls directly on the shoulders of Van Orden, who has proudly bragged about his vote. This is Van Orden’s playbook every time. He goes to Washington, votes however the special interests tell him to, then comes back to Wisconsin acting like he’s some kind of champion for regular folks.
- Sure enough, since the bill’s passage, Van Orden has been working hard to spin what this bill will mean for all of us back home. But here’s what his vote actually did:
- Killed jobs: $15.5 billion in canceled energy investments across the country just from January to June – and that was just from the threat of this bill passing
- Raised our energy costs: Less energy supply means higher bills for working families
- Screwed over rural healthcare: Cut $1 trillion from Medicaid while rural hospitals are already closing
- Gave handouts to the rich: Millionaires get $90,000 tax cuts while families making under $50k get $300
- Think about that. Van Orden gave his wealthy donors a tax break worth more than many people make in two years of working, while our tax cut won’t even cover the higher energy bills his vote is causing.
- Ultimately, Van Orden voted to cut investments, kill jobs, drive up energy costs, put rural hospitals at risk, and harm his constituents. He misled the hard-working families in this district and voted against their best interests. He stuck us with the bill for tax breaks for the wealthy.
- Medicaid cuts will hurt rural hospitals in Wisconsin
- He’ll probably hold some town halls, put on his cowboy boots, and tell us how he “fought hard” for rural healthcare funding. But $50 billion spread across the whole country doesn’t fix the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts he voted for. It’s like putting a band-aid on a gushing artery.
- Meanwhile, those same rural hospitals that are already hanging by a thread? They’re about to lose even more Medicaid reimbursements. We’ve already lost two hospitals in Western Wisconsin. How many more have to close before Van Orden admits what his votes are costing us?
- We put in honest work for honest pay, and we expect our representatives to have our backs. We deserve someone who fights for Wisconsin workers. Instead, we have a congressman who sells us out every time he flies out to Washington.
- Van Orden had a choice. He could have stood with the 40,000 building trades workers across Wisconsin who were counting on those clean energy jobs. Instead, he chose his party bosses and their billionaire friends.
