Derrick Van Orden stood at a door in western Wisconsin and told voters there have been no cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. None. Not going to be any. Just ‘ending the rampant waste, fraud and abuse.’
His congressman voted for the bill that strips a trillion dollars out of healthcare over the next decade. A trillion. Starting in January. Two hospitals in his own district closed in 2024 and researchers have more on the closure list. But sure, Derrick. No cuts. Just patriotism and freedom and whatever the fuck else you’re selling this week.
Here is what is actually happening on those porches. A 61-year-old woman with lung cancer that has spread to her brain had her clinical trial defunded in January. The drug is the only thing keeping her alive. A colon cancer survivor in Eau Claire is paying $2,700 a month for insurance with a $13,000 deductible because Congress let the Covid-era subsidies expire. A small-business owner working more hours to cover a premium that nearly tripled. The Democratic woman running against Van Orden canceled her own ACA plan because she couldn’t afford it either.
These are the people Derrick Van Orden calls waste, fraud and abuse. A cancer patient. A working stiff paying three mortgage payments a month for the privilege of a deductible he will never meet. A mom who wants to stay home with her kids but can’t because she needs the job for the insurance.
The Republican Party took donations from the healthcare lobby, wrote the bill the lobby asked for, and handed Van Orden a talking point about waste and fraud to recite at the doors. That is the whole goddamn game. They stole the medicine and called it savings. They closed the hospital and called it freedom. They will let your mother die on a waitlist and call it personal responsibility.
Tom Tiffany is running for governor on the same script. JD Vance came to town to sell it. Trump came to Chippewa Falls to talk about farming while his bill closed the cancer ward.
These are Medicare-slashing motherfuckers. Donor-owned dickweeds. Jesus-wrapped vote thieves in elephant-branded coward suits.
Do not let anyone tell you this is complicated. A congressman voted to take your neighbor’s medicine. He calls it waste. The neighbor calls it dying. One of them is lying, and it isn’t the woman having seizures on her porch.
Source story: Wisconsin canvassers push healthcare message in competitive 3rd district.