To the editor,

As a middle-income earner who depended on the Affordable Care Act until I reached retirement age, I feel personally betrayed, along with all the other hard-working people in Congressional District 3, by Derrick Van Orden, our current Congressional Representative. He voted for the 2025 tax bill, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill - (I call it the One Big Bad Bill) - that slashed nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid funding permanently, the largest cut in our country’s history.

Not only does the tax bill cut Medicaid healthcare for low-income pregnant women, children, adults and elderly adults, and people with disabilities, but this bill uses that money to give tax breaks to the wealthiest people and corporations. On top of that, the bill is timed so we won’t notice the devastating healthcare cuts during this election season because most cuts won’t go into effect until 2027, after which they will keep harming people for decades to come.  

In addition, new work requirements will push even more people off Medicaid, the health care they need, by requiring detailed paperwork every six months and putting up other barriers that people in stressed situations can’t manage, so they just give up. States that have tried these requirements don’t see employment rates increase, but their administrative costs soar, and Americans lose the health care they need. Nationally, more than 90% of adults on Medicaid are already working or qualify for an exemption due to being in chemotherapy treatment for cancer, for example, or having a serious disability, so to target them is nothing but cruelty.

Van Orden’s vote shows his deep disconnect with the working people of CD3 and his inability to recognize the life and death issues they face every day. We need someone who has the courage to fight for and deliver for the working people in CD3 - not Van Orden. Thankfully, Rebecca Cooke, the Third Congressional District Democratic candidate, advocates reversing Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts. Her platform is a positive alternative to Van Orden's. She will have my vote in the November election.  

Krista Spieler

River Falls