To the editor,

Rep. Van Orden (R) has been running political ads to justify his vote on Trump's tax cut bill currently being passed by congressional Republicans. Van Orden's ads refer to it as the "working families tax cut." The ads claim it will "mean higher wages" and the "15% cut will save $10,000 per family." Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? Similar ads have been running across the country and Rep. Tom Tiffany of the 7th has called for quick passage. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? But, as the saying goes, "If it sounds too good to be true...."  means we should probably look at this a little closer.

In that effort, Van Orden's and Tiffany's offices were contacted as to how it would increase wages on June 15. No answer has been received to date. In their defense, it is a 940+ page bill that took the Senate parliamentarian 15+ hours to read so it is not likely either of them have read all of it. After all, what Wisconsinite would vote to sell off the public's (as in ours, yours and mine and the grandkids public land if they knew it was in the bill)? Or for that matter, threaten rural hospitals' viability by reducing Medicaid?

Back to the tax savings claims. According to the 2024 IRS tax code. in order to save $10,000 on a 15% tax cut you would need to have a tax bill somewhere north of $67,000! That would mean a household income of $304,000 filing jointly before the standard deduction. In 2024, the average household income was $106,000, which after the standard deduction put the taxable income at $77,000 and in the 12% bracket, thus  owing $8,672, which means the average savings in the tax bill would be about $1,300, a far cry from Van Orden/Tiffany's claim of $10,000. The Musk/DOGE cuts are going to reduce the average family's access to government services, from park use, to public school, to health care in excess of $1,500/year. The average person is going to lose on this deal. In addition, the national debt will increase between $2.5 trillion and $3 trillion. (Congressional Budget Office)

The House is going to have to vote on this bill again. You may want to give our reps a call. We can't expect too much from Van Orden who is not a native Wisconsinite and has been on the government's payroll/healthcare and now pension most of his life and really doesn't need the services being cut. However, Tiffany is from Elmwood, he should be able to mirror Sen. Tillis and stand up for the locals rather than taking a knee in fealty.

Ron Ginsbach

Elmwood