ELLSWORTH — Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden visited Ellsworth Thursday, speaking at an Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce meeting, touring the school district referendum construction and attending the Pierce County Fair.
He spoke at length about the recently approved One Big Beautiful Bill.

Van Orden listed no tax on tips, no tax on overtime up to $12,500 and a $6,000 tax break for seniors as some highlights from the bill. He mentioned the state saved about $1 billion for BadgerCare because hospital tax rates were going to be frozen if they were above 3.5% and lowered annually until they get to the 3.5% number. Wisconsin was at 1.8% at the time.

“We got the verbiage changed. A one-sentence thing was worth a billion bucks,” Van Orden said. “To say that whatever the rate was on the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill, that’s what your rate’s going to be frozen at and then lowered to 3.5%, but if you didn’t take the expansion, you don’t get lowered.”

In the approved 2025-27 state budget, legislators approved a hospital tax increase from 1.8% to 6%.

“The increase will raise some $1 billion more annually in federal matching funds that the state can use to pay hospitals for care they provide Medicaid patients,” Wisconsin Watch states.

Van Orden said he then called Gov. Tony Evers to say the budget must be done by the Fourth of July in order to receive this $1 billion for BadgerCare.

“It took me, a sitting member of Congress trying to get the State of Wisconsin $1 billion a year for BadgerCare, three days to get a phone call with the governor. That’s just a fact, it’s not a political statement,” Van Orden said. “[The phone call is] why Gov. Evers signed the state budget at 1:30 in the morning.”

He said BadgerCare is vital for many Wisconsin families, including many of the state’s farmers.

Van Orden also mentioned a $25 billion fund for rural healthcare infrastructure. He said he and a few other lawmakers were given a one-hour notice of the HSHS hospital system closing.

“People were learning that they were shutting down when they’re on their shifts in the ER,” Van Orden said. “Handled in the most unprofessional way possible.”
He said the Wisconsin lawmaker group said replacing HSHS would take potentially $40 billion alone, so $25 billion across the entire nation would not cover the totality. The rural healthcare infrastructure fund was increased to $50 billion with Wisconsin receiving $100 million a year for five years.

“I’ll be frank with you, I don’t think we’re going to be awarded any more projects because everyone is mad at me that we got this stuff done for BadgerCare, and I don’t care. There’s not a single person in Washington D.C. that elected me, none of them,” Van Orden said. “It says House of Representatives. It doesn’t say Republican House of Representatives or Democrat House of Representatives.

“I don’t have time for my Democrat colleagues who are trying to destroy America as we know it, and I don’t have time for my Republican colleagues who are just trying to do things for their own personal satisfaction and ego,” Van Orden said.

Van Orden said the distribution of federal funding is often inequitable in the state, but they are going to closely watch these funds to ensure the rural communities get their share.

“Here’s what happens: Washington D.C. gives money to Madison, and Madison gives money to Madison and Milwaukee,” Van Orden said. “Crystal clear with the state house, if you’re doing that stuff, we’ll shut the faucet off. We will tell them how this is going to be spent.”

One attendee shared that they feel the same thing is happening with school district funding in the state. Van Orden said while he is not on the Education Committee, he realizes this is an important issue and is looking to support change in other ways.

Immigration

Van Orden also spoke on immigration at the Chamber of Commerce meeting. He said illegal immigrants who have committed crimes should be deported, but recognized illegal immigrants are the base to a handful of industries.

“Rocks are heavy, trees are made of wood, gravity is real, the agriculture, hospitality and construction industries are being floated by people that are here illegally,” Van Orden said. “If you seriously threw every person here in the country that’s here illegally out, those three industries would close tomorrow.”

He told about a system where illegal immigrants can self-report through an app, receiving $1,000 and a free flight home. He also discussed a proposal for illegal immigrants to receive one year of temporary protected status if they have been working in the country for more than four years and have not broken another law. After the year, they must return to their original country but can return legally in the future. The benefit to the temporary status, according to Van Orden, is to allow these industries to keep their workforce a little more stable while not taking jobs from the American people since the jobs were already filled for years.

“These [immigrants] are our neighbors, and I don’t care what your skin color is, your language, I don’t care about any of that crap. That’s just crap. You’re just separating people. We are the apex of God’s creation,” Van Orden said.

Agriculture

Van Orden was donning a “Make Agriculture Great Again” hat for much of his visit. When asked what has been done at the national level to benefit farmers in rural Wisconsin, he mentioned the One Big Beautiful Bill brought in Base Acres, secured crop insurance and removed the death tax. The removal of the death tax was a key piece for Van Orden, as it is designed to help family farms continue to be passed down. Death tax is a tax paid on assets upon someone’s death.

“Farms are land rich and cash poor,” Van Orden said. “When you have to give 30% of the value of your farm to the government, that’s when the family farm goes out of business.”

Minutes into the Chamber of Commerce meeting, one attendee said he disagrees with the passing of the bill, citing increased spending that would worsen the national deficit that is already a concern for some Americans.

Van Orden said the bill will cut the deficit by $1.6 trillion.

“Give him a card, and we’ll send you all the actual data, not the garbage you’ve been hearing on TV,” Van Orden said. “I will send you so many files, and graphs, and charts it will make your head spin because I’ve been working on this now for over a year.”

The $1.6 trillion number has been shared by some members of Congress as well as Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who shared in a social media post that it was the “largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years.”

Reports from Time and CNN have estimated the bill will increase the national debt by $2.5 and $2.4 trillion. In a May interview with CNN, Speaker Mike Johnson said the vast difference in calculation is because the Congressional Budget Office does not use “dynamic scoring.”

“What that means is, they don’t account for the growth that will be fostered by all the policies that are in this big piece of legislation. … Just remember the last Trump administration. After the first two years, we brought about the greatest economy in the history of the world, not just the U.S,” a quote from the interview gathered by factcheck.org states.

Some believe, even with the dynamic scoring, the bill will still add over $1 trillion to the deficit.

Trades and Technology Education

The tour of the school led Van Orden to speak on trade schools and technology education.

“It’s vitally important for the United States, not just locally, but for the entire country,” Van Orden said of education of the trades. “It doesn’t matter how much money you throw at infrastructure projects if you don’t have a welder, or a pipe fitter, or someone that can pour concrete, a carpenter. So, the only way we’re going to rebuild this country and continue to build it is through the trades.”

Van Orden said there are a lot of career fields in jeopardy due to artificial intelligence, but things like installing a plumbing line or building an electrical system will not be taken over by AI for a long time. One of Van Orden’s talking points from the day was the bill’s $500 billion toward trade schools. According to the New York Times, the money will help pay for certification in the trades, training and tools.

“President Trump takes this very seriously, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the secretary of labor, she’s a friend of mine, she takes it very seriously and so do I,” Van Orden said.

Ellsworth’s school construction is bringing a large focus to technology education. Van Orden mentioned poetry, music and other liberal arts degrees do contribute to society, but the trades are being experienced every day by everyone, so it is important to protect them. He mentioned Pell Grants for people in the trades is one of the ways to do that.

Another workforce topic he discussed was unions. Van Orden said he voted against the president on the removal of private sector unions, even if he disagrees with a lot of those unions.

“If you want to get up in the morning and go to work and support your family and be in a union, I’m with you. If you want to get up in the morning and go to work and support your family and not be in a union, I’m with you,” Van Orden said. “You shouldn’t either be compelled to be in a union or prevented from being in a union. It should be your choice as an American citizen.”

Local Connection

Van Orden said he and his wife Sara Jane lived in Hager City at one point, so he enjoys coming back to the area when he gets the chance.

“Our district is 13,000 square miles. We’ve got 19 whole and partial counties in the district, so it’s kind of hard to be everywhere,” Van Orden said.

“I need to know what’s important locally. All politics are local,” Van Orden said. “I need to listen to folks. I need to explain to them, you know, the One Big Beautiful Bill is over 1,000 pages, and I read it because it’s developed over time. To be able to explain to somebody in person what’s in this bill is very important. There’s a lot of stuff in there that, unless you track politics like it’s your job, you’re just not going to know that it’s there.”

Two years ago, Van Orden’s daughter Sydney died of cancer. He shared a story of Trump calling him at the time.

“This is what they [the press] don’t want you to know about Donald Trump,” Van Orden said. “My daughter had just died. The next morning I was in the basement of our son-in-law’s house, her widow… I was feeling really bad, and my phone rang and it was a number from Palm Beach, Florida, and I’m like I don’t know anybody from Palm Beach, Florida. I answered it and it was Donald Trump.”

He said the phone call was from one grandfather and father to another, staying on the phone for a long time to help him through the emotions.