'I'm a member of Congress': GOP rep erupts after being accused of doing Trump's bidding
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson walks, as Republican lawmakers struggle to pass U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 2, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
One House Republican who is in voting yes on H.R. 1 (President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act") is bristling at the suggestion that he's a rubber stamp for the White House.
NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Melanie Zanona tweeted Wednesday that Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) didn't take kindly to the idea that Republicans simply "do w[h]atever Trump says." He reportedly used profanity in his official statement to Zanona as he emphasized his argument that he votes with his constituents in mind.
“The president of the United States didn't give us an assignment. We're not a bunch of little b-----s around here okay?" Van Orden said. "I'm a member of Congress. I represent almost 800,000 Wisconsinnites[sic].”
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However, Van Orden's assertion that he's voting for the legislation because his constituents want it would be an anomaly, given the overwhelming unpopularity of Trump's first domestic policy package of his second term. A Quinnipiac University poll from late June found that 59% of respondents opposed the bill, while just 29% of those polled were in favor of it.
The bill is particularly reviled due to its cuts to Medicaid — the program that provides health insurance for low-income and disabled Americans. The Senate version of the bill cuts Medicaid by approximately $1 trillion over a ten-year period in order to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts (that primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans). Roughly 11.8 million Americans could lose their health insurance if the Senate's version of the bill becomes law, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
H.R. 1 also cuts funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) by hundreds of billions of dollars, which could throw nearly three million Americans off of food stamps. If signed into law, SNAP could see its funding reduced by roughly 20% — the largest cut in history.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), Wisconsin' 3rd Congressional District (which Van Orden represents) has more than 150,000 Medicaid beneficiaries who could lose their health insurance if Trump's budget bill passes. And 2022 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that there are almost 700,000 Badger State residents who rely on SNAP to afford food.
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