Most of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's tax savings go to high-income households, and its Medicaid and SNAP reductions come out of low-income ones, so in the Congressional Budget Office's accounting a top-tenth household gains roughly $13,600 a year and a household at the bottom loses roughly $1,200; Derrick Van Orden, who represents Wisconsin's 3rd District, decided the House vote on May 22, 2025 and voted for the final law on July 3, 2025.
Van Orden's deciding April 2025 budget vote cleared up to $4.5 trillion in added deficits for tax changes, and a year later, in April 2026, he voted for a resolution asserting that people in the bottom 40 percent of incomes get a 15 percent tax cut from the law. Wisconsin's share of the Medicaid cuts that help offset those tax changes is $6.745 billion over ten years, KFF estimates.
Derrick Van Orden's Votes on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's Tax Cuts and Deficits
- Tax Cuts Weighted to the Top and Safety-Net Cuts at the Bottom Give the Richest Tenth $13,600 a Year and Take $1,200 From the Poorest, Passed With Van Orden's Votes. The House version of H.R. 1 passed 215 to 214 on May 22, 2025, a one-vote margin that Derrick Van Orden's yes supplied; on July 3, 2025 he was a yes again as the final law passed 218 to 214. Thomson Reuters Checkpoint, summarizing the Congressional Budget Office's distributional analysis, reported that "the top decile will receive a windfall of $13,600 every year," while "the lowest-income earners will lose an average $1,200 in overall household resources," in large part because of the Medicaid and SNAP reductions.
- A $4.5 Trillion Deficit Allowance for Tax Changes, Adopted by Van Orden's Deciding Vote in April 2025, Made Room for the Law's Deficit-Financed Tax Cuts. H.Con.Res. 14 in its final form cleared the House on April 10, 2025 by 216 to 214, Van Orden among the yeas, and a single change of heart from him would have left it tied, and a tied resolution fails. The resolution's instructions allowed the Ways and Means Committee to produce tax legislation that would "increase the deficit by not more than $4,500,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034". Higher deficits push up borrowing costs as well: in its dynamic estimate, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the law would "boost interest rates and thus increase interest costs by $405 billion," a finding the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget highlighted.
- A 2026 Resolution Van Orden Voted For Touts a Tax Cut for Lower Earners While Leaving Out the Law's Medicaid and SNAP Cuts. Van Orden's yea on April 16, 2026 helped adopt H.Res. 1156, 219 to 207, which hails the law as the "Working Families Tax Cuts" and says it "will result in a 15 percent tax cut for Americans whose income is in the bottom 40 percent," a figure built on tax changes alone, without the Medicaid and SNAP cuts. Measured that way or not, the bottom does not come out ahead: the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy calculated that "For the poorest fifth of Americans, the average tax change from OBBBA is a small tax increase," while households in the top 1 percent get an average tax cut above $70,000 in 2026.
What the Tax Law Derrick Van Orden Voted For Costs Wisconsin
- The Medicaid cuts that help offset the tax cuts reach 144,000 enrollees in Wisconsin's 3rd District. Medicaid covered 144,000 people in Wisconsin's 3rd District in 2025, nearly one resident in five, KFF counts, and their coverage draws on the federal Medicaid funding that Wisconsin loses under the law, $6.745 billion over ten years.
- Wisconsin's uninsured count rises by 76,000 by 2034 under the law. KFF projects that the law by itself leaves 76,000 more Wisconsinites uninsured in 2034, a range of 57,000 to 95,000, at the same time as households in the nation's top tenth pocket roughly $13,600 a year.
- Repealed energy tax credits are projected to push Wisconsin household energy bills up about $300 a year by 2035. Ending the credits for home energy improvements and winding down those for new wind and solar power could add an extra $300 or so each year to an average Wisconsin household's energy spending by 2035, in an Energy Innovation projection that CNBC reported.
Frequently Asked Questions About Derrick Van Orden on Taxes and the deficit
What is Derrick Van Orden's record on taxes and the deficit under Trump?
Derrick Van Orden cast a deciding House vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on May 22, 2025 and decided the final budget resolution that April; he then voted for the final law on July 3, 2025 and, in April 2026, a resolution commending it. In the Congressional Budget Office's analysis, households in the top tenth come out about $13,600 a year richer from the law and the lowest earners about $1,200 poorer. In its dynamic estimate the budget office also finds the law raising interest rates and so adding $405 billion in interest costs.
How did Derrick Van Orden's votes affect the national debt?
Derrick Van Orden's votes raised it: his deciding April 10, 2025 vote adopted a budget resolution permitting up to $4.5 trillion in deficit increases from tax changes, and the Senate version he then voted for in July carries a bigger ten-year price tag than the House bill, the Yale Budget Lab found.
Why does a low-income family in western Wisconsin come out behind under the tax law Derrick Van Orden voted for?
Because the law Derrick Van Orden voted for pairs its tax changes with Medicaid and SNAP cuts: a Thomson Reuters summary of the budget office analysis says "A large contributing factor for this discrepancy is the Act's cuts to Medicaid," and in Wisconsin those cuts come to $6.745 billion over ten years, KFF estimates.
Last updated: 2026-10-27