We already knew that Rep. Drunken Van Orden was a mean drunk when he drunk raged at the teenaged senate pages. But now, DVO has shown the world that he is just a mean, backstabbing SOB.
DVO had always claimed to be all in for the farmers who make up a large part of his district, but there had been signs that would cause one to pause to wonder whether that was true. Oh, sure, DVO put up a good show, but it wasn’t hard to find the tells that he was lying through his bourbon-stained teeth. There was the fact that he continuously and willfully failed to produce a farm bill. More recently, there was the time that he started to screech at the professor who testified that congress was looking to cut farmers’ lifelines like SNAP and other important programs.
Last week, he feigned being so outraged by talk of cutting these programs, he got up and walked out on a briefing, hurling insults on his way. But it turns out that that too was just performative bullshit, which is as close as DVO comes to actually supporting farmers:
U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien) has said he’s opposed to Republican efforts to make changes to the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps, even though he voted for the Republican-authored federal budget blueprint that calls for more than $200 billion in cuts to programs including SNAP.
Despite voting for the budget blueprint, earlier this week Van Orden co-sponsored legislation that states he’s against a budget bill that would reduce Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have been searching for $230 billion in budget cuts for their budget reconciliation bill — which also includes a permanent extension of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. Progress on the bill has stalled as some Republicans have objected to the cuts to popular programs in the blueprint.
If DVO was really against the cuts, he would not have voted for the budget buster bill in the first place.
Unfortunately, DVO wasn’t done there. He decided to go after the unthinkable – veterans benefits:
Democrats hit out at Derrick Van Orden after the Wisconsin Republican representative called for the Trump administration to implement cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“So when are we going to cut the VA?” Van Orden asked at a U.S. House hearing on Thursday.
“Derrick Van Orden isn’t even trying to hide it – he wants to cut the VA,” Katie Smith, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told Raw Story on Friday.
“Van Orden’s dangerous agenda is a direct threat to Wisconsin veterans and their access to quality healthcare.”
I’m starting to see why DVO is afraid to meet with his constituents. He can’t physically find enough liquid courage to make him take responsibility for his malicious actions.
Even though the elections are still a year and half away, I don’t think people are about to forget how DVO screwed them over this badly.