BELMONT — U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D–Black Earth) held a town hall at the Belmont Community Center Saturday, March 8. 

Though Belmont is in Pocan’s Second Congressional District, the location was specifically chosen to give residents of the Third Congressional District — represented by U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R–Prairie du Chien) — a chance to talk to a member of Congress from the state. 

Complaints have risen since Van Orden was first elected  in 2022 about his lack of availability for voters in his district. Pocan invited his congressional peer to be a part of the town hall, but Van Orden declined. 

A personal letter to Pocan — which Pocan read aloud — emphatically said he would not be a part of Pocan’s “political ploy.” 

Van Orden’s office later remarked that actually his absence was due to “late notice” and scheduling issues.

“He’s done zero town halls since his election,” said Pocan.

What was noticeable for Pocan was the sheer size of the town hall. Many of his events in Lafayette County — traditionally a strong Republican-backing territory — gather a few dozen attendees at most. This time around, more than 250 people descended upon Belmont — a number so large that many weren’t allowed inside the building due to fire capacity space limits.

“We’re at capacity,” said Pocan. “I have to follow the law. My name isn’t Trump or Musk.”

The main feature of the town hall for Pocan, a member of the House Committee of Appropriations and House Committee on Education and Labor, breaking down President Donald Trump’s newest tax plan and the harm both the tax cut bill and the Department of Government Efficiency (popularly called Elon Musk’s DOGE) are causing long-term for agencies across America.

“I refer to it as the Republican Ripoff,” said Pocan, who had spent the day before rallying with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a former Democratic presidential candidate, in Kenosha. “This is the Holy Grail for Donald Trump, to get the tax cut bill done. ... It is $4.5 trillion — minimum — of tax break that’s going to go from programs that affect the middle class and those aspiring to be in the middle class to the very wealthiest. Something like 83 percent of the money (over 10 years) would go to the top 1 percent.”

Among the challenges Democrats face is convincing just three Republicans to switch sides on the upcoming tax proposal. The budget cuts would effectively take away about $880 billion from the Department of Health and Human Services — or about the cost of Medicaid. That would take millions off government assisted plans, including veterans.

“In Wisconsin ... 1.3 million residents are enrolled in Medicaid,” said Pocan. “That’s one out of three children, 45 percent of people living with disabilities independently, 55 percent of all seniors in nursing homes. It’s not just a government program, it’s not waste, fraud and abuse, it’s actually real people.”

DOGE, a brand new agency with no oversight, has taken a shoot-first ask-questions-later approach to finding inefficiencies across the government, causing havoc and chaos as Musk’s IT team of programmers rip through source codes to freeze money transfers to various agencies and have effectively fired tens of thousands of federal employees.

“They’re acting like they’re a hedge fund chop shop,” said Pocan. “Elon Musk, an un-elected billionaire, has been given a role that is maybe only second to the president, and I’m not really sure it’s always second ... being able to essentially fire federal employees, cut programs — steal money to try to fund the tax break. A lot of this is not legal.”

The speed and process of which has happened in just the first six weeks of Trump’s second term has already turned into more than 100 court cases to halt or reverse course.

“They’re flooding the zone and we’re all trying to keep up,” said Pocan.

Among the cuts are positions at Social Security and Veterans Affairs offices.

“It’s just going to make it harder to get a hold of somebody,” said Pocan. “Everything goes back to Project 2025. You can find almost everything they’re going to do in that.”

Of the hundreds of written and verbal questions were concerns on private information being collected by Musk’s team, gutting of funds and labor for social security, Veterans Affairs, the Department of Education, Medicaid, the U.S. Agency for International Development — which accounts for less than 1 percent of the federal budget, Pocan said — and international allegiance to Canada, NATO and Ukraine.

“To be a vote in the UN with Belarus, Russia — and Israel joined us — it’s a very small group of rogue nations,” said Pocan, referencing a United Nations vote in regards to the three-year Russia–Ukraine war. “I know there are Republicans who don’t like what’s happening either, and that’s helpful, but it’s only helpful if they say something out loud. Quietly is not helping us. ... This is the worst I’ve seen it in my 12 years in Congress.”

The town hall lasted more than the scheduled hour, and afterwards Pocan  and state Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D–Oregon) met with constituents for another half hour during cleanup.

They encouraged the citizens in attendance to write to, email or call the offices of their representatives and senators — both state and federal offices — to voice their concerns.

“For those of you from the Third District: while Derrick [Van Orden] may not meet with you, he does see the numbers” of calls and inquiries, said Pocan.