Derrick Van Orden screams at a witness while defending cuts to food aid

Nationally known for his angry outbursts, the Wisconsin congressman angrily attacked critics of the House Republican budget plan to slash $230 billion in USDA programs.

Making the mathematically impossible claim that $230 billion in cuts would not cut “a nickel” from the benefits of citizens who were “lawfully” receiving them, US Rep. Derrick Van Orden screamed at and belittled an economist who was testifying before the House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. 

“You’re wrong,” Van Orden hollered at Dr. Diane Schanzenbach, a Northwestern University professor who works to improve nutrition education and health programs—after she testified about the harm that would be done to some families if stringent work requirements were added to food assistance programs like SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, colloquially known as food stamps for low-income households.

“There’s billions and billions and billions of dollars in fraud with these programs,” Van Orden asserted, without presenting evidence. “Refining a program does not say ‘getting rid of this program.’”

Van Orden, no stranger to angry outbursts, questionable conduct, online insults, and lingering questions about his presence on the US Capitol grounds during the January 6 insurrection, said the program was different than when his family was on food stamps and “eating government cheese.”

“Things have changed,” Van Orden said about Democrats and other critics of the House Republican budget plan. “The same people that told you during the last budgetary cycle that Republicans are going to cut Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, WIC, SNAP, they lied to you. They lied openly to the American public.”

“They’re the same people that lied to you,” Van Orden said, his voice growing louder, “and are fear mongering with hungry children and those most in need in our country. It’s unacceptable and it’s despicable. This should be a nonpartisan committee.”

“They lied!” he screamed. “I’m over it! Stop it!”

Turning to Schanzenbach, he asked how many years of education she had, only to interrupt her to say that his record as a high school dropout (later attending college in his 40s and law school in his 50s) 

“The advantage of being a high school dropout is what you don’t have. Like, you don’t get it,” Van Orden said, making the claim that work requirements that get people off of food assistance is a “success.”

Earlier, Schanzenbach and others noted that a punitive work requirement to older adults up to age 65, parents and grandparents in households with children aged 7 or older, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, youth who have aged out of foster care, and people who live in areas without sufficient jobs would take away SNAP benefits to approximately three million people in an average month. This would leave millions left to rely on unstable minimum wage jobs or give up seeking benefits altogether because of the red tape required to prove they worked or tried to find work. 

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning research firm, says the math shows that lawmakers cannot cut $230 billion — or anything close to that amount — from SNAP without slashing benefits, restricting eligibility, or some combination of both in a program that helps 40 million people afford groceries.

Democrats countered that addressing inflation and price gouging and providing more vocational and employment assistance would do more good than slashing food aid.

“Let me get this straight,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). “You guys tanked the economy. You drive up food prices, and your solution is to cut food assistance for people who already struggle to afford food.”

McGovern called the proposal “insane,” comparing it to “setting the house on fire and slashing the fire department’s budget at the same time.”

Van Orden concluded his remarks by accusing critics of trying to “enslave” and repress Americans in a cycle of poverty. He was followed in the witness questioning by Rep. Adam Gray (D-California).

“Dr. Schanzenbach,” he began, “it’s hard to take some of the people here seriously, some of the nonsense I’ve got to listen to since I came to Washington.”