Five members of Congress met with Wisconsinites to answer questions and hear personal stories of harm after billionaires got a break and everyday Americans got the bill.
RACINE, Wis. (July 8, 2026) – Tonight, Families Over Billionaires, Progressive Caucus Action Fund, and Better Taxes Action Fund held a Progress for the People town hall in Racine as part of the Who Pays? National Bus Tour. The event brought together U.S. Congresspeople with residents to do what Donald Trump and Republicans like WI-1’s Rep. Bryan Steil refuse to: hear from the people directly affected by the “The One Big Beautiful Bill” Act (OBBBA).
Signed into law on July 4th last year, the OBBBA cut Medicaid and SNAP to deliver $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to billionaires and corporations. Since then, more than 22,000 Wisconsinites have lost their SNAP benefits, and more than 230,000 are expected to lose Medicaid once the law is fully implemented.
Racine was ninth on the 17-stop nationwide Who Pays? Bus tour, which started in Portland, ME on June 30th. The tour will hit 13 states before ending on July 16th in Tucson, Arizona. At every stop, local voices and leaders tell the story behind the headlines.
HIGHLIGHTS
Families Over Billionaires Executive Director Kristen Crowell: “We did the work. We made the phone calls. You all knocked over 12,000 doors last year, urging every single person to call and register that we stand in opposition to giving trillions of our tax dollars to the ultra rich, while taking away health care and food assistance from our communities. One year later, the data is in. We weren’t hyperbolic, we were telling the truth. Republican Congressman Bryan Steil turned his back on all of us.”
U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-04): “We’ve transferred wealth from regular people, and there’s no such thing as middle class anymore. It is literally half the wealthiest people and the rest of us who are straining and struggling to stay alive. We’re asking citizens to turn down their air conditioning in a heat wave, while data centers run day and night processing our information.
U.S. Congressman Mark Pocan (WI-02): “We’re all paying too much for too many common items. It’s harder and harder to get by. Because of the use of tariffs, the way Donald Trump has used them, we’re paying more for groceries and everyday goods. Because of the big ugly bill that was passed last year. We’re paying more for health care and for utilities. Because of an illegal war in Iran, we’re paying more for gas at the pump, and farmers are paying more for diesel fuel that they’re using in their fields. We’re all paying too much, so costs are killing us. In addition to that, we’re paying more for healthcare under that big ugly bill that took away health care. … What did they have to cut all that for? Well, tax cuts for the wealthiest.”
U.S. Congressman Jim McGovern (MA-02): “We are the richest country in the history of the world, and there are 48 million Americans who are hungry or food insecure. I am ashamed of that reality, that that is happening in this country. Hunger is a political condition, and by that I mean we know what to do. We have the money and we’re not putting off tax cuts for billionaires that are adding $4 trillion to the debt. We have a defense budget that is so big that even Dr. Strangelove would be impressed, $1.6 trillion. And yet we will not fund the programs, and we will not fund the initiatives to end hunger in this country. It is shameful.”
U.S. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA-07): “They’re trying to turn us against each other and are doing it with one thing in mind: that they want the wealth to be concentrated in the very few. They want us to be distracted by thinking that somebody else is taking our jobs. That somebody else is creating the problems with your gas bill and your grocery bill. But that is not the case.”
U.S. Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03): “We’re not just talking about issues that are impacting our communities, we actually understand them because we’ve lived them. We understand them because we talk to our neighbors. Whether it’s health care, housing, education, immigration, infrastructure, clean air, clean water. The point is, this system is rigged against you, and it’s our responsibility to have a Congress that works for you to stop sending money to bomb people and actually put money to fund people.”
This Progress for the People town hall was sponsored by Progressive Caucus Action Fund, Families Over Billionaires, and The Better Taxes Action Fund. Event partners include: 350 Wisconsin Action, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Family Friendly Wisconsin, For Our Future Wisconsin Action Fund, Hands Off Kenosha, IBEW Wisconsin State Conference, Main Street Action, Opportunity Wisconsin, Our Wisconsin Revolution, Progressive Caucus Action Fund, Voces de la Frontera Action, Wisconsin Education Association Council, and Working Families Power.
Who Pays? bus tour national partners include: Gen Z For Change, Protect Our Care, Committee to Protect Health Care, National Women’s Law Center, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, DemCast USA, National Nurses United, Oxfam, Unrig Our Economy, Americans for Tax Fairness and State Revenue Alliance.
