Fischbach Doesn't Care about You

By Don Johnson and Sara Suda

With her vote to pass into law President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” Rep. Fischbach confirms what we began to suspect during a recent visit to her D.C. office: that Moorhead’s representative has stunningly little regard for the well-being of her youngest constituents.

In May, our family of three traveled to Washington, DC to represent Minnesota in “ Strolling Thunder ,” an annual lobbying event sponsored by the non-profit, non-partisan children’s research and advocacy group Zero to Three. Each May, Strolling Thunder brings families from every state to DC to raise awareness of issues affecting young children. In addition to a rally that included speakers from both sides of the aisle and a procession to the Capitol, each family visits the offices of their members of Congress, meeting with staff and occasionally the representative or senator themselves to discuss concerns ranging from parental leave to affordable childcare and dilemmas facing children with disabilities.

Our meetings in the offices of Sens. Smith and Klobuchar were informative and respectful – staff listened attentively to our concerns and even when not able to satisfy our questions promised to give the matters further consideration. Smith even took time out of her busy day to play with our son, giving our family a memory we will treasure the rest of our lives.

By contrast, our visit to Rep. Fischbach’s office left us feeling not only unheard but ill-served as constituents. We met with a member of the legislative staff who, while friendly enough, seemed to have little comprehension about pressing issues affecting young children – curious on the staff of a congresswoman who counts health care as one of her signature issues. The aide did not even seem to know much about Moorhead, despite it being the largest municipality in the 7^th District. Little wonder she does not hold town halls and has only visited our city a handful of times during her tenure as our representative.

In response to our concerns about the hardships facing young children in northwest Minnesota, Fischbach’s staffer offered only repeated assurances that the representative would vote for Trump’s bill no matter what: even if it contained drastic cuts to the Medicaid services, SNAP benefits, rural hospitals upon which thousands of children in the 7^th District rely. When pressed about why, the only answer Fischbach’s office could muster was that the bill would prevent undocumented immigrants and “freeloaders” from accessing services they are not entitled to.

Whether Fischbach wishes to acknowledge it or not, the stark fact is that the "big, beautiful bill" will slash Medicaid funding by around 10%, cut food assistance for needy families by 20%, and eliminate grants that fund rural hospitals. In District 7, nearly than 230,000 people, more than 75,000 of whom are children, stand to suffer from the Medicaid cuts alone. Our district also contains dozens of rural hospitals, including major facilities in Detroit Lakes and Alexandria. Since our district has fewer than 17,000 foreign-born residents – only 5,000 of whom are children, and most of whom have legal status – most of those who lose benefits will be the very same law-abiding American and Tribal citizens that Fischbach claims to support.

Fischbach has in large part staked her political career on protecting the rights of the unborn. It is a shame that she has so little regard for those same children’s well-being when they emerge from the womb. It leaves one to wonder whether she is actually concerned with abuse of the system or whether her vote has more to do with loyalty to Trump and preservation of tax cuts for the wealthiest Minnesotans.