WASHINGTON — Emmett Fisher is a farmer in Hager City, Wisconsin. He was Congressman Mark Pocan’s guest at President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday evening.
“We farm because that's what we want to be doing, and it's a passion as well as a livelihood, and part of that is feeding our community and our friends and our neighbors,” Fisher said.
Fisher said people come to Oxheart Farm to buy staples like milk, vegetables and yogurt. He and his family rely on Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded program that provides healthcare to lower-income Americans.
“Things are tight, and it would be a real blow to lose BadgerCare,” Fisher said. “I’m sure we would figure it out, but at the end of the day, it would be our customers that would have the most to lose, I feel like, because we’re bright people, we’d figure out how to make our house payment, and we’d find another way, but the farm might not survive.”
House Republicans have passed a budget framework that aims to slash taxes by $4.5 trillion and cut federal spending by $2 trillion over the next decade. Republicans insist Medicaid benefits will not be cut.
“We’re not gonna touch it,” Trump said.
Democrats warn that Republicans want to slash the budget so much, Medicaid cuts are unavoidable.
“If they don’t understand the math, it is about fourth-grade-level math, but they should just retake that,” said Pocan, D-Madison. “But at the end of the day, it’s going to have a real impact on people.”
Fisher said he is also concerned about the tariffs the president has imposed on China, Mexico and Canada. He said he’s already heard from the company he sources milk bottles from, and he’s been warned that prices will go up.
“The price of our milk bottle is going to go from $3 to $5 and change,” he said.
The president and his advisor, billionaire Elon Musk, have embarked on a massive government cost-cutting effort, which has resulted in firing federal workers, dismantling agencies, and withholding grants. Fisher said he’s had two federal grants paused, one to plant vegetative cover on environmentally sensitive acreage, and another to install solar panels to offset utility costs.
“We’re stressed,” Fisher said. “It’s a lot. The uncertainty is the hardest part.”
Correction: A previous version of this story listed the wrong amount of federal spending being cut. This error has been corrected. (March 5, 2025)
