“Stop the Billionaire Giveaway” tour stops in La Crosse’s Burns Park

A national bus tour, aimed at preventing tax breaks for billionaires, made its way to La Crosse on Tuesday.

A group called, Fair Share America, held a late-morning rally at Burns Park downtown, calling on Congress to vote against a budget bill that would benefit rich people while making cuts in certain government programs.

Around 100 attended the rally, and many later walked to the nearby office of US House Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien) as part of the protest.

Khadijah Islam was among the local speakers. Islam took issue with critics who say opponents of the Trump budget plan must hate America.

“We demand the protection of Medicaid coverage for 16 million Americans, primarily children, the elderly, veterans, and people living with a disability,” Islam said, as the park audience cheered. “How very, very greedy of us.”

La Crosse was the 19th stop on the cross country tour, which began just over a week ago, and included stops in Racine and Oshkosh.

The tour is scheduled to run until July 14.

Pastor Libby Howe, from La Crescent’s Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, is upset that some supporters of the bill defend themselves as being Christians.

“It’s not Christian,” Howe said. “There’s nothing Christian about it. There’s nothing ‘Jesus’ about this bill. There’s nothing ‘God’ about this bill. There’s nothing good about it.”

While the rally was in progress, a spectator announced that the U.S. Senate had just voted in favor of the bill, leading local spectators to boo.