Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz faced backlash on social media after defending an individual health care mandate during an exchange with his counterpart, Republican Sen. JD Vance, in their first and only debate Tuesday. the night.
“The issue with this youth thing, whatever it is, is the individual mandate,” Walz said during a conversation about health care and the Affordable Care Act at the CBS News debate in New York City. “And Republicans fought tooth and nail saying Americans should be free to do this.”
Vance then chimed in and asked, “Tim, do you think the individual mandate is a good idea?”
“I think the idea of making sure the risk pool is broad enough to cover everyone — that’s the only way insurance works. When it doesn’t, it collapses. You’re asking before the ACA where we get people out. Look, people know they need to get medical care. “People expect me to be there.”
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz baffled the Internet Tuesday when he accidentally declared that he had “befriended school shooters” during CBS News’ vice presidential debate against Sen. JD Vance. (Getty Images)
Walz went on to say that the ACA “works” but that we can “continue to do better.”
Walz’s comments defending the individual mandate drew criticism on social media, with people pointing out that it was repealed during the Trump administration.
“We eliminated a particularly cruel tax that fell primarily on Americans who earned less than $50,000 a year, forcing them to pay tremendous fines simply because they could not afford government-mandated health plans,” Trump told an audience during the speech on the State of the Union 2018. .
“We repeal the core of the disastrous Obamacare: the individual mandate no longer exists,” he added.
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Minnesota Gov. Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz speaks during a CBS News-hosted vice presidential debate with Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
“Tim Walz just endorsed reinstating the Obamacare mandate, which was a huge tax penalty for Americans who can’t afford to buy insurance,” said Republican Senator Tom Cotton. published in X.
“OMG, Walz defending the individual mandate,” journalist Josh Barro published in X. “Do you know there aren’t any anymore?”
Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance (R-OH) participates in a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center on October 1, 2024 in New York City. This is expected to be the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 general election. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Tim Walz doubles down on his support for Obamacare’s individual mandate tax, by far the least popular part of Obamacare,” said Americans for Tax Reform Director Mike Palicz. published in X.
“This would violate Kamala’s promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000. Trump’s tax cuts repealed the hated individual mandate tax.”
During the debate, Vance argued: “Donald Trump has said that if we allow states to experiment a little on how to cover both the chronically ill and the non-chronically ill, it won’t be just a plan. In fact, he implemented some of these regulations when “He was president of the United States and I think a very good argument can be made that he saved Obamacare, which was working disastrously until Donald Trump came along.”
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Fox News Digital reported Monday that Walz had previously expressed support for single-payer government health care.
“I think that’s probably the path we’re going to end up on,” Walz said in a 2018 debate while running for governor when asked, “Are you in favor of single-payer?”
“And I say this because, to be very clear, there were no protections for pre-existing conditions before the ACA,” Walz continued. “A vote for the ACA was the first time in the history of this nation that we had those protections, and by making sure that people had those protections, by making sure that they were covered, and then by making sure that we focused on preventive care, “People were finally getting that under the ACA, we started to see health outcomes improve and that’s the real key to lowering insurance premium prices.”
