Walz faces backlash after defending Obama mandate overturned by Trump: ‘Big tax penalty’

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz faced criticism on social media after he defended the individual mandate for health care during a back-and-forth with his running mate, Republican Sen. JD Vance, in their first and only debate Tuesday night.

“The question about this for young people, whether or not, that’s an individual mandate,” Walz said while talking about health care and the Affordable Care Act in a CBS News interview in New York City. “And Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to say that the American people should be free to do this.”

Vance then interjected, asking, “Tim do you think individual authority is a good idea?”

“I think the idea of ​​making sure the risk pool is wide enough to cover everybody – that’s the only way insurance works. If it doesn’t, it crashes. He asks pre-ACA where we get people out. Look, people know they need health care. People expect it to be there. “

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Walz went on to say that the ACA is “working” but “we can continue to do better.”

Walz’s comments in defense of human rights have drawn criticism on social media, with people pointing out that they have been scrapped during the Trump administration.

“We’ve removed a brutal tax that falls heavily on Americans making less than $50,000 a year — forcing them to pay huge penalties because they can’t afford government-mandated health care,” Trump told the audience during his 2018 State of the Union address. .

“We’ve gutted the heart of the disastrous Obamacare — the individual mandate is gone,” he added.

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Elected as vice president of the Democratic Alliance, Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News, with Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, New York. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

“Tim Walz recently approved the reauthorization of Obamacare that was a huge tax penalty for Americans who can’t afford insurance,” Sen. Tom Cotton of the GOP wrote in X.

“Oh my god, Walz defends the authority of the individual,” journalist Josh Barro wrote in X. “Do you know it’s gone?”

Republican vice president Sen. 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 last vice presidential debate in the 2024 general election. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“Tim Walz is doubling down on his support for the Obamacare mandate tax, a very small part of Obamacare,” Americans for Tax Reform Director Mike Palicz told X.

“This would break Kamala’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400K. The Trump Tax Cuts repealed the hated individual tax.”

During the debate, Vance argued, “Donald Trump said if we allow states to explore a little bit how to deal with the very sick, but not the sick, it’s just not a plan. Regulations while he was President of the United States And I think you can make a good argument that he should save Obamacare, which was doing badly until Donald Trump came.

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Fox News Digital reported Monday that Walz has previously voiced his support for single-payer health care.

“I think that’s probably where we end up,” Walz said in a 2018 interview while running for governor when asked, “Are you for single payer?”

“And I say that because, to be very clear about this, there were no pre-ACA protections,” Walz continued. “Voting for the ACA was the first time in the history of this nation that we had those protections and making sure that people have that protection, making sure that they’re covered, and then making sure that we focus on preventive care, ultimately people get that under protective assistance. The ACA, we started to see health outcomes improve and that’s the real key to lowering insurance prices. “