Walz faces backlash after defending Obama-era mandate repealed by Trump: ‘Huge tax penalty’

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz faced backlash on social media after defending his mandate for individual health care during Tuesday’s arguments with his counterpart, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, during their first and only debate on Tuesday night.

“The issue of young people in this case is a personal issue,” Walz said while talking about health care and the Affordable Care Act during a CBS News debate in New York. “And Republicans fought tooth and nail, saying Americans should be free to do that.”

Vance then interjected, asking, “Tim, do you think an individual power of attorney is a good idea?”

“I think the idea of ​​having enough risk pool to cover everyone is the only way insurance works. When this doesn’t happen, it falls. You’re asking before ACA where we’re taking people. Look, people know they need to get health care. People expect him 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 statements defending the individual mandate were met with criticism on social media, with Internet users pointing out that it was repealed during the Trump administration.

“We eliminated a particularly cruel tax that fell primarily on Americans making less than $50,000 a year, forcing them to pay huge penalties simply because they couldn’t afford government-mandated health plans,” Trump told listeners during his State of the Union address in 2018 .

“We have repealed the essence of the disastrous Obamacare – the individual mandate no longer exists,” he added.

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“Tim Walz just approved the restoration of the Obamacare mandate, which was a huge tax penalty on Americans who can’t afford insurance,” wrote GOP Sen. Tom Cotton in X.

“Oh my God, Walz is defending the individual mandate,” wrote journalist Josh Barro in X. “Does he know there is no such thing anymore?”

“Tim Walz is doubling down on his support for a personal income tax under Obamacare, by far the least popular part of Obamacare,” wrote Americans for Tax Reform director Mike Palicz in X.

“This would violate Kamala’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000. dollars. Trump’s tax cuts repealed the hated personal tax.”

During the debate, Vance argued: “Donald Trump said that if we allow states to do little experiments in covering both chronically ill and non-chronically ill people, it won’t be just a plan. He actually implemented some of this legislation when he was president of the United States. I think you can make a really good argument that it saved Obamacare, which was doing disastrously until Donald Trump came along.

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Fox News Digital reported Monday that Walz has previously expressed support for government-run, single-payer health care.

“I think we’ll probably end there,” Walz said during a 2018 debate while running for governor when asked, “Are you in favor of a single-payer system?”

“I say this because, let’s be clear, there were no protections for pre-existing conditions before the ACA,” Walz continued. “The ACA vote was the first time in the history of this nation where we had these protections and we made sure people had those protections, we made sure they were covered, and then we made sure we focused on preventive care, people finally that they got under the ACA, we started to see improvements in health outcomes, and that’s the real key to lowering insurance premium prices.”