Politico gathered 55 fun facts about Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s choice to run as her vice-president.
JD Vance said that Walz is even more “radical left” than Harris. That means Walz thinks people should have affordable health care (when his father died of cancer, his mother had to go to work to pay off the medical debt); he believes children should get free meals in school (feeding kids! very “radical”); he supports veterans; he opposes school vouchers; he is pro-union and passed legislation to protect unions; he supports abortion and passed legislation to protect women’s right to choose.
That sounds centrist and sensible to me, no matter what Vance says. Vance’s smear says more about him than about Walz.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
About health care:
66.5% of bankruptcies in the United States are caused by Medical Expenses.
And according to BankruptcyWatch, “Bankruptcy filings continue their upward trajectory.” USA Today reports, “Filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy typically costs between $1,800 and $2,300… Chapter 13 filing can cost between $4,500 and $5,300.” And about 530,000 bankruptcy cases annually are caused by medical debt.
Canada is in 2nd place at 19%
Australia 3rd place at 10%
The UK is in 4th place at 8.2%
26 million US citizens remain uninsured for medical care.
68.5 million US adults do not have dental insurance and more than 56 million live in areas with a shortage of dental professionals.
And this doesn’t appear on Vance’s radar or the billionaire that owns him.
On that note, I have never had dental insurance. Dental was never part of my medical health insurance during the 30 years I was a public-school teacher, and now that I’m retired with my medical care through the VA, that also does not include dental.
Last year, my dental bills were about $8,000, the same as the year before that and the year before that.
LikeLike
Meaningful health care affordability has got to be a priority. I think the Harris/Walz ticket should shout this from the mountain tops.
LikeLike
This bio is impressive. It boggles the mind that when politicians make proposals to improve the lives of every day Americans, they labeled as “left”. The past forty years should show us that Government based on denial and obstruction serves little purpose.
LikeLike
Harris and Walz are normal people.
Trump and Vance are weird.
LikeLike
I’m glad VP Harris chose Gov. Walz! Let JD try to paint him as “radical.” That’s better for keeping up the excitement among Dems than seeing him as a “nice boring guy” like Tim Kaine in 2016.
LikeLike
Apparently MAGA media is spreading the news that Walz is “in favor of trans surgery on minors.” [I could tell because so many Rep callers-in on CSPAN’s daily “Washington Journal” program used those exact words when objecting to Harris’s choice of Walz.] Walz’s EO simply protects people or entities who are providing, assisting, seeking, or obtaining gender-affirming health care services. Not only Minnesotans: the wording says they decline to protect other states’ denial of such services, and will refuse requests to extradite people “committing acts relating to, securing of, or receipt of gender affirming health care services.”
This struck me as the same as the typical MAGA slam on blue-state protection of doctor-patient decisions on abortion. Which is (my paraphrase) “They’re all for aborting a child right up to just due date, in other words killing the child.” Blue states refuse to criminalize abortion beyond a specific phase of pregnancy because the state should not be inserting itself into doctor-patient decisions.
The MAGA interpretation of both blue-state legislation and the MN EO displays their rejection of professional norms/ protocols/ practices. They don’t trust scientists/ experts, and feel the need to create nanny state laws to hold them in check by micromanaging medical practices and using threat of loss of license/ criminalization to enforce.
It is no more likely that obstetricians would abort a child about to be born than it is that transgender specialist doctors would perform irreversible sex-change surgery on a minor. I.e., seldom if ever. Because professional doctors have standards of practice, and built-in procedures to uphold and reinforce their recommended protocols.
LikeLike
I really hope this does not become a big issue the Harris campaign leans in on. Most people do not view gender-affirming care as something in the same category or of the same importance as abortion rights. There may be analytical similarities but this is a political loser.
LikeLike
If the MAGA folks are saying Walz supports gender reassignment surgery for minors, they are wrong. As Governor, he actually banned it for minors.
LikeLike
J. Nashville, they are saying it.
LikeLike
Here’s what they’re saying:
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/tim-walz-signed-bill-making-minnesota-a-sanctuary-state-for-child-sex-changes/amp/
“Dubbed the Trans Refuge Bill by supporters, the law grants legal protection to children who travel to Minnesota for so-called gender affirming care, including puberty blockers, reconstructive genital surgery, and hormone therapy, as well as the medical practitioners who provide it. The law prohibits Minnesota courts or officials from complying with child removal requests, extraditions, arrests, or subpoenas related to a child’s sex-change procedures received in Minnesota, even if they’re a crime in another state.”
LikeLike
The law in question, which was enacted:
“Specifically, the bill would prohibit the enforcement of a court order for removal of a child or enforcement of another state’s law being applied in a pending child protection action in Minnesota when the law of another state allows the child to be removed from the parent or guardian for receiving medically necessary health care or mental health care that respects the gender-identity of the patient”
https://www.house.mn.gov/sessiondaily/Story/17865
I would be very surprised if Minnesota has a law that “bans” minors from receiving gender-affirming care like puberty blockers and HRT. I would also be surprised if it banned surgery to remove the breasts of minors, although that is somewhat more conceivable (but still seems very unlikely for a state like Minnesota).
LikeLike
Thanks for the info FLERP!
I could swear I heard this as plain as day (as I stated above) on one of the major networks’ evening news (CBS perhaps). Perhaps they said it and were wrong or I misheard what they said.
From what I’m seeing now in the actual legislation and executive orders in MN, the information I posted was incorrect.
I’m wondering if what I heard (or misheard in this case) was that Walz banned “gender conversion therapy,” which is indeed banned in MN. Of course “gender conversion therapy” is a lot different from gender reassignment therapy.
Nonetheless, I retract my statement above and apologize.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Walz would say about the trans issue, as he said tonight in Philly: “Mind your own damn business.”
LikeLike
Diane– yup. Exactly what I meant in making a parallel to blue-state protection of abortion rights.
LikeLike
I really hope this does not become a big issue the Harris campaign leans in on. Most people do not view gender-affirming care as something in the same category or of the same importance as abortion rights. There may be analytical similarities but this is a political loser.
LikeLike
wrong spot
LikeLike
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!”
LikeLike