Kamala’s Socialist Running Mate
There should be a game show on TV that measures for prizes how much information you can ignore in a 30 minute period. The winner gets to be a talking head on CNN or MSNBC and tell us how much they care and how patriotic they are. There is information that is measurable as either being true or false.. it is not refutable. Like how many tampon machines were installed in boy’s bathrooms in Minnesota as a pretend necessity after genital mutilation? How many people moved from Minnesota to Texas and Florida after the riots? Or how many minority owned business were destroyed after the riots in Minneapolis? You get the point. Whenever you have a discussion pointing these facts out, it is either deflection or crickets. The corrupt press which is a significant powerhouse has been investigating Trump for 8 years and he still is loved by at least half the country and is again the Republican nominee for president. It is righteously biblical when you ask if any candidate local, state, or federal could withstand half the scrutiny. So until someone else can stand the heat with even tough questions don’t preach to me how the deplorables are low-information voters.
For many years, Minneapolis-St. Paul was my best city for doing business. At one point, I even proposed moving there… until my wife asked me if I could spell D I V O R C E. I received her message loud and clear and made a secret promise to myself that I would never bring that up again. Note: at that point, she hated winter, not Minnesota; however, regardless of the reason, this would have been a disaster. So thank you, Barbara. Minnesota like California is an amazing place that has been seriously trashed by the left.
How Progressive is Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ VP Running Mate? By Mike Shedlock |
Yesterday, a friend told me that Walz was not as much a Liberal Progressive as I thought. Let’s investigate.
What the Choice of Tim Walz Says About Kamala Harris The Wall Street Journal comments on What the Choice of Tim Walz Says About Kamala Harris
Donald Trump did Democrats a favor by choosing a running mate who reinforced his base rather than reaching out to swing voters. Kamala Harris has now returned the favor in selecting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the progressive favorite, as her pick for Vice President.
The choice that scared Republicans was popular Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, a swing state crucial to an Electoral College victory. But Mr. Shapiro, who is Jewish, was the target of an extraordinary and nasty campaign against him by the Democratic left. He was too pro-Israel and had upset unions by showing rhetorical support for school vouchers.
Ms. Harris appears to have wilted under this pressure, perhaps fearing protests at the Democratic convention in Chicago this month. She went with Mr. Walz instead, and there goes Mr. Trump’s hope of flipping the decisive swing state of Minnesota. That’s a joke, since the Land of 10,000 Liberals has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1976.
Mr. Walz’s progressive bona fides will please Sen. Bernie Sanders and the teachers unions. But his governing record will be fodder for Mr. Trump. And picking him is a bad omen about the ability, or even willingness, of Ms. Harris to defy her party’s left.
Walz Scorecard
Increasing taxes, though Minnesota already has the fifth-highest top income-tax rate among the states, 9.85% at $193,000 of earnings for a single filer. Mr. Walz added a 1% surtax on net investment income above $1 million, while reducing deductions, and the Governor wanted more.
Minnesota is a rare state that still levies a death tax, up to 16%, on top of the federal 40% rate, which is one reason the state is losing taxpayers to better climes.
Making an estimated 81,000 illegal immigrants in the state eligible for driver’s licenses, along with health insurance through the MinnesotaCare public marketplace.
Funding “the North Star Promise Program, which provides free college for students with a family income under $80,000,” including illegal immigrants.
Creating a state system for paid family and medical leave, capped at a combined 20 weeks a year and funded by a 0.88% payroll tax.
Mandating that public utilities generate 80% carbon-free electricity by 2030, ramping up to 100% by 2040. He’s a fervent believer in “climate action.”
Subsidizing electric vehicles by “requiring EV charging infrastructure within or adjacent to new commercial and multi-family buildings,” as the Governor’s office bragged.
Passing one of the nation’s most permissive abortion statutes that has essentially no limits and no age consideration for minors.
Declaring Minnesota to be a “trans refuge,” with a law saying that the state will ignore a “court order for the removal of a child issued in another state because the child’s parent or guardian assisted the child in receiving gender-affirming care in this state.”
Establishing automatic voter registration and letting Minnesotans sign up for a permanent absentee ballot option.
I believe I can rest the case, but I will throw in one last kicker. “Tampon Tim”
If this is not kowtowing to the radical progressive wing of the Democratic party, then what the hell is radical Left?
What America needs to know about Tim Walz of Minnesota by John Phelan and Bill Walsh | July 25, 2024
As Democrats scramble to assemble a ticket following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is putting himself out there as potential vice-presidential pick. He is making the rounds of national talk shows bragging about his record. A closer look reveals little to brag about.
During his first term as governor, Walz faced two major challenges: The riots following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and COVID-19. He fumbled both.
As the Twin Cities burned for three days in May 2020, Walz froze, terrified of upsetting his party’s activist base which sympathized with the rioters, for whom Kamala Harris raised money. Walz hesitated to commit the National Guard – whom he dismissed as “19-year-old cooks” – but when they finally were deployed, the violence ceased immediately.
This concern for criminals over law abiding citizens has contributed to Minnesota becoming a high-crime state for the first time in recent history, with part one crimes, such as murder, aggravated assault, and rape, now above the national average. Indeed, Minnesota’s crime rates began climbing in 2018, when Walz took office and two years before George Floyd’s death. In 2024, violent crime in Minneapolis remains 29% above 2019.
In response to the second challenge, COVID-19, in defiance of the science, Walz shut down schools, churches and businesses and instituted draconian mask mandates and shelter in place orders. This was driven by a computer model cooked up by a couple of graduate students over a weekend and which was such a failure it was quietly abandoned. Walz spent $7 million on a morgue to hold all the forecast bodies. This, too, was quietly sold without ever housing a single body. Walz’s failed nursing home policies resulted in over 5,000 deaths from COVID, one of the highest percentages in the country. And the man who likes to talk tough on cable news, telling Republicans to “mind your own damn business,” created a phone line for people to snitch on their neighbors who violated COVID regulations.
For all this government activity in response to COVID-19, Walz still managed to oversee the largest COVID fraud scheme in the country, with $250 million stolen. Millions more have been wasted in other fraud schemes throughout his time in office, but no one has been fired or held accountable.
Walz frequently touts his experience as an educator, but Minnesotans have seen no benefit from this, with the quality of Minnesota’s K-12 schools falling steadily during his time in office. Minnesota 4th grade reading and 8th grade math scores on national tests are the lowest in 30 years. On the education component of CNBC’s much-heralded — including by Walz — “best States for Business” rankings, Minnesota has dropped from 5th in 2018 to 17th. Walz will tell national audiences he “fully funded” K-12 education, but more money does not translate to stronger achievement.
Instead of achievement, Walz focused on instituting radical social studies standards and ethnic studies requirements that infuse critical social justice ideology into K-12 education. He used a bait and switch to sell ethnic studies as “learning about other cultures,” while hiding the real purpose: to reshape our children’s identity around skin color and convince them that America is a “racialized hierarchy” defined by oppression and injustice. Walz also allowed protesters to tear down a statue of Christopher Columbus and changed Minnesota’s state flag because he wrongly believed it was racist.
In 2023, Walz squandered a $17.6 billion budget surplus and raised taxes on income, sales, gasoline, car tabs, deliveries, boats, marijuana, and businesses. His new family leave program will be funded with a new tax on every employee and employer in the state. They are yet to launch the program but have already raised the tax rate. Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota recently fell behind the country in GDP per capita for the first time in modern history.
Walz signed away Minnesota’s energy future by locking us into a renewable energy mandate that is driving up electricity costs in the pursuit of unmeasurable climate change goals. Running an energy grid with weather-based, intermittent energy sources [solar, wind], as called for in Walz’s 2023 renewable energy mandate is causing massive price increases and will ultimately lead to blackouts.
Minnesotans have been voting with their feet during the Walz governorship with new data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) showing a net loss of 13,455 individuals leaving Minnesota for other parts of the United States in 2021-2022. The population loss is across the board — every age group tracked by the IRS shows a net loss of people.
Figure 1: Net migration of individuals to/from Minnesota by income of primary taxpayer, 2021-2022
Source: Internal Revenue Service
Now that we think of it, promoting Tim Walz could be a really good idea. He couldn’t possibly do more harm to Minnesota in the relatively meaningless job of vice president.
This post originally appeared as a commentary for the Star Tribune on July 25, 2024.
John Phelan is an Economist at the Center of the American Experiment.
john.phelan@americanexperiment.org
Bill Walsh is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Center of the American Experiment.
bill.walsh@americanexperiment.org
