Blame, Then Ask for Help?

Recently, the City of Ramsey and the North Metro Mayor’s Association hosted a candidate forum where my opponent and I shared our views. I pointed out that he tends to blame three things for all of our problems in Minnesota: fraud, unfunded mandates, and the DFL trifecta for absolutely everything. In the same breath, he says how well he works across the aisle to get things done. Can you really have it both ways?

Imagine working with someone who you belittle constantly. You blame them for everything, and say everything they do is wrong. Then, you reach out and say “let’s work together to get something done”.  I appreciate the idea, but in reality how well might something like that work?

During the forum, he stated twice that it’s my desire to have another DFL trifecta. It may end up that way, but I actually appreciate it when we have a multitude of opinions, and sometimes that means a divided government. I want people to work together, to negotiate in good faith, and work for the good of the people. If you want an example of how bad one party control is, look at Washington D.C. We have some of our highest fuel, healthcare, and inflation costs ever - ignoring the wars we keep “winning”. 

He also said that Republicans didn’t have control in 2017 when protections against the Medicaid fraud were proposed - and declined. The Senate was 34-33, and house was 77-57 with Republican majority in both chambers. The Governor was Mark Dayton, a Democrat, at the time. They passed the EIDBI bill, and called some of the guardrails burdensome.

To be fair, there’s enough blame to go around on this fraud for everyone. My question is why are we only asking questions during an election cycle? I’ve said it several times, on the record, that I don’t care what party folks belong to - they need to be held accountable. Period. 

Here’s a video of the whole forum, and a special thanks to Ramsey and North Metro for hosting the event.

- Brian Walker