DFLers & Progressives Criticize Mike Pence’s Attacks on Minnesota Farmers, Families, and Health Care

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, Minnesota progressives issued a strong rebuke to Vice President Mike Pence, who is visiting the state to sell his administration’s disastrous trade policies.

“Instead of following through on their promise to help Minnesota farmers, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have spent years making their lives more difficult at every given turn. Thanks to their disastrous trade wars, exports are down, crop prices are down, and farm bankruptcies are up. More empty promises will not change their abysmal record.”

“The disregard shown to farmers and rural America by the Trump – Pence administration must end. Farmers have invested millions of dollars developing foreign markets for our crops and livestock and built a reputation as a trusted trading partner with countries like China, Mexico and Canada. With the stroke of a pen and a few tweets, our foreign market was gone.

“The Trump – Pence administration is not a friend to farmers or rural Minnesota.”

“My colleagues at the Capitol and I have been working to deliver much-need transportation and transit so Minnesotans who rely on our roads, bridges, and ports to create successful lives, businesses and communities. Unfortunately, Trump and Pence’s infrastructure promises have failed to deliver. Instead of boosting Minnesota’s economy, Trump and Pence seem to find it more important to target and exclude LGBTQ people by rolling back equal rights protections and banning transgender people from the military.”

“I have degenerative tissue condition that is genetic. Unfortunately, my five children all won the 50-50 lottery and got the same conditions. This same condition killed my fit, active father at 61. The yearly heart check-ups for this condition are expensive for one person, so you can imagine what it means for five children. There is no way we could afford this without the ACA. Doing away with the ACA could kill someone in my family.

“As a mom, to know that my kids have a risk of needing heart surgery or having an aneurysm, it is scary when I hear about people wanting to cut the ACA that protects people with pre-existing conditions like my family. As Mr. Pence visits Minnesota today, I want him to know that Minnesotans want our elected leaders in Washington D.C. to protect and expand healthcare, not cut it.”

“Regardless of race, region, or political affiliation, the vast majority of adults in this country know from experience that birth control is a basic part of a healthy life. This is not controversial. It is a normal part of our lives.

“And yet, this administration has forced us over and over again to assert the most basic truths: that women are human beings who deserve autonomy, that science is real, that denial of human rights is wrong.”