The Republican Party of Minnesota carried a debt of twice what the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party carries. And while it raised more money during September than the DFL, the GOP also spent more than it took in.

The DFL paid down some of its debt but ended September $242,593 in the hole, slightly down from last month’s debt of $261,353. The party took in $1,118,398 and spent $1,112,415. It had $53,513 in cash on hand at the end of the month.

At this point in 2009—the most recent off-election year—the party had a debt of $168,015.

The GOP carried a higher debt into October. The party had a debt of $533,222 compared to $546,779 last month. The party took in $1,734,700 but spent a bit more—$1,759,210. The party ended September with a negative cash on hand balance of $55,788.

In October 2009, the GOP listed a $193,314 debt.

“The Republican Party unconditionally supports the state party platform calling for a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” said party chairman Tony Sutton.

Sutton said the platform represents the views and values of the majority of Republicans.

“The party recognizes that not all Republicans might agree with all of the party platform at all times; debate is healthy, but at the end of the day the MNGOP stands behind and supports its activist and passage of the marriage amendment,” Sutton said.

Sutton also went after the DFL for not offering a constitutional amendment in support of same-sex marriage.

“Standing behind party activists is how the Republican Party differs from the Democrats. When Democrats held a legislative majority they could have passed a constitutional amendment changing current state law and the definition of marriage,” he said. “They chose not to even raise the issue in the legislature because they feared voter reaction. In other words, they abandoned a constituency they claimed to care about for political expediency.”

While the DFL did not offer a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, it did offer numerous bills to both legalize same-sex marriage or equalize Minnesota statutes to benefit same-sex couples.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, and Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, offered a bill in 2009 and 2010 called the Marriage and Family Protection Act, which would have legalized marriage for same-sex couples. The bill never passed out of committee because some DFLers worried about voting on the controversial bill in an election year with the threat of a veto from Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

In political ads during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, the Minnesota Family Council and the National Organization for Marriage attacked the DFL for bringing up that bill and claimed it was the reason that an amendment banning same-sex marriage was needed. Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, the chief author of the anti-gay marriage amendment, told reporters in May that he authored the amendment because of Marty’s and Kahn’s bills.

The DFL also authored a series of bills between 2007 and 2010 aimed at equalizing the law for same-sex couples including hospital visitation, domestic partner benefits and end of life issues. Those were vetoed by Pawlenty.

As heated discussions continue over the national debt, two of Minnesota’s major political parties are wresting with significant debts of their own. According to Federal Election Commission reports filed at the end of July, both the GOP and DFL continue to carry debt from the 2010 election cycle. The Republican Party of Minnesota owes the most — more than $600,000 while the DFL owes close to $300,000. The GOP also had a negative cash-on-hand balance.

The DFL ended June with $291,950.71 in debt while the GOP ended in the red to the tune of $608,147.51. At the end of 2010, the GOP had $681,066 in debt and the DFL had a deficit of $217,004.

The GOP spent more and took in more than the DFL over the last six months, with $1,155,662.18 in receipts and $1,132,739.48 in spending. The DFL spent $660,252.56 and took in $652,944.91 in the first half of the year.

The FEC reports only count debt for the federal activities of the parties. In March, the Star Tribune reported that the DFL was nearly $700,000 in debt and the GOP had nearly $780,000 in obligations from 2010 it still has to pay off.

GOP chair Tony Sutton, who recently announced he would start drawing a six-figure salary from the party, told the Star Tribune in March that “he expects to pay down about $500,000 of their debt by the end of May.”

The Republican Party of Minnesota owes nearly 20 counties payment for expenses incurred by the counties during the 2010 recount between Tom Emmer and Gov. Mark Dayton. The fact that so many counties haven’t been reimbursed in seven months led one Republican senator to offer to pay some of the bills out of his own pocket.

The Rochester Post Bulletin got a hold of a letter by Sen. John Howe, R-Red Wing, that called the GOP debt to the counties an embarrassment.

“This is embarrassing and painfully indefensible. This damages us not just on the local level, but statewide as well,” he wrote to GOP caucus leaders. “It is spreading through the political blogs, and must be a reason for much head shaking in water cooler conversations.”

Howe said he would donate money to help the debts be repaid.

GOP chair Tony Sutton told the Post Bulletin that the party paid eight counties last week and the party still had 20 more to pay off.

As Blue Stem Prairie notes, Sutton has missed his own promised deadlines to pay the counties.

The GOP and Sutton filed suit against several counties for not being swift enough in pulling together recount documents last fall.

“The unacceptable foot dragging of St. Louis and Pine Counties cannot persist,” Sutton said at the time. “The Emmer for Governor campaign and the Republican Party of Minnesota should not have to go to court to get counties to respond to data practices requests in a timely manner. We will continue to pursue any counties that do not promptly meet their legal obligations during this process. Minnesotans deserve better.”

The Minnesota Independent contacted the county auditors in St. Louis and Pine counties. Unlike two dozen other counties, they have been paid.

Randy Brown

Brown, as MnIndy first reported, posted a video that compares how “hot” women from the Democratic and Republican parties are. The Democrats — represented by Janet Reno (with photoshopped chest hair), a grimacing Hillary Clinton and Rosie O’Donnell’s head fused onto the body of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, among others — are shown atop a soundbed of Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?” Of the video, Olbermann said: “Just remember it anytime you hear Sarah Palin or anybody else in the GOP complain about sexism or misogyny on the part of the mainstream media or the Democrats. Randy Brown of the Minnesota GOP — plus, I understand the group Baha Men is pissed — America’s worst person in the world.”

In another development, Republican Party of Minnesota communications director Mark Drake demanded a change to our story — one that puts distance between the state party and the local SD 56 party unit. Drake called to say he wanted the headline on our initial report on the video changed to reflect that it wasn’t the statewide GOP, but merely a local district group, that chose to embed a video that one of its endorsed women candidates, Andrea Kieffer, dubbed “juvenile.” (The headline now refers to the “SD56 GOP” rather than the “Minn. GOP.”) The video itself, he said, is “wrong and inappropriate.”

(For the record, Olbermann incorrectly called Brown the “webmaster of the Minnesota state Republican Party.” He’s the webmaster of the SD56 site only — or he was: his byline hasn’t appeared since this story broke and since district GOP-endorsed candidate Kathy Lohmer called for his resignation.)

Apparently, we’re not alone in fielding Drake’s complaints. Mother Jones’ copy editor Adam Weinstein tells the Minnesota Independent that Drake called his publication after it ran a story on the SD56 web video and “berated” the magazine’s receptionist. Drake later emailed Weinstein to declare the story to be “completely false” and demanded a retraction. (Gawker contributing editor Jeff Neumann confirms that he was “hit with the ALL CAPS Drake email assault” too for his story.)

The Mother Jones story now has this addendum:

After he placed several abusive phone calls to our receptionist and a frantic email demanding a “retraction” to this “completely false” story, Minnesota GOP communications director Mark Drake berated me on the phone for a good ten minutes. Besides being unclear on the differences between “retraction,” ”correction,” ”clarification,” ”conversation,” “irate braying,” and “pointless screaming,” he made the point that the video was on a district GOP site, not the state GOP’s site, and that he’d never heard of the webmaster before. While expressing regret over the video’s content, he said the 56th district was one of more than 100 autonomous Republican parties in the state, and his umbrella organization wasn’t responsible. He then refused to answer follow-up questions regarding what action, if any, had been taken by the state GOP to make the local group accountable for its actions. Based on the one or two facts he could assert between loud declamations, I changed the ID of webmaster Randy Brown above. Mark, if you’re reading this and want to explain what steps the state GOP is taking besides abusing reporters by phone, give us a call—and try being nice to the receptionist this time.

Watch the section from Olbermann, who undoubtedly will be receiving a Drake call of his own today.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

USNVA is under investigation for fraud in five states, and as the Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey has reported, there’s no evidence that the $870,695 fundraised by the group in Minnesota over the past four years actually made it to the veterans groups USNVA claimed to be helping.

Early last week, Bachmann’s campaign “froze” its donation, but the Strib reports that Bachmann now says she’ll give money from a fundraiser with Sarah Palin this year to two groups, the Minnesota Military Appreciation Fund and the Disabled Veterans Rest Camp.

Others accepting funds from USNVA or its on-the-lam leader, Bobby Thompson  –  the Republican Party of Minnesota, the Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee and David Carlson, a Minnesota Senate candidate in Eagan — have not responded to the Minnesota Independent’s query about whether they’ll return or re-gift the funds.

Update: The Star Tribune now reports that the Republican Party of Minnesota will also give away its USNVA contribution.

Sean Niemic's Facebook profile photo

Between mid-May and the end of June, Minnesota Democrats holding three constitutional offices found themselves deluged with dozens of data requests from the Minnesota Republican Party and fellow travelers. As State Auditor Rebecca Otto shot down the information requests as “smears” designed to debilitate her office in an election year, her Republican opponent Pat Anderson fired back with a question: “What is so bad that you do not want voters to see it?”

Amid this pre-election posturing, Sean Niemic, a University of Minnesota student who filed more than a dozen of the requests, waded in to the political maelstrom. He sent out his own press release and wrote letters to media across the state denying partisan motives and accusing Otto of “stone-walling” the  student newspaper he edited, the Minnesota Republic, which he described as an “investigative news-gathering” operation.

Despite framing his kerfuffle with Otto in the rhetoric of journalism, Niemic has been intimately involved in conservative partisan politics. He’s managed a Republican campaign for the state House of Representatives and served as an officer for a student group supporting the Republican opponent of Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, with whom he filed nine information requests. His sporadically published newspaper  has collected tens of thousands of dollars in University of Minnesota student fees that Niemic plans to use to pay the costs for these data requests that Otto described as partisan “fishing expeditions.”

In the wake of blogger Andrew Breitbart’s deceptively edited videos, some observers say the legacy media needs to be more skeptical of a group the New Republic recently dubbed “conservative pseudo-journalists,” who are adept at whipping issues to a froth in the name of journalism while scoring political points. The debate surrounding these information requests aren’t about whether the requesters  should receive the information — political partisans still legally have the same rights to obtain public data as anyone else — but about whether the final product is presented to the public as fair, accurate journalism when it’s really just partisan spin.

Data requests from conservatives come in early summer

The Minnesota Data Practice Act allows citizens access to public information that’s collected by government, typically for a fee that covers the department’s cost of gathering the information. In June and July, the Republican Party, Minnesota Majority, the Minnesota Freedom Council and Sean Niemic filed data requests at the offices of the Minnesota Secretary of State, State Auditor and Attorney General — all of whom are members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and involved in heated campaigns with Republicans. The Republican Party of Minnesota denied there was any concerted effort.

There were political undertones to the data requests from the start. Niemic’s requests were broad and time-consuming to compile, specifically asking for intra-office correspondence that contained a number of keywords like “DFL,” “fundraiser” or “campaign.”  Otto reacted to the requests from Niemic and conservative groups by sending out a press release that asked whether “Republican politics is going too far?” Niemic’s response raised the bar, calling the office’s attempts to estimate the cost and time necessary for his requests an “act of intimidation,” and asking why Otto doesn’t want to be “open and transparent.”

Jane Kirtley, Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, said the overly broad wording in Niemic’s requests isn’t typically the best way to get information from government entities, although the document custodians in government would ideally work with the requester to help them find the data they specifically want, rather than just giving them a cost estimate they probably can’t afford.

Both the Secretary of State and State Auditor’s offices confirmed they’re working to come up with estimates, although both said it will take considerable time to work out the details of each request and would cost hundreds of work hours to fulfill. Niemic said responses to his requests are trickling in, and that he’ll decide whether to accept them based on final cost.

Back Cover of Minnesota Republic, Volume 2, Issue 6

Behind journalistic defenses, partisan leanings

In the wake of Andrew Breitbart’s deceptively edited video postings about USDA official Shirley Sherrod and ACORN, government officials are increasingly wary of information requesters who have an “agenda that goes beyond informing the public,” said Kirtley.

In his letters and press release, Niemic paints the Minnesota Republic as a “news-gathering operation” that seeks to hold public officials accountable, as is the “responsibility of the public and of the press.” Although Niemic freely admits he’s been involved in conservative movement for years, his letters and press release slamming Otto and Ritchie gloss over the fact that  he’s also engaged in more partisan activity.

Niemic served as the campaign manager for Republican Ole Hovde’s bid to replace state Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, in 2008 and said he’ll be helping Hovde again this time around, although he probably won’t serve as campaign manager. Niemic was also listed as an officer for Students for Dan Severson for Secretary of State at the University of Minnesota until just a few weeks ago, which would mean Niemic likely held the position, at least on paper, when he dropped nine information requests on Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s office. (Niemic said his roommate, Quinn O’Reilly, listed him as an officer in the Severson organization without his knowledge, but his roommate said he received Niemic’s permission to list him as an officer).

Explicit partisan involvement flies in the face of 50 years of American journalism, Kirtley said, where the idea was that the media is there for the public good and not to promote one cause or another. “Oftentimes, it’s difficult for members of the general public to tell the difference between doing journalism the old-fashioned way — however flawed that might have been — someone who is gathering news or information for the benefit of the public, from someone who’s pursuing a political agenda,” Kirtley said. “Once you’re truly tied to a political movement or political party, the fact of the matter is you’re not independent anymore.”

Niemic insists he’ll treat the data he receives fairly: “What I’m doing is not uncommon in newspapers, part of being a public official is you have to be responsive to journalists and the public,” he said. “I’m not going to make any judgments, I’m not going to write my headline before [I receive] the data I requested.”

But he hasn’t been writing many headlines lately. The group that publishes the Minnesota Republic received $20,000 from University student fees in the 2009-2010 academic year to fund nine issues, although it was only actually published twice, according to its online records. (Niemic said he doesn’t recall how many issues were published and can’t confirm the number because he doesn’t have access to the archives). Despite this lack of follow-through and consistent yearly criticism about the organization’s financial accountability from the university’s student fees committee, the committee this year, which Niemic briefly headed before being deposed by the administration, awarded the organization a budget of $49,300 for the 2010-2011 academic year. It’s mostly this public money, along with an expected $2,000 in reported ad revenue, that will pay the costs of Niemic’s information requests.

Unreliable media sources

There’s no question that Niemic is legally entitled to public information, just as any citizen, journalist or political operative would be, Kirtley said, although both parties appear to be at fault for how these data requests exploded into politics. The question is whether everyone with the ability to request or publish information is a journalist. The mark of partisans like Breitbart, Kirtley said, is that they often forego the media’s traditional job of providing accurate context and background , instead focusing on scoring political points.

That’s a value Niemic also neglects in his defense of Breitbart’s video, which is widely acknowledged to misleadingly portray USDA official Sherrod as a racist. “It was an accurate representation of the clips [Breitbart] was given. If the full video had carried that headline, then it would have been misrepresentation,” Niemic said. “If there’s anybody to blame for why she lost her job, I think fingers should be pointed where the buck stops, not at a journalist who was posting a video.”

The idea of presenting news that is “fair and balanced” is a principle to which people who call themselves journalists should still aspire, Kirtley said, especially as the legacy media withers and demand for quick stories increases.

“There’s nothing wrong with pursuing a political agenda — it’s what they gather, what they produce and what their goals are that are very different from traditional news organizations,” she said. “I’d like to think there’s going to come a point when the public is going to realize that some of these sources are not reliable sources for unbiased information.”

According to the Dispatch, RPM’s research director, Aaron Cocking, sent a letter to the sheriff asking for “each law enforcement and emergency response.”

But GOP leaders aren’t thrilled with the move. Most who spoke with the Dispatch were critical of the strategy.

“I’m disappointed with that kind of activity (by the party),” said Senate Minority Leader David Senjem. “I’ve known Paul for eight years. I can not in my wildest dreams imagine that Paul Koering has anything in his record that would be at all interesting. It’s probably as boring as mine. I’m simply not one to condone witch hunts.”

Koering’s opponent said he knew nothing of RPM’s investigation. “I’m not even sure what they’re looking for,” Gazelka said. “I don’t think they need to do that.”

Koering has seen his share of controversy. Earlier this year, he invited a porn actor to dinner where he allegedly discussed his position on same-sex marriage. The actor said Koering supported it; Koering later said he didn’t.

USNVA is under investigation in Ohio, Florida, Hawaii, Virginia, Missouri and New Mexico for allegedly defrauding donors, and two weeks ago, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray was granted an emergency court order to shut down USNVA and prevent it from taking any more donations in the state.

“The closer we look at this organization, the more outrageous its conduct appears,” Cordray said at the time. “While very little concrete evidence is available how those funds were spent helping vets or their families, a great deal of information is available about political contributions made by Thompson personally to candidates or through the political action committee he created and to which he was the sole contributor, NAVPAC.”

At least $35,000 of donations from the group or its founder went to Minnesota politicians and entities, according to an investigation by the St. Petersburg Times (Fla.). In multiple gifts over several years, former Sen. Coleman took in $21,500, while Rep. Bachmann received the most recent contribution, $10,000 donated in April. The Republican Party of Minnesota received $2,000; the Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee got $5,000, and Republican state House candidate David Carlson took in $500. Carlson, a candidate for state Senate, had listed his membership with the USNVA on his campaign website; the site was recently taken down.

In Virginia, nearly a dozen candidates responded to the controversy by donating contributions from Thompson or the USNVA to charity. Here in Minnesota, it’s unclear whether USNVA gifts have been returned or redirected to other charities. None of the Minnesota groups or candidates have responded to the Minnesota Independent’s query about their actions or plans related to these contributions.

Thompson and USNVA expended great effort in lobbying legislators in Virginia to make the group exempt from nonprofit disclosure laws. One of the lobbyists brought to Virginia by USNVA is Edwin Cain, a Minnesotan who’s done lobbying for the communities of Granite Falls, Stillwater and Marshall, as well as for the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce. Cain could not be reached for comment.

USNVA’s board lists two Minnesotans among its ranks, Commander John Clinton or a Lt. Commander Reint Reinders, but the Minnesota Independent couldn’t verify their residency in the state. Similarly, the group lists several officers on its 990s — or nonprofit disclosure forms — but a report by the St. Petersburg Times says they do not exist.

Also missing: USNVA’s legal team: On Wednesday, attorneys representing the group abruptly withdrew as USNVA’s legal counsel, citing an inability to contact USNVA head Thompson. The lawyers were defending against attempts by the state of Ohio to seize all of USNVA’s records.

USNVA has raised more than $99 million since its founding in 2002. The following is a list of contributions made by the USNVA or Bobby Thompson to Minnesota campaigns or committees (PDF):

12/9/2006   Coleman for U.S. Senate, Minnesota $1,250
3/28/2007   Coleman for U.S. Senate, Minnesota $1,050
8/15/2007   Minnesota-Coleman Victory Committee $14,600
12/31/2007 Coleman for U.S. Senate, Minnesota $2,300
1/4/2008    Republican Party of Minnesota $1,000
1/4/2008    Republican Party of Minnesota $1,000
1/15/2008   Coleman for U.S. Senate, Minnesota $2,300
8/25/2008   Minnesota House Repub. Campaign Com. $5,000
9/4/2008   David J. Carlson for Minnesota House $500
4/7/2010   Minnesota-Bachmann Victory Committee $10,000

Photo: WDCpix

Many politicians and special interest groups responded to the passing of health care reform in Congress Sunday night. Reactions fell along party and ideological lines.

Rep. Keith Ellison:

“For me, this legislation represents progress toward universal health care for all Americans,” Ellison stated. “Every landmark piece of legislation had a beginning. Women’s rights did not end with the 19st Amendment; Civil Rights did not end with the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act; Social Security enacted in 1935, and Medicare in 1965, did not begin as we know them today. So too is it with this health care reform bill. It is a beginning – and an important one,” Ellison said

Rep. James Oberstar:

“Madam Speaker, today the House of Representatives crosses an historic threshold in the evolution of social justice, quality of life, equity of health service delivery, and a worthy legacy for our children, with passage of comprehensive health care reform legislation..

“Our nation enjoys the best, but the most expensive health care in the world. The comprehensive health care legislation under consideration will preserve what works best in our health care system and make that system more efficient and affordable.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann:

“This past year, the President and Democratic leaders in Congress gathered in back rooms away from the American people and twisted arms to get just enough votes through deals and handouts to pass their legislation. They broke promises of open debate and transparency, and instead of working with Republicans and implementing common sense reforms that wouldn’t break the bank, they went it alone and spent more money we just don’t have.

“Future generations will pay the price for our government’s arrogance and recklessness, and the American people won’t ever forget the irresponsible actions of this Administration and Congress. After all, government answers to the people, not the other way around, and the fight for the soul of this nation continues on.”

Rep. Erik Paulsen:

“Today, the House of Representatives narrowly approved a costly, partisan bill the American people have said loud and clear they do not want. My constituents, by a margin of over three-to-one, have said they do not like this plan — and with good reason.

“This bill represents a major expansion of the federal government’s role in health care. It creates new entitlement spending of nearly $1 trillion, slashes over $500 billion from Medicare in order to spend it elsewhere, allows the IRS to impose new fines on Americans who don’t purchase ‘acceptable’ coverage, fails to protect veterans’ care and imposes a new $20 billion tax on life-saving medical technology innovations.

Paulsen also released this video:

Rep. Tim Walz:

“I also voted for this legislation because it is the fiscally responsible thing to do. Since first coming to Congress, I have actively worked to find ways to reduce the skyrocketing, long-term federal debt. Let me be clear: We cannot tackle our debt without addressing the out of control cost of health care and we cannot rebuild a strong, vibrant economy while businesses are strangled financially and forced to choose between cutting salaries or health insurance for their employees. I cannot in good conscience pass on a skyrocketing debt and a broken health care system for our children and our grandchildren to deal with, they deserve better than kicking the can down the road for another day.

Rep. John Kline:

“With these votes, Congress has failed its most fundamental responsibility of representing the American people. Citizens descended on the U.S. Capitol this weekend to implore their elected officials to reject this legislation – yet their voices were ignored. Governors are lining up to challenge the mandates that will be imposed on the citizens of their states – yet their pleas have gone unheard. Republicans and Democrats alike stood up to vote no – yet backroom deals and a thirst for government control won the day.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty offered this short reaction:

“Democrats rejected needed, common sense reforms in favor of an overreaching, extraordinarily expensive, government-centric plan that gives more and more control to an already bloated and bankrupt federal government.”

Twila Brase of the anti-health care reform group Citizens Council on Health Care:

“Today marks the first day of a new revolution for freedom in America. This is historic day, not because of the bill that the U.S. House passed, but because of what will arise out of the American people as a result of passing this unconstitutional bill.

“Today, the U.S. House has voted for a federal government takeover of health care. They have voted to socialize medicine. They have voted to put the federal government in charge of medical decisions and patient care. They have voted to empower government to deny medical care, penalize doctors, raise taxes, enforce penalties, jail citizens, expand deficits, and establish intrusiveness bureaucracies.

Minnesota DFL:

“Today’s vote is a resounding win for the hardworking families struggling with out-of-control health-care costs, and a dramatic step forward for the President as he continues to deliver on his promise to reform our nation’s broken health-insurance system. Thanks to the President and the Democratic leaders in Congress, that broken system has begun a much-needed and long-awaited overhaul, and Americans across the country are one step closer to receiving quality, affordable health care.

“With today’s reforms, middle-class families in Minnesota and across the country will no longer be forced to decide between paying their mortgage or their health-care bills. Americans are no longer at the mercy of insurance companies, worrying about being dropped from their insurance or denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. The President’s plan will make insurance affordable for hardworking Americans, and will help small businesses during these difficult times. Today’s success is a testament to the Democrats’ reasoned, balanced approach to tackling one of the most difficult public-policy issues of modern times.”

The Republican Party of Minnesota didn’t react to the passage of the health reform bill but instead to Walz’ vote for it:

“Today’s House vote for government run health care is a historic disaster. Tim Walz betrayed Southern Minnesota by voting for a reckless nearly trillion dollar spending bill that increases premiums, raises taxes by $500 billion and cuts Medicare by over $470 billion. In November, Walz will lose his seat for his decision to ram this deeply unpopular and partisan bill down the throats of the American people.”