This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
David Nicholas: The Harris-Walz campaign has been traveling the country at break-neck speed to make their pitch to voters. Inflation, housing, and prescriptions are among the top issues on the minds of rural Michiganders. WCMU's Rick Brewer spoke with Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz about some of the policies his campaign is looking to take to the White House.
Rick Brewer: Many voters in rural Michigan feel disconnected from the Democratic Party. They say this party does not represent their values or issues that are important to them. How is your campaign trying to reach out to these voters in deep red Michigan counties?
Gov. Tim Walz: Yeah, well, these are folks I know well. It's not only how I grew up in rural Nebraska, but it's the districts that I represent in southern Minnesota, ag districts, folks that care. And I think the disconnect is trying to tell people that these policies could make a difference to them. Whether it's strong infrastructure bill that happened, I know in Michigan, it's a big deal. Investments in them, investments in local schools, making sure their property taxes stay low and then investing in believing that these are areas that built the economy. We just saw here recently, Vice President Harris talk about the tax deductions on startup of businesses. People have their dreams that they want to get, they want to they want to try and launch.
And the idea of tenfold increase in tax credits for folks when they get started, those are the things that make a difference, and this idea that that our communities don't need to be divided, there's those that want to tell us, urban and rural areas are different. This country is strong because of that diversity, the country’s strong because we invest in the middle class.
And look, I've made the case. There's one thing that I think Donald Trump has been very clear about and I think it's one thing you get this promise on, and that was, he said to his rich friends he would cut taxes for billionaires. And he said that working class were paid too much. That is the exact opposite of the proposals we're putting forward. So I think getting out to folks, talking to him, talking about the stuff we've done on rural economy on farm economy, diversifying our energy needs, all of those things impact people's lives in a positive way and I think we just need to go to them and tell them.
RB: Your campaign is calling for the first ever federal ban on price gouging on groceries and the plan that I read from your campaign, I didn't see anything about providing relief to farmers. The start of the food supply you've told me…go ahead.
TW: Yeah, no, what I'm going to say is, here's the thing about this: and first of all, 32 states already have this in there. I know this well. Price of a bushel of corn is $3.90, you can't make it on that. Soybeans are 10 bucks, 100 weight of milk is $21.90. Farmers are not getting rich on this. The middleman, who's not adding to the value on this is and these- As I said, 32 states already have it in here of making sure that we're seeing that the folks who are actually producing the food get a fair shake on it. But we get closer to parity price on what they should get. It's not right that a farmer gets $0.02 on a loaf of bread and somebody in the middle is either venture capitalizing or pulling the money off the side.
So, I think one of the things is markets only work when markets are fair. You gotta have guardrails around them. And I think the vice president’s proposal matches, making sure that our supply chains are back home, that they're better and making sure that we're still continuing to have markets, global markets where Donald Trump is talking about starting trade wars with folks. We have to be able to sell our products elsewhere so that farmers make a living. And I was just out yesterday in Fayette County in Pennsylvania on a farm where they're milking 60 guernsey cows, they simply want to have a fair shake at this. They said that we don't want to have to consolidate and we've seen our dairies close across the country.
So, these policies that Vice President Harris is putting out the idea of making fair in farm prices, making fair at the grocery store. That's simply good capitalism. And so she's not proposing anything that many of our states don't already do. But there are things that can impact families. You coupled out with tax credits that are going back to folks, a child tax credit, you couple it with lowering property taxes by investing in our public schools, all of those things save middle class folks money.
RB: Your campaign is also pushing to build 3 million new homes and a proposed initiative that would give 4 million first time home buyers $25,000 for down payments. Why are you convinced this housing plan could work given previous attempts by the Biden administration to give people down payment relief have not yet gained momentum?
TW: Yeah. And I think when we talk about this one, and I know this for a fact that that my home, my first home I bought, the only home I bought, was using the GI Bill. And what the GI Bill does on that was is it gives you...you don't have to have a down payment on it. And what we know is that housing is foundational to everything. It's foundational to a family stability, it's foundational school achievement and we know that it’s the path to generational wealth, and we know that the supplies are too short right now.
We know that it's a little too difficult to build in some areas and those are things that of course state and local regulations are going to have to work with. But this idea of giving a tax credit on the front end, the same thing with like small businesses, you start people out with this, it gives them the foundation to get in. That foundation allows them to build on it, and what we end up seeing is we see wealthier communities with more money invested back into them. We see a broader tax base, which means lower property taxes for everybody. And so that dream of owning a home. We can do this. What we don't need is, we don't need large venture capitalists buying up large stocks of homes and then jacking the prices up on them. That is not what we need and that's what we've seen in many areas.
So, I think this plan gets more at that ability to get people in, and look, folks will pay their own way. You're still going to have to pay your mortgage. You're still going to have to make your way, but that coupled with an opportunity economy with a middle class is making a living wage, making a housing wage, has healthcare, and now has a home. We see all kinds of positive things happen when we do that.
RB: Your campaign is vowing to lower the cost of prescription drugs through holding large pharmaceutical companies accountable on their pricing. This method could result in years long lawsuits when older people across rural Michigan need that help now. Why do you think this method will work to lower those costs?
TW: Because we've already done it. We did it in Minnesota with 35 cost on insulin. We now do something that we should have done and we fought forever to be able to negotiate on the formulary on those costs with Medicare, we do it in the VA system. It saves thousands for seniors. We now have the 10 most common drugs into that. They'll go into effect next year where those prices will start to come down. Those are real.
Look, it's not going to be any surprise that pharmaceutical companies are going to sue when we try and take away the obscene profits they make. But we trust that this system will start to have an impact, especially with our seniors. But the vice president made it very clear she wants to lower prescription drug prices for everyone. And we saw it in Minnesota. We're not going to have our children die. It's Alex Smith's law, Alex died when he had to try and ration his insulin. No longer in Minnesota, and we can do that nationwide. And these are already working and we're just getting started. And look, pharmaceutical companies are still doing quite well. They will be fine.
RB: The Israel-Hamas war has been a hot button issue for Michigan voters. How would a Harris Walls administration handle the conflict and would it break with the Biden administration in any way?
TW: Well, I think first and foremost what we saw on October 7th was a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They have certainly, and the vice president said it, I've said it, have the right to defend themselves and the United States will always stand by that, but we can't allow what's happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves. We need to continue, I think to put the leverage on to make sure we move towards a two state solution. I think we're at a critical point right now. We need the Netanyahu government to start moving in that direction. But I think those folks who are speaking out loudly in Michigan are speaking out for all the right reasons. It's a humanitarian crisis. It can't stand the way it is. And we need to find a way that people can live together in this and we’ve said it and continue to say it, getting a ceasefire with the return of the hostages and then moving towards a sustainable two state solution is the only way forward.
RB: Final question for you, governor, the chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee issued a subpoena to the Minnesota Department of Education to learn more about what's being described as the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation, this organization feeds kids who are hungry, of course. They've defrauded the USDA $250 million in COVID relief money. Do you have any comment on this subpoena?
TW: Look, I’m out here, the state’s taking care of it. My team will comply with everything that they need. The House will do what the House is going to do. But we're confident that the folks who perpetuated this crime are not in state government. They are now in prison. We'll continue to prosecute that. And I'm just out here making the case that we have a better plan to move folks forward and we'll continue to do that.
RB: Governor Walz thank you for your time today sir, we appreciate it.
TW: Good to talk to you, Rick.
