This week, I spoke out against reinsurance on the House Floor. Reinsurance does absolutely nothing to lower the cost of healthcare. Instead, it reduces the cost of premiums for 4% of Minnesotans who buy private insurance on the individual market. It lowers the cost by paying down the premiums and spreading the cost across all taxpayers. Reinsurance increases the socialism of health insurance and masks the actual underlying problem, which is the cost of care. We have an opportunity to lower the costs of healthcare through empowering patients with price transparency and the 'Patient Right to Shop Act,’ but these are not priorities for leadership in St Paul.
For an in-depth explanation of how reinsurance works, see this video.
On Wednesday, the Minnesota House debated the Commerce, Climate & Energy Omnibus Bill. I discussed the impacts of the democrat's proposed "clean" energy, including child slave labor in the Congo, poisoned land from solar panels, and the burying of non-recyclable wind turbine blades.
The Minnesota House has a rule against using props on the floor, so after about 20 seconds of using the first virtual background over Zoom, the Speaker of the House turned off my video feed and then put a generic picture of me on the screen. The edited video shows the backgrounds used in the speech.
The discussion surrounding clean energy mandates needs to look further down the supply chain to see the actual environmental impacts caused by “clean energy” initiatives. The green energy market has been carried not by the quality of their product but rather thanks to government subsidies. With millions of guaranteed dollars from democratic states around the nation, the equipment producers of green have scrambled to meet the demand. This has resulted in the sourcing of certain materials from more than questionable sources.
Many of the rare earth minerals used to produce wind turbines and solar panels are sourced from China, Madagascar, or India. The process for extracting these minerals in these 3rd world countries is hazardous to both the miner and the earth. Mercury poisoning, arthritis, and cancer are common side effects of the mining process, and due to the dangerous conditions, many refuse to work there voluntarily. Slavery still occurs in many countries. Multinational corporations mine and manufacture these products in countries with little oversight to environmental or labor standards. I introduced an amendment in committee to ban slavery from products mandated by the government. All democrats in the committee rejected this amendment.
 Governor Walz this week adjusted the dials once again, this time by affording our kids the luxury of breathing while they are on the field. The updated rule change comes after Let Them Play MN heard from a whistleblower that the Governor was planning to blame the reopening of schools and youth sports for the epidemic of deaths we saw in our Long Term Care (LTC) facilities. They are still required to wear masks on the sidelines and when not actively playing. While I welcome these changes, they are only the result of the pressure we have placed on him to allow our children to play sports safely.
 RentHelpMN is Now Open for Applications for up to 15 months of taxpayer-funded rent and utilities.
The Minnesota Dept of Housing announced that RentHelpMN is now open and accepting applications. RentHelpMN makes it possible for eligible renters to request taxpayers' financial assistance to get caught up on overdue rent and utilities dating back to March 13, 2020. It also makes provisions for those at risk of falling behind on rent payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 Please note that RentHelpMN is in Phase One, in which people with past due rent who meet eligibility requirements are invited to apply. If you are a property owner with tenants behind on rent or utilities, please refer your tenants to this website to see if they qualify. If you are landlord looking for assistance in unpaid back rent please click HERE to see if you qualify.
To apply for RentHelpMN, please visit renthelpmn.org or call 211. The 211 helpline has dedicated multilingual staff to answer questions about RentHelpMN, 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Visit renthelpmn.org to learn more about the program and eligibility requirements and to apply.
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