Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN), who was first in Congress from 1974-1980 and was elected again in 2012, is running for re-election to Congress in Minnesota’s 8 th District.
1. Nolan Doubled-Down On ObamaCare, And Wants Even More Government Involvement In Healthcare
Nolan said the U.S. should establish “single payer, universal national healthcare,” and that a single payer healthcare system is “the direction that we ultimately have to go.” Nolan doubled-down on ObamaCare by voting against delaying the individual and employer mandates, and against repealing the medical device tax. Nolan flip-flopped on requiring eligibility verification for receiving ObamaCare subsidies by first voting against verification before he voted for verification in the measure to reopen the federal government.
2. Nolan Is An Unapologetic Liberal
In 2011, Roll Call columnist Stuart Rothenberg said during his first stint in Congress, Nolan was “an unapologetic liberal” and that Nolan “doesn’t seem to have changed his liberal bent over the years.” In 2012, a Star Tribune reporter described Nolan as “still passionate about the progressive values of his youth.” In 2012, a former Nolan staffer said he didn’t believe his old boss would shy away from his past liberal views. In 1980, The Washington Post reported that Nolan fit “the pattern of the liberal idealist unhappily turned wiser and more realistic.” And Nolan himself admitted back then that since arriving in Congress, “I’ve become more liberal and radicalized.”
3. Nolan Believes EPA Regulations Create Jobs
In 2012, Nolan said the EPA “created more jobs than anything, and said “you can’t sit here and say that environmental rules and regulations have not created jobs. On the contrary they have.” Nolan has also said of environmental regulations: “I don’t think it’s a matter of too many or too few.” Finally, Nolan said “the environmental industry has been a very, very strong component of creating jobs here in this country.”
4. Nolan Voted For A Carbon Tax And Miner Pension Tax
In 2012, Nolan voted for the Progressive Caucus Budget, which included a job-killing carbon tax among the $4.2 trillion in tax increases in the bill. The Progressive Caucus Budget also included a financial transactions tax which raises costs to pensions. The United Mineworkers pension fund is already “seriously underfunded” thanks to the financial collapse, and fewer mining companies left to contribute to pension funds.
5. Nolan Voted Against Funding For Veterans And The National Institutes Of Health
Nolan voted twice during the federal government shutdown against funding veterans’ benefits. Nolan also voted during the federal government shutdown against funding the National Institutes of Health.