Walz faces backlash after defending Obama-era mandate repealed by Trump: 'Massive tax penalty'

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz faced backlash on social media after he defended an individual healthcare mandate during a back and forth with his counterpart, Republican Sen. JD Vance, in their first and only debate on Tuesday night.

"The question about this of young people, whatever, that's the individual mandate," Walz said during a conversation on healthcare and the Affordable Care Act at the CBS News debate in New York City. "And Republicans fought tooth and nail saying Americans should be free to do this."

Vance then interjected, asking, "Tim do you think the individual mandate is a good idea?"

"I think the idea of making sure the risk pool is broad enough to cover everyone -- that's the only way insurance works.When it doesn't, it collapses. You are asking pre- ACA where we get people out. Look, people know that they need to be on health care. People expect it to be there."

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Walz went on to say that the ACA "works" but we can "continue to do better."

Walz's comments defending the individual mandate drew criticism on social media, with people pointing out that it was repealed during the Trump administration.

"We eliminated an especially cruel tax that fell mostly on Americans making less than $50,000 a year — forcing them to pay tremendous penalties simply because they could not afford government-ordered health plans," Trump told an audience during the 2018 State of the Union Address.

"We repealed the core of disastrous ObamaCare — the individual mandate is now gone," he added.

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"Tim Walz just endorsed reinstating the Obamacare mandate which was a massive tax penalty for