Tim Walz Must Be… | Power Line

…America’s most unsuccessful politician. He took over as governor of a state that had always been low-crime, and now, for the first time ever, Minnesota’s serious crime rate is higher than the national average. He became governor of a state that had long been prosperous, and after six years, again for the first time ever, Minnesota’s per capita GDP is below the national average. Despite spending astonishing amounts of money, his administration has overseen a steady decline in Minnesota’s public schools, to the point where most Minnesota K-12 students can neither read nor do math at grade level. Again, an unprecedented achievement. And, having become governor of a state with a reputation for clean government, he mired Minnesota in such scandal–American Experiment’s Scandal Tracker is now over $611 million–that we can stake a solid claim to being America’s most corrupt state.

With a record like that, how can it possibly get worse? Tim Walz says: Hold my beer. Two years ago, Minnesota had a $17.6 billion surplus. Walz and his DFL colleagues in Minnesota’s legislature spent the whole surplus, and added $10 billion in new taxes. Now, the current forecast from Minnesota’s Department of Revenue is for a $6 billion deficit. The current session of the state’s legislature is dominated by the debate over what to do about it.

Walz, of course, has no solution other than to raise Minnesota’s taxes, already absurdly high, even higher. But he is mostly concerned with dodging responsibility. Who is to blame for transforming Minnesota’s budget surplus into a deficit in just two years? Donald Trump!

You think I’m kidding, but no. This is the excuse that Walz and others in his party are trying to sell to the voters:

Minnesota had an $18 billion surplus just two years ago.

Now we’re facing a $6 billion deficit.

Democrats can blame the President all they want, but it was their irresponsible spending spree that put us in this budget crisis.

— Lisa Demuth (@LisaDemuthMN) March 6, 2025

Needless to say, Tim Walz does not have a coherent explanation for how Donald Trump could possibly be responsible for the fact that Minnesota’s spending exceeds its tax revenue. In fact, the budget was already forecast to be in a $5.1 billion deficit before Trump even took office.

The actual cause of the deficit is ballooning spending. My colleague John Phelan created this chart, which tells the story and has been ubiquitous on X:

The Democrats’ irresponsible spending spree–a 43% increase in two years–is 100% to blame.

You might think that with a record that bad, and having been humiliated on the national stage in 2024, Tim Walz would slink off into obscurity. But no! He has hinted that he may be available if his party wants him to run for President in 2028. Meanwhile, he is deliberating whether to run for a third term as governor, or seek the Senate seat being vacated by Tina Smith.

If he opts for the Senate, it will be quite a primary: his lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan, has already announced for that seat (the two reportedly hate each other), as has Secretary of State Steve Simon, who, through collusive litigation, put a finger on the scale for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race. And there are rumors that Ilhan Omar might also jump in. So this could be the most entertaining primary in a long time. One gets the sense, too, that Democrats who have been responsible for the disaster in St. Paul are trying to get out of town before the roof falls in.