The Texas House Select Committee on Healthcare Affordability will meet today to hear invited testimony on several topics. Among those scheduled to testify at the hearing is celebrity billionaire Mark Cuban – an outspoken opponent of medical freedom who has endorsed Democrat James Talarico for the United States Senate.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuban imposed stringent COVID mandates on those attending Dallas Mavericks games and also imposed a vaccine mandate on his employees.
In September, 2021, Cuban – who was then the owner of the Dallas Mavericks – defended his decision to require those attending the team’s games to provide either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test result that was less than 48 hours old.
In a statement to Dallas television station KDFW, Cuban said, “…for the unvaxxed, if they don’t have COVID, just get a test, have a negative result, show it to us, and you are good to go. The only people that should have problems with this are people who can’t pass a COVID test and want to go to a game.”
According to the station, the Mavericks were the only Texas sports team to impose such a stringent requirement.
In an October 2021 podcast interview, Cuban discussed his decision to impose a COVID vaccination mandate on his employees and used vulgar language to insult those who refused the vaccine.
“If you work for me, I require my employees to be vaccinated, unless there’s a doctor’s reason where they can’t be. Like you, I don’t want my kids to be at risk. So the consequences of you not being vaccinated is I’m not gonna shut the [f—] up. I’m gonna be in your [motherf—ing] ear driving you [motherf—ing] crazy,” said Cuban.
More recently, Cuban has endorsed Democrat James Talarico’s candidacy for the United States Senate and joined with Talarico to unveil a healthcare policy proposal for his campaign.
This past weekend, Talarico and Cuban appeared together at an event in Fort Worth where healthcare was among the issues discussed. There, Talarico cited his religious beliefs to justify additional government intervention in healthcare.
“If you go back and read the New Testament, even if you’re not a Christian, even if you’re not religious, go back and see what Jesus spends most of his time doing. It’s not preaching, it’s not teaching, it’s healing. It’s healing people, and that is what we are called to do. Whether you’re religious or not, is ensure that our neighbors have the care that they need. And that is going to be the end result of this plan and the other healthcare policies that we’re going to fight for in Washington is saving the lives of our neighbors, bringing down these costs for all of us, so that we can afford to get by in this economy, so we can afford to fulfill our God-given potential,” said Talarico.
In response to a Q&A with the Texas Tribune earlier this year, Talarico said, “Universal health care is a human right, adding that he had a “proposal called ‘Medicare for Y’all’ that would allow every American to join Medicare.” Talarico also reaffirmed his commitment to protect Obamacare.
As a member of the Texas House of Representatives, Talarico opposed a measure to ban biological boys from participating in girls’ sports and legislation to ban gender-modification treatments for children.
