Jamie Raskin (D-MD), was one of the candidates elected to Congress in 2016. He has a very blue district Maryland district, where Jamie beat Republican Dan Cox 220,657) 60.6%) to 124,651 (34.2%. on the same day that Hillary eviscerated Trump 65.0% to 30.6%. The PVI is D+14 and this year the Republicans are represented by a vanity candidate, John Walsh, who hasn't raised the $5,000 that would trigger an FEC report. Before being elected to Congress, Jamie had been a law professor and a state Senator, where he learned how to work across the aisle without compromising his values. Friday he drew up this important list of the 20 worst things the House Republicans did since he was sworn in. (There is still time-- the lame duck session-- for them to do even worse things.) Note all those "without a hear" phrases. One more thing, Jamie Raskin is on Blue America's very short list of Congress' best incumbents.
1. The GOP voted to gut the Affordable Care Act, which would have caused millions of Americans to lose their preexisting condition health care coverage and millions more to pay more money out-of-pocket for their care.2. The GOP voted to gut the Dodd-Frank reforms, rolling back essential consumer protections and returning us to the pre-2008 era of Wall Street abuse and recklessness that produced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.3. The GOP passed their infamous Tax Scam, aptly named “H.R.1” in 2017 because it was a huge gift to the richest 1% of taxpayers and corporations and added more than $1 trillion to the national debt, a deficit-exploding and budget-busting self-inflicted national wound which Republicans now invoke as a reason to force massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.4. The GOP then voted, in their Tax Scam 2.0, to cement tax breaks for billionaires into law, delivering tens of billions of dollars in permanent tax cuts to the plutocrats while setting the stage for massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.5. The GOP voted-- without a hearing-- to restrict the ways in which women can spend their private health insurance dollars on contraception, and voted repeatedly to restrict and dismantle a woman’s right to choose.6. The GOP voted-- without a hearing-- to let states strip public funding from Planned Parenthood and other family-planning providers, making it much harder for millions of Americans to get access to comprehensive health care.7. The GOP voted-- without a hearing-- to change the Constitution with a so-called “Balanced Budget Amendment,” which would jeopardize retirement and health benefits for millions of seniors and disabled Americans.8. The GOP voted to undermine the existing right to overtime pay for overtime work by authorizing employers to substitute comp time for overtime pay, while giving employees no guarantee they can even use their comp time when they need it.9. The GOP voted to override the laws of 50 states by placing a $250,000 cap on damages that victims injured by medical malpractice can recover in court for ongoing pain and suffering, permanent disability and disfigurement, or even wrongful death, and by shortening the time period in which a medical malpractice lawsuit can be brought.10. The GOP voted to make it harder for Americans to seek justice when they have been harmed by corporate wrongdoers by moving personal injury cases away from state courts and state juries and into the overburdened, inaccessible and costly federal courts, now packed with right-wing judges.11. The GOP voted to put class action lawsuits in a straitjacket, making it virtually impossible for civil rights, consumer, privacy, and employment lawsuits to proceed.12. The GOP voted to obliterate the laws of 50 states by granting people who have obtained the right to carry a loaded concealed weapon in the most permissive states in the Union-- such as Florida, where more than 1.3 million people now have such licenses- -to carry their weapons into any state, including those (like Maryland) where the laws would have stopped them.13. The GOP voted to impose extreme new requirements under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that would throw more than 2 million Americans in need out of this anti-hunger program.14. The GOP voted to give unelected commissioners appointed by President Trump sweeping control over America’s regulatory policy, allowing them to prioritize corporate profits over the health and safety of the American public.15. The GOP voted-- without a hearing-- to undermine efforts by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to reduce discriminatory lending practices in the indirect auto lending industry.16. The GOP voted to weaken the Clean Air Act and give breaks to special interests that pollute our environment with toxic emissions that cause neurological ailments, lung disease, asthma and heart disease among both children and seniors.17. The GOP voted to allow banks and other lenders to escape reporting requirements designed to detect predatory and discriminatory lending practices.18. The GOP voted-- without a hearing-- to roll back a rule limiting the dumping of mountaintop mining debris near streams and a rule limiting wasteful venting and flaring of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in oil and gas operations.19. The GOP voted-- without a hearing-- to rescind a rule requiring Alaska to scientifically justify the hunting of certain wildlife and prohibiting inhumane kill methods.20. The GOP did nothing to address the nation’s infrastructure needs, pass the Dream Act, reduce gun violence, address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the minimum wage, address the soaring price of prescription drugs, lower the cost of health care, strengthen voting rights and curb the power of foreign and corporate wealth in our elections, or challenge the outrageous corruption of this administration.
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