On this date in 2014, 2015, as well as 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" posted profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 21st Congressional District, Lamar Smith, a 15 term Congressman who specifically said that “the greatest threat to America is not a recession or terrorist attack, but a liberal media bias”, aided Hobby Lobby in filing their lawsuit with the Supreme Court over birth control being covered on medical insurance, railed against the national parks being closed during the 2013 Government Shutdown that he voted for, called immigrants earning citizenship through military service “President Obama aiding and abetting an immigrant crime spree”, and wrote the legislation that would limit what kinds of science the EPA can use to set environmental standards. In March of 2016, Smith was proud to announce that a published article from climate change scientists had declared that they had “confirmed the halt in global warming”. The problem with that? The actual article that Rep. Smith was citing said the exact opposite, and we quote, “we do not believe global warming has ceased”. By December of 2016, Lamar Smith used the Twitter account of the House Science Committee to link to the White Nationalist news site Breitbart News, and their article titled, “Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists”. The article amounted to telling the public that global warming cannot exist because, and this might surprise you… it’s actually getting colder outside. Y’know, in DECEMBER, go figure. We’d like to see someone respond by hitting Lamar Smith with a science textbook until he accepts its contents, but we’ll settle for the response so Smith’s idiocy given by Sen. Bernie Sanders instead.
A brief look at a couple of the more egregious votes from Rep. Smith from the past year:
- February 16th, 2017: Smith votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
- March 16th, 2017: Lamar Smith votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order. We feel safer already.
- March 28th, 2017: Rep. Smith votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers’ internet usage to businesses. Well, so much for privacy.
- May 4th, 2017: Smith votes for the House GOP’s healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), postpartum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Smith would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
- June 8th, 2017: Lamar Smith votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
- September 8th, 2017: Rep. Smith chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey. Note, he is a Texas Congressman voting against disaster relief for a hurricane that hit his own state.
- October 3rd, 2017: Smith votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
- November 16th, 2017: Lamar Smith votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
And now, CSGOPOTD will give you all an early Christmas present… the news that Lamar Smith, the ignorant twit that he is, will not be running for re-election in 2018, and skulk away into retirement. It seems unlikely that any politician could be more of an anti-science troll, so this feels like a win, regardless of if seat falls to Democrats or not.