It was one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented its original profile of the seventeen term U.S. House Representative from Oklahoma’s 6th Congressional District, Frank Lucas, who in 2013, floated his own paranoid bit of fiction when in a radio interview, where he claimed that the Obama administration was “leading a conspiracy to buy up all the bullets so they’re not available to us”. At the point Rep. Lucas was wetting his pants at the thought of this sinister takeover, the theory had already been debunked not just by the administration, but by the NRA (who you’d think would be the first to cry foul). Lucas was not content just to push this as a theory, actually trying to legislate based off of it to ban any federal agency outside of the Pentagon from buying ammunition (it didn’t pass, because, y’know, crazy talk). That was, of course, when he wasn’t working supporters up into a lather on his own website about “the truth about Benghazi” for years after the attack took place.
Anyway, Lucas found his way into office in a special election prior to the 1994 mid-terms to replace Glenn English, and his upset victory for the GOP was considered to be a sign of the “Red Wave” to come in the ‘94 mid-terms. And, for the past 23 years, as his district has been gerrymandered to be more and more conservative (currently it sits at a “mere” +26 Republican lean), he’s grown bolder and bolder in his conservative agenda, having voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, a constitutional amendment to allow government buildings to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments, the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act (which repeals key parts of the Glass-Steagall Financial Regulation Act, and opened the door for big banks to create the 2007 Sub-Prime Mortgage Housing Crisis), the Iraq War Resolution, the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill, and was a co-sponsor for a bill to create a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in 2006. Through most of the past decade, he’s voted against the Equal Pay Bill, the re-authorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, denying health insurance to millions of children, against ENDA (allowing the continued discrimination of LGBT citizens based on their sexual identity in the workplace), against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, against the Hate Crimes Expansion that would provide protections to LGBT citizens against Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, against increased regulations on offshore oil rigs after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and against the DREAM Act, against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. He has twice voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted against the new version of the Violence Against Women Act, voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown and after 16 days, voted to keep the government closed. He’s also repeatedly voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, voted to try and stop Syrian Refugees from being resettled in our country, and voted to try and prevent the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty from being enacted because… well, conspiracy theories, I suppose. And that voting record gets uglier by the day:
- February 16th, 2017: Lucas 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: Frank Lucas 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. Lucas 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: Lucas votes for the GOP’s healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partem depression, and sexual assault as “pre-existing conditions”. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Lucas 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: Frank Lucas 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.
We’re going to be honest, here… with Oklahoma’s 6th having as much of a friendly conservative lean as it does, Frank Lucas is likely to remain in Congress as long as he wants to. We find that fact… unfortunate.
One Year Ago, June 16th, 2016: Frank Lucas (OK)… Original Profile
Two Years Ago, June 16th, 2015: Henry Rayhons (IA)