On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, David Schweikert, a former real estate vulture capitalist arch-conservative who consistently votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, defund Planned Parenthood, fails to understand how the debt ceiling works, referred to the 2013 Government Shutdown as “my idea of fun”, and was once recorded on video high-fiving Rep. Ben Quayle on the floor of the house after denying a pay increase to active duty soldiers fighting the War on Terror. If that isn’t tacky enough, he also showed a lack of character when he then turned around after redistricting and ran against Quayle in the 2012 GOP Primary in Arizona’s 6th District, instead of the 5th, because he preferred how gerrymandered it was compared to where he started. Schweikert managed to defeat Quayle in part by running campaign ads that insinuated he was bisexual, and as a result, the rest of the Congressional delegation from Arizona has turned their backs on him, and John Boehner removed him from all his committee assignments because, as one GOP staffer said of Schweikert, he’s “one of the most egregious ***holes in the party”. This is what his OWN party thinks of him. Democrats don’t disagree, and certainly unions don’t either, with Schweikert having compared them to Nazis, saying, “Goebbels would be proud of them.”
Rep. Schweikert has returned to Washington, D.C., where he suddenly would like to avoid government shutdowns, apparently now convinced they’re not so fun. Oh, but he’s still a terrible legislator:
- February 16th, 2017: Schweikert 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.
- March 16th, 2017: David Schweikert 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.
- March 28th, 2017: Rep. Schweikert 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: Schweikert 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 Schweikert 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: David Schweikert 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. Schweikert chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey.
- October 3rd, 2017: Schweikert 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).
- December 19th, 2017: David Schweikert 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.
- February 18th, 2018: Schweikert and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
As stated, Schweikert’s Arizona district is one of the more conservative in the state, and he won re-election in 2016 with 62% of the vote. His relationship with those constituents has soured, however, as he has dodged town halls and seen constituents host ones with him in absentia, and his home office in his district has responded to those who brought cookies and hoped to set up meetings with him… by calling the police and trying to have them arrested. For sharing baked goods, apparently.
He’s also currently fund-raising by claiming Democratic organizations in his district who want to flip his seat are “inciting violence” and “setting cars on fire”. Big surprise, that’s not based in reality, unless maybe you get your news from Alex Jones, in which case you aren’t based in reality anyway.
Then again, we are talking about a guy whose own colleagues refer to as “one of the most egregious ***holes” in Congress, so there’s that. He debated his opponent, Scottsdale businesswoman and political newcomer Anita Malik, about a week ago, and showed his a-hole credentials, at one point talking down to Malik and telling her that “87 is more than 84”, leading her to snap back, “Yes, I know 87 is larger than 84, so thank you for that condescension.” Maybe the math that Schweikert should be focused on is that his own Chief of Staff was dismissed and that he’s currently the target of a House Ethics investigation over using funds from his Congressional budget (i.e. taxpayer dollars) for improper purposes.
We would like to think that scandal, as well as Schweikert’s overall d***ishness would be enough to be the end of his career… but Arizona is red, Arizona’s 6th is one of the reddest parts with it having affluent Scottsdale in it, and it went for 10 points in favor of Trump in 2016, whom Schweikert is pathologically drawn to support (because Trump is also an ***hole.) We’re afraid that he’ll survive the Blue Wave and remain in Congress for at least another two years.