Welcome to what is the 890th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing the U.S. House Representative from South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District, Tom Rice, who has served in that role since the district was first created back in 2012 after redistricting. Our reason for hot-shotting Tom Rice up the queue is related to his outlook on Covid-19. You see, on May 28th, 2020, he was interviewed by CNN’s Manu Raju, and asked why in the midst of the public health crisis and with other members of Congress already ending up testing positive, why Rice was refusing to wear a mask. Rep. Rice defended it by claiming he was social distancing and standing six feet away from others and would only wear a mask when he couldn’t be apart from others…
Fast forward two weeks later, and Rep. Rice’s refusal to wear a mask apparently led to him, and his entire family testing positive for Covid-19, because he’s a stubborn jackass. Oh, and he had a healthy reaction to becoming infected, as in his announcement of his condition, he referred to it in the racist terms of being the “Wuhan flu”.
We’ll add that he supports the expensive, ineffective, stupid, and xenophobic idea that is DonaldTrump’s border wall along the U.S./Mexico border, and that he’s also a climate change denier, before taking a long, hard look at his voting record:
- January 15th, 2013: Tom Rice votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
- February 28th, 2013: Rice votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
- June 19th, 2013: Tom Rice votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
- September 30th, 2013: Rep. Rice votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the vote came up seventeen days later to re-open the government, Rice voted to keep it closed.
- Feb 26th, 2014: Tom Rice goes “all in” on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the “Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act”.
- July 10th, 2014: Rice votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
- January 22nd, 2015: Tom Rice votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
- February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Rice votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that by this point, the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
- March 3rd, 2015: Rice votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
- September 11th, 2015: Rice votes against the United States’ nuclear treaty with Iran.
- September 18th, 2015: Rep. Rice votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
- November 19th, 2015: Rice votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
- February 2nd, 2016: Tom Rice votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
- February 16th, 2017: Rice 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: Tom Rice 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.
- May 4th, 2017: Rice 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-partum depression, and sexual assault as “pre-existing conditions”. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Rice 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: Tom Rice 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.
- October 3rd, 2017: Rice 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: Tom Rice 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: Rep. Rice 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.
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Rice voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Rice votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Rice votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Tom Rice is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm.
- May 17th, 2019: Rice votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Rice votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Tom Rice votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
- October 17th, 2019: Rice is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
- December 18th, 2019: Rice ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
- May 15th, 2020: Rice votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District only has a +9 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, and Tom Rice faces off against first time candidate Melissa Watson, a teacher and 2016 delegate at the DNC looking to pull an upset against someone who has shown himself unable t lead by example during the current crisis our nation is going through.
One Year Ago, July 15th, 2019: Stacey Dash (CA)
Two Years Ago, July 15th, 2018: Robert Pittenger (NC)… 2018 Update
Three Years Ago, July 15th, 2017: Robert Pittenger (NC)… 2017 Update
Four Years Ago, July 15th, 2016: Robert Pittenger (NC)… 2016 Update
Five Years Ago, July 15th, 2015: Robert Pittenger (NC)… Original Profile
Six Years Ago, July 15th, 2014: Christine O’Donnell (DE)