Welcome to what is the 903rd original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing the sitting U.S. House Representative from Missouri’s 8th District, Jason Smith, who was first elected to Congress back in 2012 after serving eight years as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives. Our interest in profiling Rep. Smith began as far back as 2016, when during a sit-in led by the legendary Congressman John Lewis where Democrats sat on the House floor because Republicans were stubborn enough on gun laws to hold up legislation that would have prevented those on the terror watch list from buying guns. Smith deemed the protest “ridiculous”, and claiming they were “politicizing a very horrible tragedy” in the Pulse massacre to hold it.
In 2017, Smith threw a tantrum about the Affordable Care Act having a tax upon tanning salons, claiming that they should tax THE SUN because it causes more skin cancer than they do, and that the tax somehow sexist because women use tanning salons more than men:
“Whoever decided to impose this tax seven years ago, before I was here, I’d be quite curious of why did they just randomly pick this tax to have it paid for on the backs of so many females. When you just look at the facts, roughly 80 percent of the individuals who are burdened with this tax are females. It looks like an interesting target, which I think is inappropriate.”
Ah yes. A champion of feminist rights who votes to defund Planned Parenthood and refers to women as “females”. Totally not full of s***, there.
It was in early 2019, though, once his party became the minority in the House that we really saw who Jason Smith is. Our country was weeks into the longest government shutdown in its history, engineered by Smith and the GOP. And as House Democrats began working to undo the mess Smith deliberately created, he screamed, “Go back to Puerto Rico!”at California Congressman Tony Cardenas. Smith’s Chief of Staff claimed the comment was directed at Democrats who were “vacationing in Puerto Rico” the prior week, when the reality is, they were there still assessing the island’s recovery almost two years after Hurricane Maria struck and the Trump administration’s lack of a response.
By the end of that year, Smith was criticizing Democrats’ attempts to impeach Donald Trump for soliciting Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election, calling it a “circus”:
”I continue to stand with President Trump and defend him against these outrageous attacks from the liberal mob majority that consistently puts politics before people. This impeachment circus should have never been started; it has been a complete disgrace to our country and has caused complete chaos in government. I look forward to seeing the President acquitted on both charges by the United States Senate in a timely manner so we can get back to addressing the issues that face the American people.”
If the above quote wasn’t a clear indicator that Jason Smith is completely in the tank for Donald Trump, in spite of his rampant corruption and incompetence, in March of 2020, as Trump was ignoring the threat of Covid-19 as it began spreading throughout the United States, Smith lectured Democrats that Trump “deserved more praise” because of what Trump was doing to protect American farmers from China (when Trump’s policies were sending more farmers into bankruptcy and there was a statistical rise in farmer suicides).
“China has exploited our farmers and workers again and again and again. Decades have gone by with no change. And now, when President Trump decides to fight back? Just bickering and politics from Democrats. Disgraceful.”
If only it were that he had developed into a partisan cheap-shot artist, and not that he also voted against the interests of the American people as a legislator:
- June 19th, 2013: Jason Smith votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
- September 30th, 2013: Rep. Smith votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the vote came up seventeen days later to re-open the government, Smith voted to keep it closed.
- Feb 26th, 2014: Jason Smith 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: Smith votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty.
- January 22nd, 2015: Jason Smith 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. predicted.
- September 11th, 2015: Smith votes against the United States’ nuclear treaty with Iran.
- September 18th, 2015: Rep. Smith 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: Smith 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: Jason Smith votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which was working better than was predicted).
- 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.
- March 16th, 2017: Jason 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.
- May 4th, 2017: Smith 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 a provision in the bill would make sure that Smith would be allowed to keep his own healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA.
- June 8th, 2017: Jason Smith votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform.
- 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).
- December 19th, 2017: Jason 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.
- February 18th, 2018: Rep. Smith 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 votes for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Smith voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- January 27th, 2019: Jason Smith votes against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attack Smith our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
- February 28th, 2019: Smith 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. Smith 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: Jason Smith is one of 158 Republicans who choose to against the re-authorization of the Violence Againt Women Act.
- May 17th, 2019: Smith votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Smith votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Jason Smith 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”.
- December 3rd, 2019: Rep. Smith is one of 71 Republicans who votes against a resolution to disallow Russia from re-entering the G7 and makes it the G8 until it leaves Ukraine.
- December 18th, 2019: Smith 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: Smith votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Missouri’s 8th Congressional District is the most conservative in a red state, currently with a +24 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. Jason Smith is unlikely to be unseated in November in his race against Democrat Kathy Ellis, who lost to Smith by 50 points only two years ago. It looks like he will get a fifth term in office, and continue to embody the most extreme attitudes of the modern pretenders the GOP put in Congress.
One Year Ago, August 21st, 2019: Jim Renacci (OH)
Two Years Ago, August 21st, 2018: Nathan Deal (GA)… 2018 Update
Three Years Ago, August 21st, 2017: Nathan Deal (GA)… 2017 Update
Four Years Ago, August 21st, 2016: Nathan Deal (GA)… 2016 Update
Five Years Ago, August 21st, 2015: Nathan Deal (GA)…2015 Update
Six Years Ago, August 21st, 2014: Nathan Deal (GA)…Original Profile