In both 2016, and 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of the sitting U.S. House Representative from Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District, Lou Barletta, who while he was still mayor of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, Barletta made a name for himself back in 2006 by passing a city ordinance to curb illegal immigration, the draconian “Illegal Immigration Relief Act”. He immediately defended charges of the law being racist by saying, “This isn’t racial, because ‘illegal’ and 'legal’ don’t have a race.” Of course, it’s hard to believe that when you consider Barletta was proudly touting the measure’s "success” by the most interesting measurables… bankrupting Mexican restaurants, adding, “I see illegal immigrants picking up and leaving – some Mexican restaurants say business is off 75 percent. The message is out there.” Well, racist or not (it’s racist), within less than a year, the courts overturned the law as unconstitutional, to Barletta’s chagrin. He did not, however, cease to demonize undocumented workers to advance his political career, and rode anti-immigrant fever into Congress in a mining town that was ironically built by Italian and Irish immigrants into a hub a century ago. He has cemented an alliance with the Federation of American Immigration Reform, whose idea of reform is actually “kick 'em all out” and has earned itself the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who classify FAIR as a hate group. In April of 2014, FAIR was hosting their “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” event in Washington, D.C., where they invite conservative radio hosts to the capitol to interview members of Congress, and push for extreme actions to be taken against undocumented workers. Lou Barletta was more than happy to give interviews to the most radical and xenophobic of loons. Perhaps the most disturbing quotes included his discussion with the rabidly anti-Islamic activist, Frank Gaffney, where he called Barack Obama a “dictator”, his chat with Lars Larson to say that “Sanctuary Cities are making us a Third World Country” and his chat with former chief of staff to Allen West, Joyce Kauffman, where Barletta compared undocumented workers to the terrorists who hijacked planes on 9/11. Pretty disgusting examples, right? Well, Barletta doesn’t have much self-awareness for cause and effect, as he has also managed to whine about how the GOP cannot win over Latino voters. He really has no idea why they can’t get behind a Republican Party that demonizes Latinos as much as they do, and probably doesn’t help them make any more headway like when he refers to them as “not skilled” or “not having high school diplomas”, and their eagerness to just take government handouts. Which, he assumes would make them Democrats, so why push for immigration reform, when they’re just going to join the opposing party, right? Lou Barletta is against any and all actions involving immigrants short of a boot to their ass that he began actively talking about impeaching President Obama for his executive orders on immigration in June of 2014, insisting that House Republicans had the votes to successfully do so (they didn’t, not that it was an impeachable offense, anyway).
Outside of being a xenophobic bigot, what else is there to know about Lou Barletta? In his last debate against Paul Kanjorski, back in 2010, Barletta denied climate change science. He has twice already voted to defund Planned Parenthood, as well as having been a consistent vote on anti-choice measures, has repeatedly voted to try and repeal the Affordable Care Act, has voted against raising the Debt Ceiling limit, and voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown. Barletta was also one of the first Republicans to endorse Donald Trump for president and was a part of his transition team. (no word on whether or not he had secret conversations with Russian envoys before or after the election… yet.) Now, in the 2018 elections judges have overturned the Congressional gerrymander created by Pennsylvania Republicans as unconstitutional, and Barletta won’t enjoy an easy ride back to Washington, D.C in the ridiculous gerrymander that was Pennsylvania’s 11th District.
Well, his ride might be even tougher than that, because for whatever stupid reason, in a Blue Wave election year, Lou Barletta is challenging popular U.S. Senator Bob Casey for his seat representing Pennsylvania. Republicans barely won back Sen. Pat Toomey’s seat in 2016, only squeaking him back to a second term by 1% of the vote… and Barletta? He… is not popular in Pennsylvania. What, with being a screaming racist and all. His track record of bigotry still has ugly quotes and interviews dropping into the public eye like proverbial skeletons falling out of a closet, like the fact that he gave an anti-immigrant interview back in 2006 to a fringe publication that promotes Holocaust denial and headlined a rally where a political activist and musician who has questioned the Holocaust and promoted conspiracies about the September 11, 2001 attacks also spoke and performed. Lou’s spokesman deployed a very brave tactic when confronted about this… playing dumb.
Now, this isn’t to say Congressman Barletta is hiding what a xenophobic prick he is… he’s still embracing it. In February of 2018, he sent out a mailer that said the United States is “at war” with illegal immigrants, calling them “violent criminal aliens” and “radical terrorists”, which, quite predictably was also around the same time he earned the endorsement of Donald Trump (On Twitter, because of course).
And, if you think that we’re focusing too much on Lou Barletta’s ugly opinions, and that his voting record hasn’t been heinous, check out the slate from the past term he’s had in office:
- March 16th, 2017: Lou Barletta 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. Barletta votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers’ internet usage to businesses.
- May 4th, 2017: Barletta 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 Barletta 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: Lou Barletta 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: Barletta 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: Lou Barletta 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.
We’re trying to not get confident about polls we see after the 2016 election… but admittedly, we peeked at the Lou Barletta vs. Bob Casey race, and it seems indicative of the fact that Barletta is loathed, as he’s trailing Sen. Casey by well into double digits. Odds are looking more like the xenophobic mouth-breather will be out of a job come 2019, and might try to weasel his way into a Trump administration appointment, however long that nightmare continues.
One Year Ago, May 1st, 2017: Lou Barletta (PA)… 2017 Update
Two Years Ago. May 1st, 2016: Lou Barletta (PA)… Original Profile
Three Years Ago: May 1st, 2015: Joan Farr Heffington (KS)