Rep. Raskin’s Roundup of 20 ‘Outrageous Things the GOP House Majority Did in My First Term’

October 22, 2018

A voter told me she knew the President was a “nightmare,” but needed a reminder of what the GOP has been doing in Congress. I compiled a list of the GOP’s key legislative attacks on the public interest that I have witnessed since I joined the House of Representatives in January 2017. It’s hard to choose the worst, but this list will make sure no one forgets what the GOP has done when we go vote on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. 

  1. The GOP voted to gut the Affordable Care Act, which would have caused millions of Americans to lose their preexisting condition health care coverage and millions more to pay more money out-of-pocket for their care.
  2. The GOP voted to gut the Dodd-Frank reforms, rolling back essential consumer protections and returning us to the pre-2008 era of Wall Street abuse and recklessness that produced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
  3. The GOP passed their infamous Tax Scam, aptly named “H.R.1” in 2017 because it was a huge gift to the richest 1% of taxpayers and corporations and added more than $1 trillion to the national debt, a deficit-exploding and budget-busting self-inflicted national wound which Republicans now invoke as reason to force massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. 
  4. The GOP then voted, in their Tax Scam 2.0, to cement tax breaks for billionaires into law, delivering tens of billions of dollars in permanent tax cuts to the plutocrats while setting the stage for massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
  5. The GOP voted–without a hearing–to restrict the ways in which women can spend their private health insurance dollars on contraception, and voted repeatedly to restrict and dismantle a woman’s right to choose.  
  6. The GOP voted–without a hearing–to let states strip public funding from Planned Parenthood and other family-planning providers, making it much harder for millions of Americans to get access to comprehensive health care.
  7. The GOP voted–without a hearing–to change the Constitution with a so-called “Balanced Budget Amendment,” which would jeopardize retirement and health benefits for millions of seniors and disabled Americans.  
  8. The GOP voted to undermine the existing right to overtime pay for overtime work by authorizing employers to substitute comp time for overtime pay, while giving employees no guarantee they can even use their comp time when they need it.
  9. The GOP voted to override the laws of 50 states by placing a $250,000 cap on damages that victims injured by medical malpractice can recover in court for ongoing pain and suffering, permanent disability and disfigurement, or even wrongful death, and by shortening the time period in which a medical malpractice lawsuit can be brought.
  10. The GOP voted to make it harder for Americans to seek justice when they have been harmed by corporate wrongdoers by moving personal injury cases away from state courts and state juries and into the overburdened, inaccessible and costly federal courts, now packed with right-wing judges.
  11. The GOP voted to put class action lawsuits in a straitjacket, making it virtually impossible for civil rights, consumer, privacy, and employment lawsuits to proceed. 
  12. The GOP voted to obliterate the laws of 50 states by granting people who have obtained the right to carry a loaded concealed weapon in the most permissive states in the Union–such as Florida, where more than 1.3 million people now have such licenses–to carry their weapons into any state, including those (like Maryland) where the laws would have stopped them.
  13. The GOP voted to impose extreme new requirements under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that would throw more than 2 million Americans in need out of this anti-hunger program. 
  14. The GOP voted to give unelected commissioners appointed by President Trump sweeping control over America’s regulatory policy, allowing them to prioritize corporate profits over the health and safety of the American public.  
  15. The GOP voted–without a hearing–to undermine efforts by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to reduce discriminatory lending practices in the indirect auto lending industry.   
  16. The GOP voted to weaken the Clean Air Act and give breaks to special interests that pollute our environment with toxic emissions that cause neurological ailments, lung disease, asthma and heart disease among both children and seniors. 
  17. The GOP voted to allow banks and other lenders to escape reporting requirements designed to detect predatory and discriminatory lending practices.
  18. The GOP voted–without a hearing–to roll back a rule limiting the dumping of mountaintop mining debris near streams and a rule limiting wasteful venting and flaring of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in oil and gas operations.  
  19. The GOP voted–without a hearing–to rescind a rule requiring Alaska to scientifically justify the hunting of certain wildlife and prohibiting inhumane kill methods.
  20. The GOP did nothing to address the nation’s infrastructure needs, pass the Dream Act, reduce gun violence, address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the minimum wage, address the soaring price of prescription drugs, lower the cost of health care, strengthen voting rights and curb the power of foreign and corporate wealth in our elections, or challenge the outrageous corruption of this administration.  

Sources

  1. 2017 Vote #256 – H.R. 1628, American Health Care Act
  2. 2017 Vote #299 – H.R. 10, Financial CHOICE Act of 2017
  3. 2017 Vote #692 – H.R. 1, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. BECAME LAW – PUBLIC LAW NO. 115-97.
  4. 2018 Vote #414 – H.R. 6760, Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018
  5. 2017 Vote #65 – H.R. 7, No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act; 2017 Vote #518– Palmer Amendment No. 192 to H.R. 3354; 2017 Vote #549 – H.R. 36, Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act; and 2018 Vote #36 – H.R. 4712, Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
  6. 2017 Vote #99 – H.J. Res. 43, Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule submitted by Secretary of Health and Human Services relating to compliance with title X requirements by project recipients in selecting subrecipients. BECAME LAW – PUBLIC LAW NO. 115-54.
  7.  2018 Vote #138 – H.J.Res. 2, Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States
  8. 2017 Vote #244 – H.R. 1180, Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017
  9. 2017 Vote #337 – H.R. 1215, Protecting Access to Care Act
  10. 2017 Vote #152 – H.R. 725, Innocent Party Protection Act
  11. 2017 Vote #148 – H.R. 985, Fairness in Class Action Litigation and Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act of 2017
  12. 2017 Vote #663 – H.R. 38, Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017
  13. 2018 Vote #205 – H.R. 2, Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, commonly referred to as the ‘Farm Bill’
  14. 2017 Vote #114 – H.R. 998, Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act
  15. 2018 Vote #171 – S.J.Res. 57, A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to “Indirect Auto Lending and Compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act”. BECAME LAW – PUBLIC LAW NO. 115-172.
  16. 2018 Vote #101 – H.R. 1119, SENSE Act
  17. 2018 Vote #32 – H.R. 2954, Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act
  18. 2017 Vote #73 – H.J.Res. 38, Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of the Interior known as the Stream Protection Rule. BECAME LAW – PUBLIC LAW NO. 115-5.; 2017 Vote #78 – H.J.Res. 36, Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) relating to “Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation”
  19. 2017 Vote #98 – H.J.Res. 69, Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule of the Department of the Interior relating to “Non-Subsistence Take of Wildlife, and Public Participation and Closure Procedures, on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska”. BECAME LAW – PUBLIC LAW NO. 115-20.