On this date in 2014, 2015, as well as 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District, Jim Sensebrenner, who has been a member of Congress since 1979. Through the years, he has been involved in some of the more distasteful legislative acts in our country, such as the attempted impeachment of President Clinton, where he read the opening statement, the drafting of the original version of the Patriot Act (which he denies leaving loopholes in to allow for government surveillance of the civilian populace), and his vote against $50 billion in relief aid for Hurricane Katrina. Sensenbrenner has also been prone to tantrums, like when in 2005, he walked out of a meeting about human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay prison after demanding C-SPAN turn off all cameras in an attempt at a media blackout. This guy even fought against funding for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis prevention, and against stiffer penalties for people convicted of dog fighting, he’s so heartless. Sensenbrenner also has a long history of ridiculous quotes on climate change denial, including his insistence that there’s data to prove “global cooling” out there. That should come as little surprise, as Sensenbrenner owns stock in British Petroleum,and during the Congressional hearings after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, he actually refused to recuse himself from the proceedings, instead writing an angry letter to the White House to lay blame on them for the disaster. His disgust for the Obama White House goes a bit farther than that, as he actually tried criticizing Michelle Obama’s efforts to combat childhood obesity, because “she has a big butt” (because he himself is doing so much better in battling obesity). Sensenbrenner actually voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women act, and not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but voted against re-opening it when the time came. In 2015, Sensenbrenner was taking testimony in the hearings on Planned Parenthood, and asked witness Priscilla Smith why she prioritized Planned Parenthood over feeding hungry children, then cut her off to pretend to be baffled by her answer about how it helped mothers with cancer screenings so they could feed their healthy children, because they would still be alive to if it’s caught early.
In his twentieth term in office, Sensebrenner continues to show he had surgeons remove any sense of empathy he might have had years ago:
- February 16th, 2017: Sensebrenner 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. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
- March 16th, 2017: Jim Sensebrenner 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. We feel safer already.
- March 28th, 2017: Rep. Sensebrenner 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: Sensebrenner 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 Sensebrenner 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: Jim Sensebrenner 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. Sensebrenner chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey.
- October 3rd, 2017: Sensebrenner 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).
- November 16th, 2017: Jim Sensebrenner 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.
Jim Sensebrenner has been around for four decades, and has worn his conservative disdain for the working class the majority of that time. So it’s little surprise that when he hosted a town hall back in April of 2017, he didn’t seem too concerned with his constituents’ wealth of complaints. When asked about his vote for SJ Res 34, where internet providers would now be allowed to sell the data information of their users to businesses, and how that would violate all sense of privacy, his response was, “Well you know, nobody has got to use the internet.” (Yeah, he’s that out of touch, he doesn’t seem to understand that most jobs require the internet these days, or that to even apply for one, you need to have an e-mail you can be reached at.)
We will end our update on Sensebrenner by again, reminding you that in 2006 he finished second place in a Rolling Stone piece about “America’s Worst Congressmen”, only behind GOP colleague and child molester, Dennis Hastert. In that article, this was the assessment of the man representing Wisconsin’s 5th District:
That still says it all, but somehow, in spite of that reputation, twelve years later, Sensebrenner is still in office.
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