Is Bri-Fi Still The One For PA-01?

So now, we find ourselves performing our every-other-year ritual of looking at some critical votes by our PA-01 wingnut-disguised-as-moderate Repug U.S. House Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and trying to determine from that if he rates another two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Without further ado, let’s get started:

• We might as well begin with Bri’s No vote on President Biden’s Build Back Better bill (here), which the Dems stupidly de-coupled from the corporate spending infrastructure bill; when that happened, the bill was virtually guaranteed to fail, which was predicted by Dem U.S. House Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others (here). As noted here, in its original form, Build Back Better “aim(ed) to dramatically reduce childcare costs, provide(d) universal pre-kindergarten for children, lower(ed) the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, expand(ed) Medicare to cover hearing aids, extend(ed) work permits to millions of undocumented immigrants and provide(d) the largest-ever investment in efforts to combat the climate crisis.”
  
  And along with every other congressional Republican (and Dem Jared Golden of Maine somehow opposed it also), Bri-Fi voted No.

• Oh, and speaking of AOC, remember when that idiot Paul Gosar of Arizona made that ridiculous (and legally actionable IMO) “snuff” video of the NY-14 Dem U.S. House rep? And remember how Gosar was removed from his committees and censured by the House (here)? Well, Bri-Fi was apparently fine with a depiction of violence against one of his colleagues (with the 1/6 insurrection still fresh in everyone’s minds of course), because he voted No on that resolution also (Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were the only two Republicans who supported the resolution).
• I know it was noted earlier that the Build Back Better bill (in its initial version) was opposed by every U.S. House Republican and aimed to reduce child care costs. That chiefly came in the form of a child tax credit that would have been fully refundable permanently, benefitting roughly 9 in 10 children across the country (and quite a few in PA-01, I would estimate) and leading to historic reductions in child poverty. This also included an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, boosting the incomes of an estimated 17 million working adults. Again, Bri-Fi and his pals voted No (here).
• Bri-Fi and every other U.S. House Republican voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act, passed in the shadow of the infamous Dobbs decision by the “shadow docket” SCOTUS of “Strip Search Sammy” Alito and his buddies (here). As NARAL Pro Choice America noted here, “This legislation would protect the right to abortion throughout the United States at a time when extremist lawmakers in multiple states are enforcing total bans on abortion.” Oh, but “half a loaf” Brian somehow found it in him to support the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act (here), which (as noted here),”prohibits anyone acting under state law from interfering with a person’s ability to access out-of-state abortion services’ (sooo…if you’re a woman of age, you’re not allowed to get an abortion, but Bri-Fi thinks you should be allowed to cross state lines to get one anyway…??? And I couldn’t find an explanation for these mystifying votes on his congressional web site, by the way).
• Br-Fi (as noted here) also voted No on the Consumer Protection and Recovery Act. The bill (an amendment to the FTC Act) restored a key piece of the Federal Trade Commission’s Section 13(b) power, which the FTC previously used to obtain restitution and disgorgement for wronged consumers until the Supreme Court recently limited this authority in AMG Capital Management v. FTC.  The White House also expressed support for the bill. (The Electronic Privacy Information Center) has long called for greater protection of consumer privacy through FTC enforcement and the imposition of financial penalties against companies who engage in unfair data practices (here).
• Oh, and just as a reminder, I should note also that Fitzpatrick joined every other U.S. House Republican last December and voted against funding the government until February of this year (here). According to Politico (here), the reason why is because they were afraid of the noise made by the head of their party against those Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was separated from Build Back Better (Adam Kinzinger voted in favor of a related bill, the lone Republican vote it should be noted – Fitzpatrick was one of those who commendably voted Yes for the infrastructure bill, though that really shouldn’t have been that hard of a decision – here).
  
  So…that’s just great, isn’t it? By voting No to fund the government, Bri-Fi said he was OK with delays for Medicare/Social Security/SSI payments, SNAP benefits, shut downs of our national parks, federal employee furloughs as well as cutting back on food inspections, ensuring we had clean air and water, and on and on and on (everything that we rely on from the feds). Oh, but he’s a “moderate,” isn’t he…ugh.
• Here’s another item from last December…remember those text messages that were sent to Trump from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows related to the January 6^th insurrection? And remember how Meadows received a subpoena to testify before the 1/6 Commission and ignored it, and was held in contempt (I mean, if it were you or I, we’d be in jail by now)? Well, Bri-Fi voted No on the contempt vote, along with every other U.S. House Repug except, again, for Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, as noted here (this really isn’t surprising I guess since Bri-Fi voted No on both Trump impeachment resolutions – more here. Bri-Fi also voted against the 1/6 Commission altogether as noted here…I guess he’s fine with a treasonous insurrection against our government).
• In addition, the America COMPETES Act (HR 4521) passed the U.S. House last February by a vote of 222-210 (here). The Act “includes a historic investment to surge production of American-made semiconductors, tackles supply chain vulnerabilities to make more goods in America, turbocharges America’s scientific research and technological leadership, and strengthens America’s economic and national security at home and abroad” as noted here. I cannot imagine why Bri-Fi would vote in opposition to this bill, but he did.
• Another No vote from Bri-Fi came over the MORE Act last April (here), a cannabis decriminalization bill with three main components: 1) Cannabis would be removed from the list of drugs regulated by the Controlled Substances Act (pot would no longer be a  “Schedule 1” drug, designated for far more dangerous substances such as heroin…more background on that is here); 2) Criminal penalties for federal cannabis offenses would be eliminated; and 3) Past federal cannabis convictions would be expunged. Additional background is here…and while I’m not sold on legalization for recreational use, it’s way past time to decriminalize it, prescribe medical marijuana, and let dispensaries run like regular businesses IMO (and I haven’t been able to find much data on where our beloved commonwealth of PA stands on legalization…I have a feeling that it will be one of the very last places in the U.S. where that eventually happens).
• Oh, and just to remind everyone, in the prior session Bri-Fi voted for a 20-week abortion ban as well as a bill granting legal rights to fetuses (the first step on the way to prosecuting health care professionals for performing services related to abortion), and he also cast a No vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would have enshrined into law the protections granted by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade (all that and more is here).
• Also in the prior session, he voted against giving asylum detainees diapers, soap, toothbrushes & timely medical checks…what a humanitarian! (here).
• In addition, did I mention that Fitzpatrick opposed COVID relief (returning to the current session), which in part included funding for law enforcement (here, and page 2 from here)?
• Also (and this may be one for the books), Bri-Fi co-sponsored the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act (here), but voted against the bill’s final passage. In the interest of fairness, I’ll present his response on that here, but it should be noted that the markup of the bill was indeed changed. And the reason why it was changed was because of the Buffalo mass shooting that month (as opposed to the other mass shootings in this country, which are just about weekly anymore sadly), in which the suspect specifically targeted African Americans (here). So yes, the bill was changed in light of the threat of domestic terrorism (Bri-Fi may not care about the domestic terror threat, but his old agency does as noted here…and don’t forget that Director Chris Wray was appointed by #45, the de facto head of Bri-Fi’s party).
• Along with every other U.S. House Republican, he voted No on a bill to investigate price gouging by our dirty energy criminals in this country (here).
• And in keeping a bit with the prior No vote on the Domestic Terrorism bill he co-sponsored, Fitzpatrick voted No (along with every other U.S. House Republican) on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would require white supremacists, Nazi supporters and extremists to be removed from the military (noted here…I’ll grant you that it’s a bit of a slippery slope in that it’s a well-intended bill that could boomerang for legal reasons, but the alternative is our thoroughly detrimental status quo where another treasonous insurrection could spring up from those serving our country…given that the 1/6 revolt has happened once, it definitely could happen again).
• Also (and as kind of an obstructionist “bookend” if you will to his original opposition to Build Back Better), Bri-Fi, along with every other U.S. House Republican, voted No to the Inflation Reduction Act (a scaled-back version of BBB – here). Fitzpatrick’s Democratic opponent in the general election, Ashley Ehasz, responded here.
• And as bad as all of this is (and it definitely is that), in my opinion, it actually gets worse. As noted here (according to the Bucks County Beacon, which is doing great work), Fitzpatrick supports a so-called Article V Convention to rewrite the United States Constitution…and if you think Bri-Fi and his pals want to do this to help anyone BESIDES the one percent (a fraction of that, actually), then you truly haven’t been paying attention. This is basically the end game for Charles Koch and the crazed glibertarian plutocrats who want to turn this country into some kind of religio-fascist corpocracy (Thom Hartmann gives us all the “stuff of nightmares” details here – a corporate-media-sanitized related story is here).

This may seem hard to believe, but as awful as all of this is concerning Bri-Fi, there is actually more that you can read from here. However, I for one have had enough. It is long past time to dispense with Brian Fitzpatrick and support Ashley Ehasz as our new Democratic rep for PA-01 in the U.S. House. To join the campaign and help elect her in November, please click here.

Update 1 8/22/22: A good bit of this was covered already above, but I still think it bears repeating.

Update 2 8/22/22: I’m not sure how I neglected to mention Fitzpatrick’s opposition to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, but somehow I did (here)…apologies.

Update 3 8/22/22: Here are 3 more No votes from Fitzpatrick:

• HR 7606 – Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act of 2022: As noted here, the bill increased enforcement of competition laws and boosted USDA’s resources to investigate abusive market practices. “It will force packers to play fairly. It will improve the markets for producers. It will make it more competitive. It will also lower the prices for consumers. This is going to be a win-win,” according to Walter Schweitzer of the Montana Farmers Union (vote is here).
• HR 963 – FAIR Act of 2022: As noted here, “The FAIR Act…prohibit(s) corporations from forcing working people and consumers into pre-dispute forced arbitration agreements and class action waivers, which are hidden in many non-negotiable employment and consumer contracts. These agreements allow large employers, insurers, lenders, and financial services companies to consistently tip the scales in their favor at the expense of everyday working people and consumers by forcing individuals to give up their right to access to the courts if they wish to begin a job, open a credit card account, obtain a loan, receive nursing home services, use a cell phone, or access other critical goods and services.” (vote is here).
• S 610 – Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act: Of all of the myriad failures of our corporate media, one of the most glaring ones as far as I’m concerned is the failure to explain the effect of the still-ruinous “sequester” (in which former Repug House Speaker John Boehner once infamously claimed that he got “99 percent of what he wanted”) on the operation of the federal government (more on that is here). Basically, the sequester mandates cuts to designated spending categories of the federal government, and one of those cuts had to do with payments to Medicare providers. As noted here...
  
  The bill would extend the 2% Medicare sequester moratorium through March 31, 2022, and adjust the sequester to 1% between April 1, 2022, and June 30, 2022. It would also increase Medicare physician payments by increasing the physician fee schedule conversion factor by 3% for calendar year 2022. In order to eliminate the potential for an additional 4% Medicare sequester in 2022 due to statutory pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) requirements, S. 610 also contains a PAYGO scorecard waiver that would take effect after adjournment of the first session of the 117th Congress. The (Association of American Medical Colleges) urged Congress to eliminate these cuts in a December 2 statement [refer to Washington Highlights, Dec. 3] and upon release of the legislation, issued a statement supporting the bill and urging Congress to pass the legislation quickly. “Alleviating these devastating cuts is crucial to ensuring that the nation’s teaching hospitals and faculty physicians can continue fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting access to care for the patients and communities they serve, and meeting the nation’s health needs,” the AAMC stated (vote is here).

Once more, to help Dem Ashley Ehasz running against Fitzpatrick, please click here.

Update 8/23/22: For all of the reasons previously noted, I stand by my opinion that Brian Fitzpatrick should not be returned to the U.S. House. However (and again, in the interest of fairness), I should note that he was one of 3 U.S. House Republicans to vote in favor of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 over 6 years, along with the highly unlikely combination of Francis Rooney of Florida and Chris Smith of New Jersey as noted here (which makes Fitzpatrick better on this issue than 7 alleged Democrats and 1 Independent in the U.S. Senate).

Update 9/29/22: I have to be honest and give Bri-Fi credit for this, but as usual, he negates good work by associating with contemptible political clowns like Mike Pompeo (here).

Whose Party Is It Anyway?

This Op-Ed column in the New York Times (sorry – I know it’s behind a pay wall) discusses what passes for “strategy” by the Democratic Governor’s Association, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and other affiliated organizations. Basically, it turns out that the alleged “brain trust” of the Democratic Party has decided to fund the campaigns of Trumpist lunatics to promote these frauds with the expectation that they’ll be easier to beat in the general election. The column tells us that doing this helped to drive out Kelly Shultz in Maryland (supported by outgoing Republican governor Larry Hogan, who admittedly is more moderate than the usual crazies, though he’s been wrong also a few times) at the expense of Trumper Dan Cox, who won the nomination in the gubernatorial contest. This move is also the main reason why Repug U.S. House Rep Peter Meijer lost his primary in Michigan by 4,000 votes to Trumper John Gibbs (Meijer was among the handful of Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Capitol insurrection, as the Times tells us). In another example, Repug U.S. Rep David Valadao narrowly won his primary even though Democratic dough was apparently spent to prop up Trumpster Chris Mathys, who said that he wanted to represent the “Trump Conservative/ Businessman” party, whatever the hell that means.

You know, there are times when I feel like smacking myself in the face for actually supporting this thoroughly wretched and bought-and-paid-for political organization, and this is one of those times. Yes, I’m totally aware that the other side is run pretty much by brown-shirt fascists, and that has a lot to do with me maintaining my allegiance to the Democratic Party. However, like you I’m sure, I should point out that I get DELUGED on a continual basis with phone calls, Emails, texts…you name it, from seemingly EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRAT RUNNING FOR NATIONAL POLITICAL OFFICE as well as PA, with EVERYBODY putting the bite on me for money. And yes, there are plenty of good Dems who deserve our support…Ashley Ehasz, Perry Warren, Steve Santarsiero, John Fetterman, Josh Shapiro, and more than a few others…but they represent a political organization that has a leadership that is run by THOROUGHLY COMPROMISED FRAUDS who are products of the D.C. political/media/industrial complex, and TAKE EVERY CONCEIVABLE OPPORTUNITY TO ACT LIKE IT. And as a result of this utterly brainless move to bankroll the opposition, I and everyone else now have to wonder whether or not my donation will actually be used by the candidate I support (though I suppose the damage has already been done to a large degree if the goal was to impact primary contests) or if it will go to some “oppo” move like the one the Times is talking about (I’m picturing a circus clown wearing a DNC logo smearing grease paint on his or her face and tripping over a pair of exploding, oversized shoes!). And yes, I’m looking at you, Nancy Pelosi (for that “glass of water” comment about AOC if for no other reason), as well as Senate Majority “Leader” Chuck Schumer who apparently is completely unable to keep both President Manchin and Vice President Sinema in line to pass legislation that would enable Democrats to hold Congress after the fall elections. And what’s worse is that we had that horrible SCOTUS ruling overturning Roe gift-wrapped by “Strip Search Sammy” Alito and his pals (the human consequences are catastrophic, but the political benefit could be “the gift that keeps on giving”)…and THIS is what the Dems decide to do with it! Imagine being an actual or potential Democratic Party voter realizing what has transpired on the critical issue of women’s bodily autonomy and believing that you have no choice but to support Democrats because the other major political party in this country is certifiably nuts, so you contribute your hard-earned dollars…and then find out that your money was used to support some demented Republican as part of some weird and wrong-headed calculation that could backfire all over the place!

Apparently, one of the contests that was affected by this idiotic oppo funding move was that of Doug Mastriano, the Trumper running for PA governor (noted here). And I suppose whoever came up with the bright idea to fund Mastriano thought, “oh, there’s no way he could be elected. He’s waay too extreme.” Well, guess what? I thought the same thing about Former President Fergus Laing running against HRC in 2016, but then I experienced a bit of a revelation. About six years ago this month, I attended a funeral for the father of a family friend in Lawndale, which (for those not familiar with the area) is an older row home community in Northeast Philadelphia mainly composed of retired individuals, single-parent-female households with kids, families of varied ethnicities…pretty much America in our current times, notwithstanding Fix Noise propaganda. I parked my car and got out to go to the funeral home and pay my respects…and immediately saw Trump/Pence signs on home lawns everywhere. My first thought was, boy, have we got a problem. And, as it turned out, we did (I mean…you would THINK there wouldn’t be that degree of support for someone as nutty as Our Ochre Abomination, but yeah, when you’re down on your luck and destitute and think the system is hopelessly rigged and nobody has an answer…well, you’d be tempted to “break the glass” and do anything to wreck the awful economic status quo you’ve been conned into accepting). And who’s to say Mastriano wouldn’t have that utterly wrong-headed perception going for him this fall?

Also, here is another ridiculously simple political axiom that even someone like your humble narrator can comprehend; when it comes to politics (as well as sports), winning often begets winning. And in politics, that means campaign dollars (as in, everyone wants to be part of a winner, which often gets reflected with small-dollar donations). And a political campaign that knew what it was doing would put that money into the best possible “ground game” to do canvassing, phone banking, putting up yard/highway signs…basically, the whole “nuts and bolts” stuff to Get Out The Vote (including newspaper Op-Eds as well as the social media stuff) that often leads to victory in November. Cutting to the chase, I have no idea where Mastriano is on that score, but his party never seems to have a problem with funding (and even though their ideas are completely detrimental to our well being, his party knows what to do to get out their base). Also, I have no idea what the current polling is on the PA governor’s race (with November still being a long way off, though time will race by I’m sure). To put it in fewer words, Mastriano, Trumpist lunatic and insurrectionist, treasonous fraud that he is (and don’t give me this “Christian nationalist” shit – there’s nothing “Christian” about him!) COULD ACTUALLY FREAKING WIN! AND YOU’VE HELPED BANKROLL HIM, DNC! HECKUVA JOB!

(Update: I believe the funding came from the Shapiro campaign, but I’ll try to find better sourcing on that.)

Mastriano has gone on record as saying that, if he were elected governor, he would have electors of his choice seated to certify PA’s votes in the 2024 presidential election and beyond (here). He would also require voters in this state to re-register (here), and would no doubt find a way to purge Democrats in the process. He has also said that he would unilaterally de-certify election results (here). THIS IS THE SORT OF LUNATIC WHO COULD CONCEIVABLY BE OUR NEXT GOVERNOR!

(I’ve often wondered what would have happened if, God forbid, Scott “Stomp On Tom Wolf’s Face With Golf Cleats” Wagner had managed to win election as governor in 2016. Well, at a minimum, I’m sure we’d have twice as many people dead in this commonwealth from COVID that we’ve had already, with much more ruinous consequences I’m sure that we can only imagine. And we’d be buying into that and a hell of a lot more with a Mastriano win in November.)

It would have made A HELL OF A LOT MORE SENSE to use that money to build the campaigns of congressional Democratic U.S. House and Senate candidates as well as congressional and gubernatorial candidates in state elections, to say nothing of city and municipal contests. Somehow, Republicans have learned how to build organizational capacity form the ground up (school boards, county and municipal supervisor boards, etc.) and Dems seem to struggle with doing that. And don’t even get me started on social media, where what passes for the DNC, DCCC and DSCC YouTube “presence,” for example, is truly laughable, to be kind (I even checked “Bold Progressives,” and the most “current” video was a year old!). Even though social media is relatively cheap, do you honestly intend to tell me that the DNC somehow didn’t have the dough to spend on THAT also?

I believe (and hope and pray also) that the party can recover from this insanely ridiculous calculation since the primaries (to the best of my knowledge) are nearly over (and of course, we all need to do our best to achieve the best possible result). However, the person or persons responsible for this clownish decision should be summarily fired at the earliest conceivable opportunity and should never be able to exert any influence whatsoever in a political campaign ever again.

Update: And as if we needed further proof regarding this idiotic strategy, I should note that, in yesterday’s Dem U.S. Senate primary in Missouri, Lucas Kunce (a veteran with great progressive bona fides) lost to Trudy Busch Valentine (here), who didn’t even know what the issue was regarding Citizens United (here). Gee, ya’ think some of that “oppo” dough could have gone to Kunce instead to make sure a better Dem won for the general election?

Update 11/18/22: The point of this post was to sound off about what I thought was the total idiocy of supporting Trump candidates by the Dems instead of using those funds to support Democratic candidates. I thought that was a doomed strategy, and I thought people like James Carville were nuts to be cheering on such an idiotic plan.

I was completely and totally wrong. With the exception of J.D. Vance winning in Ohio (and I have a feeling there were other factors in play, though I don’t know exactly what was happening “on the ground”), every one of the Trumpers lost, as far as I know.

To be honest, this is why I do this sort of thing as a hobby as opposed to earning an income with it.