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Pat Toomey
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Patrick J. "Pat" Toomey is the former wingnut Republican Representative from Pennsylvania who got promoted to the Senate in 2011 (and is still a wingnut).
He is noted for his staunch pro-life, anti-tax, anti-gay, anti-science, and anti-environmental positions. He supported Constitutional amendments banning gay marriage and flag burning. He received an impressive 0% rating from the League of Conservation Voters and 13% from the ACLU.[1] He trumpeted millions he had gotten in earmarks as a Representative and then signed a "No Pork pledge" during his Senate campaign. He has spoken at Tea Party rallies and voiced support for the movement, but declined to join the Teabaggers' Senate caucus. Oh yeah, and he's a chickenhawk, of course. His stopped clock moment came when he co-wrote the Manchin-Toomey background check bill with Democrat Joe Manchin. A second one came when he voted in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would ban discrimination in hiring based on sexual orientation. A third one came when he was one of the first Republican Senators to take a stand against Donald Trump's baseless claims that he won the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[2] He even voted to convict Trump during the second impeachment trial, but whether that was because he genuinely thought that it would be best for the GOP to reject Trump in spite of potentially losing GOP voters, or if he only did it to save his legacy as he is retiring in 2022 anyway, is up for debate.
Some of Toomey's greatest hits:
- Toomey posted a letter on his Facebook account declaring that it would be "horrible" to tax banker bonuses in 2008 during the banking crisis.
- "It is true that the differences in income between top earners and the lowest earners have widened in recent decades. But the importance of this statistic has been wildly exaggerated."
- Banning credit card companies from arbitrarily raising rates "is a fundamental infringement on the free market reality".
- Said, "I've advocated for a long time that the best way to approach citizen campaign finance is to allow unlimited contributions and require immediate disclosure," then accepted money from Club for Growth which doesn't disclose donors.
- Voted to allow people to discriminate based on religion in housing and employment.
- Member of the "Bachmann 5".
- Even Rick Santorum thought he was "too conservative for Pennsylvania".
- "There is much debate in the scientific community as to the precise sources of global warming."
- Claimed to be "center-right", then said he would jail doctors for performing abortions.[3]
External links
- 66 Reasons Not to Vote for Pat Toomey, his greatest hits and more.