Louisiana Voice

Louisiana’s entire congressional delegation – two U.S. senators and six representatives – all give lip service to supporting our military (including veterans), mental health, and law and order.

But it’s where the rubber meets the road that we learn just how solid that support really is. In other words, how do they vote when they’re called upon to put up or shut up?

Those votes are not generally publicized and lawmakers often cast their votes secure in the knowledge that the folks back home will never learn their true commitment – or lack thereof – or to whom they’re indebted on important issues.

We’ve already seen how Sen. John Neely Kennedy, aka Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie, along with all five Republican House members VOTED NO on a bill to help veterans who had been exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq.

Kennedy, of course, reversed course and voted yes when the bill was brought up for reconsideration but his original negative vote was a disgrace in that it was part of political gamesmanship in which Louisiana’s junior senator was sending a message to Democrats who had out-maneuvered the Repugs to win passage of a bill that (gasp!) increased taxes on the wealthy.

It was Kennedy’s version of revenge sex (Lord, it makes my skin crawl to use the words Kennedy and sex in the same sentence). In other words, he was putting partisan politics ahead of helping veterans.

You think that was bad? Get a load of this crap. In his latest TV ad, Col. Kornpone declares that he “stood up to China.” Holy Trade War, Batman, he’s perfected the art (as first described by the late Earl Long) of “talking out both sides of his mouth and whistling in the middle.”

Let’s play the tape on his China claim: HR 4346, aka the CHIPS Act, was enacted to put the US on better footing in competing with China in the manufacture of computer chips.

The bill, which enjoyed the support of 13 Senate Republicans, including our own Bill Cassidy, as well as Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and Lindsey “Little Lap Dog” Graham, easily passed the Senate by a 64-33 vote.

But guess which senator who is currently pontificating about how he “stood up to China” VOTED AGAINST THE BILL?

You got it. John Neely Kennedy. But he wasn’t alone. All five of Louisiana’s Republican House members – Steve Scalise, Garret Graves, Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, and Julia Letlow – also voted no on the House version, which nevertheless passed in that chamber by a 243-187 vote.

Stay with me. It gets better.

On President Biden’s nomination of Arianna Freeman of Pennsylvania as a U.S. District Judge, both Kennedy and Cassidy voted no. Freeman was confirmed, despite their opposition, by a 50-47 vote.

Kennedy also opposed the nomination of Arati Prabhaker of California to be Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Prabhaker, was more easily confirmed than Freeman, by a vote of 56-40.

So, just what is it that rankles Kennedy so much over Biden’s nominees when he fell all over himself in confirming Frump’s controversial Supreme Court nominees? It couldn’t have been something like petty party politics, could it? Nah, couldn’t be.

Let’s turn our attention to Louisiana’s six House members. All but Mike Johnson of the state’s 4^th District are opposed for reelection in November.

Keep that in mind for such incumbents as Steve KKK Scalise and feet of Clay Higgins. Actually, that latter description is inaccurate. Higgins considers himself as something akin to Louisiana’s answer to John Wayne. I see him more in the mold of PAT BUTTRAM, aka Gene Autry’s sidekick in those Saturday matinee westerns and later as Mr. Haney of Green Acres.

HR 8888, to establish in the Department of Veterans Affairs an Office of Food Security:

• In favor: Democrat Troy Carter
• Opposed: Republicans Scalise, Higgins, Johnson, Letlow, and Graves
• Passed, 376-49.

Remember following each time there was a mass shooting by someone with an AR-15, the Republicans, in unison, would deny there was a gun problem, that instead, it was a mental health issue? Remember that?

Well, there was this HR 7780 voted on in the House yesterday. It was also known as the Mental Health Matters Act, and was written “to support the behavioral needs of students and youth, invest in a school-based behavioral health workforce, and ensure access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits.

It passed by the narrowest of margins, 220-205, with exactly one – repeat, ONE – Republican vote. Louisiana’s five Republican House members each voted nay while our lone Democrat voted yea. So much for concerns about mental health on the part of the Repugs.

Oh, and then there was HR 8542, the Mental Health Justice Act of 2022, to “authorize grants to states, Indian tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian organizations, and political subdivisions thereof to hire, train, and dispatch mental health professionals to respond in lieu of law enforcement officers in emergencies involving one or more persons with mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability.”

That bill also squeaked by with a 223-206 margin, receiving only three Republican votes, none of which were cast by Louisiana House members. In fact, Scalise didn’t vote at all. Carter, as usual, voted in favor.

Nor did Scalise vote on HR 5768, the Victim Act of 2022, introduced to “direct the attorney general to establish a grant program to establish, implement, and administer the violent incident clearance and technology investigative method” – in other words, to provide assistance in solving violent crimes. As with HR 8542, Carter voted in favor while Republicans Higgins, Johnson, Letlow, and Graves voted no. The bill nonetheless passed by a 250-178 vote.

So, where was all that Republican support for law and order and for mental health programs?

Finally, there was HR 8873, the Presidential Election Reform Act, “to reform the process for the counting of electoral votes” – in other words, to enact legislation designed to prevent a repeat of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

You might think this would be a no-brainer because after all, who would want a repeat of that ugly stain on American democracy? Apparently 203 Republicans would, including all five of the aforementioned Republican delegation from Louisiana. Only nine Republicans – again, none from the gret stet of Loozeaner – joined 220 Democrats in voting to strengthen the vote counting process, which passed the House by a 229-203 vote.

There you have it folks. The voting records don’t lie. The only missing element – a painfully obvious one, at that – is motive. Why would these people consistently vote en bloc other than for the sake of worshiping at the sacred altar of party unity – at the expense of their constituents?

They’ve sent us the message that their first loyalty is not to us. Perhaps it’s time we sent them a message.