It’s time to vote him out.
Have you ever seen the clip of Chip Roy, Congressman of TX21, freaking in a hearing where Democrats were discussing drug-prices with pharmaceutical CEOs? The particular drug which he got so upset about was an HIV drug, which pharmaceutical companies were charging HIV patients $2,000 a month for. If you haven’t seen it, here it is:
Chip Roy represents the 21st congressional district of Texas and is currently in a race for reelection against Wendy Davis. Roy, while only in congress for two years, has spent his entire time in Washington DC working against the best interests of both the people of TX21.
Below, you will find a list of the things Chip Roy has done while in congress, and why these things are not in the best interest of the people in TX.
One – His Temperament
As demonstrated in the link above, Chip Roy’s temperament is similar to a child. While in the age of Trump, perhaps this is now the brand of the Republican party, but we should all ask ourselves; don’t we want the people who represent us in Congress to at least be emotionally stable?
Inferior leaders, like Roy and Trump, lack the ability to control themselves under pressure. The Congresspeople who represent us are supposed to stand up for our rights, (the people), and do what is in our best interests. How can they do that without integrity and an open mind?
Not convinced? Here is yet another freak-out Chip Roy had in an Oversight Committee hearing about subpoenaing Ivanka Trump and Jerrod Kushner.
Patrick Henry, Democratic Candidate for HD25 recently said, what we need in this election cycle is adults. Chip Roy doesn’t act like an adult.
Two – His Entitlement
In January 2019, soon after the longest government shutdown in American history, not only did Roy vote against reopening the government; Congress voted on a bill to give the furloughed government workers backpay. Chip Roy was one of only a handful of to vote against it. He wanted the government workers who were unpaid for over a month as Republicans fought for a vanity wall, to not receive back pay.
As if that alone wasn’t bad enough, during that time many members of Congress chose to either donate or withhold receiving their paychecks. You know, in solidarity with the furloughed workers. Chip Roy decided even though he didn’t think the lowly government workers should be paid, but he was certainly entitled to his $174,000 a year, making him one of the fewer congresspeople to opt for pocketing his paycheck.
There are approximately 20,000 government workers in TX21. While the shutdown affected only about 40% of government workers, how many will be affected next time? If all 20,000 government employees in TX21 are furloughed; how will Chip Roy vote then?
Just weeks later, he then voted against a pay raise for the federal civilian workforce.
As a reminder, the government shutdown of 2019, cost Americans $11 billion.
Three – Defending America
As nearly everyone knows, NATO is at the very heart of our defense from here to North America to Europe. American forces and NATO allies protect us from everything from nuclear threats to terrorism. Our NATO allies also host a ton of military bases all over the world. These bases protect us from terrorism and would-be enemies. NATO is also critical for our global missile defense system, which we couldn’t have in place without their support.
In January 2019 as a gift to Putin, Russian lap-dog Donald Trump discussed pulling America out of NATO. Congress introduced a bill to block Trump from doing so and Chip Roy voted against it. The bill was bipartisan, the only outliers being Roy and a few other wing-nuts.
Then, in July of 2019, Roy voted against the National Defense Authorization Act. Among other things, this bill:
- Prohibited military force against Iran, unless Congress declared war or enacted specific authorization.
- Prohibited Department of Defense funds from being used for a military parade.
- It prohibited any funds to be used for foreign military sales, transfer, delivery, or facilitation to Saudi Arabia or the United Emirates.
- Prohibited Department of Defense funds to be used at any of Trump’s hotels or golf courses.
Yep, he voted against all that. Nope, that’s not all.
He also voted against a bill that would require Congressional approval for the president to use the military to attack Iran. A similar bill came up later called, No War with Iran bill, Roy also voted against that.
Four – That Stupid Vanity Wall
In February 2019 Trump declared a national emergency over the funding of his stupid wall. He wanted to divert billions of dollars from the Department of Defense for military construction of the wall. When Congress introduced a bill to repeal this, of course, Roy voted against it.
Chip Roy even led the Texas GOP’s plight in getting an extra $4 billion for the border wall.
To think, Roy ran on the campaign promise of cutting spending.
Five – Immigration
Like most Republicans, Roy’s record on immigration has been terrible. He voted against Dreamers, during the ‘kids in cages’ outrage in 2019, he voted against humanitarian aid at the border, and when Trump made racist remarks against immigrant seeking asylum, Roy voted against condemning it.
He also voted against giving immigrants in detention access to water, in July, on the Texas border. As well, he voted against medical screening at the border, which is significant, because during that time dozens of refugees at the border were dying of dehydration and malnutrition.
In TX21, there are 30,000 American citizens who weren’t born in this country. They were given an opportunity, the same opportunity which Chip Roy fights against giving to anyone else.
Six – Domestic Safety
Back in September of 2018, Chip Roy told the Heritage Foundation that more restrictive gun control doesn’t protect public safety. Despite his NRA talking-point regurgitation, 78% of Texans support background checks. Roy voted against background checks with all gun sales.
Chip Roy has publicly bragged about being a proud member of Gun Owners of America, the radical alternative to the NRA. The Gun Owners of America have taken an anti-government position and regularly blast the NRA for being too soft.
He has also spoken out against red-flag laws, which allows family members to petition the court to temporarily take away a person’s firearms if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others. He spoke against red-flag laws at the Young Americans for Liberty Convention last year. Despite the mountains of evidence that red-flag laws save lives, Roy is against them.
Here are some fact:
- 75% of Americans are in favor of red-flag laws.
- 44% of Texans think we need stricter gun laws
- 23,000 Americans commit suicide with firearms each year.
Seven – Bigotry
Aside from Roy’s somewhat appalling stance on immigration, he has shown himself to be a bigot more than once. He voted against a bill condemning anti-semitism. When Donald Trump used racist language to refer to Hispanic immigrants and told the women of color in congress to go back where they came from, Roy also voted against condemning that.
He voted against a bill which promoted racial diversity on a corporation’s board of directors.
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but in 2019 a bill was introduced that reinstated the Voting Rights Act, which was gutted in 2013. This bill specifically addressed the efforts of states (like Texas), to suppress votes of racial minorities. Chip Roy voted against reinstating the Voting Rights Act.
In TX21, there are 215,000 hispanic citizens and 26,000 African American citizens. These 241,000 people are the ones Texas has been targeting to disenfranchise after the Voting Rights Act was gutted.
Eight – Women
Going right along with everything we already know about the person Chip Roy is, his stance on women issues align with every one of his other issues. He voted against equal pay for equal work, he voted against against reauthorizing the violence against women act.
Chip Roy voted against the equality act, which prohibited discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
In 2019 Democrats introduced a bill which repealed the deadline to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Chip Roy voted against it.
There are about 390,000 girls and women in TX21 who Chip Roy has voted against.
Nine – Healthcare
Just like most Republicans in Texas, Chip Roy is against people having access to healthcare. When Trump started a legal campaign to take away healthcare from millions of Americans, Democrats introduced a bill to stop him. Roy voted against that bill. When Democrats wanted to give Americans healthcare education, Roy voted against it.
He voted against protecting people with pre-existing conditions. He voted against lowering the cost of prescription drugs. And he voted against regulating e-cigarettes to minors.
When Trump tried to weaken Medicaid, Democrats introduced a bill to stop him. Congressman Roy voted against that bill. During the Coronavirus outbreak, he voted against paid-leave for workers.
There are 89,000 people in TX21 who do not have health insurance.
Ten – Earth
Chip Roy voted against adopting the environmental policies from the Paris Climate Agreement. Ol’ Chip voted against researching ocean acidification. Of course, he voted for oil drilling on public land in Colorado. He also said screw the penguins and voted for oil drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. And he voted for oil drilling on the continental shelf. Texas Republicans love their oil, you know.
Eleven – Business
Aside from the fact he doesn’t think that people of color should be on boards of corporations (see above), he also voted against a bill which would require LLCs to list their ownership. Why should LLCs list their owners? Think tax havens, off-shore accounts, and money laundering. He also voted against a bill which would require corporations to tell the Securities and Exchange Commission how many jobs they outsourced.
251,000 people in TX21 work for private companies. Chip Roy’s position is pro-corporation and anti-worker. These bills he voted against, directly affect the people in his district.
Twelve – Voting Rights
Since voting rights is a huge battle in Texas, would you be interested to know what Chip Roy has done to protect voting rights?
Nothing, absolutely nothing. In fact, he’s done the opposite.
He voted against making federal elections a national holiday. He voted against paper ballots in an election. And he voted against a bill which would curb foreign interference in American elections.
In a district with a population of 762,000; 585,000 people DID NOT vote for Chip Roy. This is how the GOP is trying to stay in power, (one of the ways), by suppressing and disenfranchising as many voters as possible.
Thirteen – Donald Trump
Congressman Chip Roy votes with Donald Trump’s positions 92% of the time. If that alone doesn’t speak volumes about his character, I don’t know what will.
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