Eight Republicans Vote Against a Bill to Protect Seniors from Scam Artists

 

by Pa Rock

Senior Citizen

Yesterday I used this space to talk about how a waste-of-space senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, had cast the lone dissenting vote against a bill intended to protect Asian Americans from certain heinous crimes based on their race.  Hawley really didn't try to explain his vote, and it was referred to by at least one reporter as "inexplicable."  I countered that Hawley's purpose in much that he does is just to stand out and be seen and as he seeks to gain attention that will propel him into the presidential primaries of the 2024 election cycle.

Hawley isn't governing;  he is just shamelessly waving his flag and trying to get noticed in what will surely be a crowded field of GOP presidential contenders.

But Josh Hawley isn't the only politician in Washington DC, who is drawing a paycheck while not doing anything of benefit for the voters who elected him to represent their best interests - or perhaps even the nation's best interest.  There are also several in the House as well, all Republicans and primarily members of the "Freedom Caucus," who seem to be intent in generating all noise and no light.

Yesterday eight House Republicans voted against the "Protecting Seniors from Emergency Scams Act," a bill that requires the Federal Trade Commission to compile a report for Congress on scams targeting seniors.  I can't speak for other senior citizens, but I personally would like for my congressman, a forty-year-old, to have at least some working knowledge of what the elderly are faced with every time their phone rings - and I would like for him to be able to use that knowledge to craft laws to protect me from criminals and con-artists.

Thankfully the bill that would require the FTC to collect and report information on scams against seniors passed the House by a vote of 413-8.  The eight votes against seniors came from the usual suspects:   Andy Biggs (AZ), Lauren Boebert (CO), Matt Gaetz (FL), Louie Gohmert (TX), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Thomas Massie (KY), Ralph Norman (SC), and Chip Roy (TX).

Two of those eight even isolated themselves further from the herd a few days earlier when they were the only ones to cast votes against the "Transplant Act," a bill that reauthorized the National Blood Marrow Program, an effort that matches bone marrow donors and cord blood units to blood cancer patients.  Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said that she cast one of the votes against the bill (Lauren Boebert cast the other) because Greene felt that it might use taxpayer money to buy aborted baby parts. 

There are currently no mental health evaluations or even standards for members of Congress.