Has Jim Sensenbrenner Earned a Twentieth Term ?

Jim Sensenbrenner has been on the taxpayer dole his entire working life. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1969, the year he graduated from law school. He served in the Wisconsin legislature until 1979, when he was elected to the US Congress-where he has sat ever since.

The year that our Congressman took his current job, the USSR invaded Afghanistan. Jimmy Carter was President. Kramer vs. Kramer was a box office hit. Magic Johnson met Larry Bird in the NCAA basketball finals. And one of the top albums was Saturday Night Fever. Our world and country have drastically changed in all that time, but Jim Sensenbrenner still occupies our Congressional seat.

What are Sensenbrenner's main accomplishments during his 38 years in office? Has he earned the right to yet another term? If you Google "Jim Sensenbrenner", one of the most frequent news stories related to our Congressman is an extreme pot-calling-the-kettle-black instance of Mr. Sensenbrenner stating that our current first lady has "a big butt".

Our Congressman calls himself a "veteran of the climate wars." He has finally acknowledged that the earth is, indeed, warming, but still fights any attempt to do anything about it. Recently, he voted against our military doing anything to prepare for climate change or acting to improve sustainability.

Jim Sensenbrenner is a senior Republican in the House. He and his party have succeeded in making this the most do-nothing Congress in US history. It is not as though there is nothing to do. Sensenbrenner and his cronies have done nothing on immigration, nothing on infrastructure, nothing on sensible gun safety, nothing on increasing the minimum wage, nothing on shoring-up Medicare and Social Security, nothing on jobs- well, you get the picture.

Instead, Sensenbrenner believes that the House has more important things to do than to attend to America's pressing needs. During a 2013 town hall meeting, one of Sensenbrenner's constituents remarked that so far, he has voted a ridiculous 46 times to repeal Obamacare. Jim immediately interrupted, saying, “and I would vote 46 more times to eliminate Obamacare.” To date, he has voted over 50 times to allow insurance companies to deny you medical coverage. Over 50 times to overturn an established and wildly successful law that helps his constituents.

And not satisfied with 13 Benghazi hearings, 50 briefings, and 25,000 pages of documents, Sensenbrenner voted to waste even more taxpayer money on Trey Goudy's ridiculously partisan and failed witch hunt.

As another example of how he ignores the needs of constituents in order to further a political agenda, our Congressman has consistently voted for every version of Paul Ryan's Ayn-Randian Roadmap to Prosperity manifesto. Through his votes, he has endorsed the privatization of Social Security and turning Medicare into a discount coupon scheme. Through his votes, he has favored the drastic slashing of the Pell Grant program, which allows millions of students to attend college.

The current Congress' ineffectiveness at governing should alone be sufficient reason to replace them all. However, Sensenbrenner and his pals have gone way beyond ineffectiveness. At the very least, we should expect that the people we elect to govern should keep the government actually open. Sensenbrenner has not even met these minimal expectations.

In one of the most senseless and inane Congressional actions in decades, House Republicans shut down the Government in 2013 for a total of 16 days. Right in the middle of this disgraceful event was our own Jim Sensenbrenner. He and 79 if his politically extreme comrades sent a letter to House leadership, encouraging them to close our Government in a vain attempt to end health care for millions of Americans. After Congressional leaders finally hammered-out an agreement to re-open the government, Sensenbrenner bizarrely voted with the minority to keep it closed. 

Sensenbrenner puts his party over his country. He has come-out in support of the most unqualified and dangerous presidential candidate in recent history. One of the few speakers to invoke Trump's name at the Wisconsin GOP convention, Sensenbrenner stated, "Donald Trump has won our nomination fair and square." In a convention interview, he expressed his views on the race, "I hope it's not Hillary Clinton. If Donald Trump is the only alternative, I hope it will be Donald Trump."

Want a politician to blame for a Florida ISIS sympathizer on FBI radar getting access to an efficient human-slaughtering weapon? Look no further than Jim Sensenbrenner. In 2011, he voted down an amendment that would have stopped terrorists on the no-fly list from buying guns. He has shown no support for a similar bill , the Denying Firearms and Dangerous Explosives to Terrorists Act, currently languishing in the House.

The electorate of the 5th District has had plenty of time to evaluate the long political career of Jim Sensenbrenner. From his participation in the heinous government shut-down to being a senior member of the least productive Congress in history, his record is an abysmal one. He has consistently voted against the interests of his constituents on issues such as gutting Medicare and privatizing Social Security. He has defended the right of terrorists to buy assault weapons. Sensenbrenner's performance in office has not earned him another term.