Joe Biden's Voting Record as a Senator

Suggested music: Entry of the Gladiators

From Wikipedia:

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From Jan 1973 to Jan 2009, Biden missed 1,781 of 14,556 roll call votes, which is 12.2%. This is much worse than the median of 2.0%

He played a key role in passing the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, which was controversial for several “tough-on-crime” provisions. He later expressed regret over this. Biden voted to ban homosexuals from serving in the military and to bar the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

He voted against authorizing the First Gulf War, saying the US was bearing almost all the burden in the anti-Iraq coalition.

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he assembled witnesses who grossly misrepresented Saddam Hussein, his government and claimed possession of WMDs. Later he regretted his support for the Iraq War.

In 1984, he was a Democratic floor manager for the successful passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act. Over time, the law’s tough-on-crime provisions became controversial on the left and among criminal justice reform proponents, and in 2019 Biden called his role in passing the legislation a “big mistake”.

In 1993, Biden voted in favor of 10 U.S.C. §654, a section of a broader federally mandated policy that deemed homosexuality incompatible with military life thereby banning gay Americans from serving in the United States armed forces in any capacity without exception.

In 1996, Biden voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act (1 U.S.C. §7), which prohibited the federal government from recognizing any same-sex marriage, barring individuals in such marriages from equal protection under federal law, and allowing states to do the same.

Biden spoke to the auditorium and said his position on school busing was evolving, emphasizing that busing in Delaware was in his opinion beyond court restrictions. The crowd was unconvinced, and heckled him until he yielded the microphone.

In the Thomas hearings, Biden’s questions on constitutional issues were often long and convoluted, to the point that Thomas sometimes forgot the question being asked.[79] Biden’s style annoyed many viewers.

Biden was critical of the actions of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr during the 1990s Whitewater controversy and Lewinsky scandal investigations, and said, “it’s going to be a cold day in hell” before another Independent Counsel would be granted the same powers.

As chairman of the International Narcotics Control Caucus, Biden wrote the laws that created the U.S. “Drug Czar”, who oversees and coordinates national drug control policy.

Once the Bosnian War broke out, Biden was among the first to call for the “lift and strike” policy of lifting the arms embargo, training Bosnian Muslims and supporting them with NATO air strikes…

In 1998, Congressional Quarterly named Biden one of “Twelve Who Made a Difference” for playing a lead role in several foreign policy matters, including NATO enlargement…

As head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden said in 2002 that Saddam Hussein was a threat to national security and there was no option but to “eliminate” that threat.[112] In October 2002, he voted in favor of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq, approving the U.S. invasion of Iraq.[96] More significantly, as chair of the committee, he assembled a series of witnesses to testify in favor of the authorization. They gave testimony misrepresenting the intent, history and status of Saddam and his Sunni government, which was an openly avowed enemy of al-Qaida, and touting Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction.[113]

While he eventually became a critic of the war and viewed his vote and role as a “mistake”, he did not push for U.S. withdrawal.

Biden instead advocated dividing Iraq into a loose federation of three ethnic states.

Iraq’s political leadership denounced the resolution as de facto partitioning of the country, and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued a statement distancing itself from it.

In May 2008, Biden sharply criticized President George W. Bush for his speech to Israel’s Knesset, where he suggested some Democrats were acting the way some Western leaders did when they appeased Hitler in the run-up to World War II. Biden said, “This is bullshit. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset … and make this kind of ridiculous statement…

He allowed an amendment to the bill to increase the homestead exemption for homeowners declaring bankruptcy and fought for an amendment to forbid anti-abortion felons from using bankruptcy to discharge fines;

Biden held up trade agreements with Russia when that country stopped importing U.S. chickens. The downstate Sussex County region is the nation’s top chicken-producing area.

The New York Times wrote that Biden’s “weak filters make him capable of blurting out pretty much anything”

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Jesus H tap-dancing, titty-fucking Christ in a goddamn chicken bucket. What a shithead!