Everything Joe Walsh Has Done in Congress This Year

Choire Sicha
The Awl
Published in
2 min readDec 7, 2011

My office was invaded by the Occupy Protesters today & all I saw were $1000 laptops & vomit on the carpet. Thank God for #febrezeWed Dec 07 03:49:02 via TweetDeck

Rep. Joe Walsh
RepJoeWalsh

I’ll just leave this here. Oh, okay, how about a review of Joe Walsh’s work activity this year, his first in Congress? Well, it’s pretty amazing actually.

Here’s every bill he’s sponsored.

Joe Walsh, West Bank Expert: In April, he was the sponsor of H.R.1501, which reads: “To withhold United States contributions to the United Nations until the United Nations formally retracts the final report of the ‘United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.’” You can read the UN report here; it’s from 2009, perhaps you’ve already read it. (Summary: “UN Fact Finding Mission finds strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Gaza conflict.”) But let’s retract it!

Joe Walsh, Language Police: In July, he was the sponsor of H.R.2457, called the “Palestinian Accountability Act.” The gist of that is a “PROHIBITION ON USE OF THE TERM `PALESTINE’ IN UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS.” It also includes a prohibition on funding the Palestine-supporting U.N.

Joe Walsh, Economic Theorist: September brought H. R. 2945, the “Capital Gains Inflation Relief Act.” Here, let “Americans for Tax Reform” (AKA Grover Norquist) explain that to you:

If an investor purchases a stock for $100, and later sells that same stock for $400, he must report and pay taxes on a $300 capital gain. However, some of that gain is merely due to the effects of inflation over the years. In many cases, much or all of a capital gain is merely inflation. With an historical inflation rate of 3%, inflation halves the real value of all assets every 24 years. While this is bad enough, it adds insult to injury to have to pay taxes merely on inflated gains.

Joe Walsh, Lonely Scientist: H.R.3396 seems self-explanatory: “To abolish the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation.” LOL: “Cosponsors: None.”

Joe Walsh, Christmas Lover: H.R.3403: The “Save Christmas Act.” Spoiler: it has to do with Christmas trees.

Joe Walsh, Constitution Amender: H.J.RES.54 and H.J.RES.56 are incredibly hilarious attempts to ensure a balanced U.S. budget — wherein yearly spending would not exceed 18% of GDP and some other wacky things.

Joe Walsh, Annexer of Palestine: And then there’s H.RES.394, “Supporting Israel’s right to annex Judea and Samaria in the event that the Palestinian Authority continues to press for unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.”

That’s what Joe Walsh did this year. Two bills were referred to committee; the rest were referred to subcommittees, so they can laugh at him.

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