Factbox: ‘Mr. No’: Meet the U.S. congressman who requested a formal vote to delay the coronavirus bill – Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Thomas Massie enraged President Donald Trump as he has leaders of Congress worried he will delay a planned Friday voice vote on a $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic rescue plan, drawing calls from the White House to throw him out of the Republican Party.
FILE PHOTO: Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) watches a live downlink with American astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 24, 2014. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
Even before the 49-year-old drew Trumps ire on Twitter, he had been a thorn in the side of both parties so long that hes nicknamed Mr. No.
Throw Massie out of Republican Party! Trump tweeted on Friday.
Here are some facts about Massie:
- Massie was first elected in 2012 with an assist from the conservative tea party movement, from a solidly Republican district in northern Kentucky along the Ohio River. An engineer by training who had built his own company on inventions he made, he beat two establishment Republicans in a primary election along the way.
- In his first House vote in 2013, Massie opposed the re-election of John Boehner as speaker. Massie aligned with conservative and libertarian Republicans who formed the Freedom Caucus in 2015, but did not join the caucus.
- By 2014, Massie had voted no so many times on legislation that Politico dubbed him Mr. No. He opposed about a third of measures that came up in his first year, voting against large and small bills sponsored by both parties, from defense spending legislation to a bill to award a gold medal to golf star Jack Nicklaus.
- Massie opposed many bills on a cost basis. He joked once that the buttons lawmakers push to register their votes on the House floor which are labeled yea and nay should be relabeled spend and dont spend, USA Today reported.
But he voted in 2017 for hefty tax cuts promised by Trump, although they were projected to widen the deficit. It is irresponsible to increase spending and decrease taxes, which is why I consistently vote to decrease spending and decrease taxes, he said at the time.
- Massie voted twice against the election of former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Republican. Last year he was one of six Republicans to vote against his partys candidate, Kevin McCarthy for Speaker; Massie voted instead for Republican Jim Jordan, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.
- Sometimes Massie has worked across party lines on civil liberties issues, such as by opposing bulk data collection by the government. Last year, Massie was the only Republican to vote against a measure rejecting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement, which opposes the Israeli occupation and policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
He was one of three House Republicans to vote against relief for Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and one of three Republicans that year to vote against additional sanctions on North Korea. One of the three, Representative Justin Amash, later left the party to become an independent.
Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski
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Factbox: 'Mr. No': Meet the U.S. congressman who requested a formal vote to delay the coronavirus bill - Reuters