The Rogues' Gallery from People for the American Way

Pennsylvania: Pat Toomey

Former Congressman Pat Toomey, who nearly beat then-Republican Senator Arlen Specter in the GOP Senate primary six years ago, is an unabashed anti-government ideologue who spent years working for the Club for Growth, which has a single-minded fixation on lowering taxes for the wealthy. Toomeys congressional voting record was to the right even of former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum.

Toomey , a former derivatives trader, is of course opposed to regulation of the complex financial instruments that made millions for investment bankers while leading the nation to economic catastrophe. Videos have surfaced showing Toomey on the floor of Congress praising credit swaps as "very important tools" and calling derivatives "the most important, creative, and innovative development in finance in the last 30 years."

Toomey supports at least a partial privatization of Social Security, saying younger workers should be free to invest their social security taxes in the stock market. He warns that Democrats would turn America into a "European" welfare state.

Toomey is also backed by Religious Right leaders. In 2004, James Dobson campaigned fervently for Toomey in his primary challenge to Arlen Specter.

Toomey believes Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided, thinks abortion should be illegal and doctors who perform abortions should be jailed. In Congress he voted to prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds even for non-abortion women's health work.

Hes opposed to marriage equality, voted for a federal constitutional amendment that would bar any states from allowing gay couples to marry, voted to strip federal courts of the right to hear challenges to bans on same-sex marriage, and voted to ban gay couples in Washington, D C from getting married. He opposed hate crimes laws as "an attempt to criminalize thought."

He says, "My idea of gun control is a steady aim."

Toomey is another member of the earmark hypocrisy hall of shame. As the Philadelphia Inquirer has noted,

Republican Pat Toomey crusaded against earmarks for most of his three terms in the U.S. House, and not long ago took a live pig to Independence Mall as he challenged his Senate-race opponent, Rep. Joe Sestak, to swear off the funding that lawmakers direct to their pet projects.

But in his first term representing the Lehigh Valley's 15th District, Toomey won at least $9 million in earmarks, including $3 million for a private company that became for a time his largest single source of campaign contributions.

Toomey has challenged President Obamas patriotism, saying the president doesnt believe in American exceptionalism, which Toomey defines as the belief the United States' model of freedom and free enterprise is the best one.

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