Joe Biden To Republicans: How You Like THEM Apples? (They Are Socialist Apples)

Shaaaaaaameless.

You might recall the big, shiny Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that President Joe Biden signed last November. "Bipartisan" is a generous description. Just 17 (out of 50) Senate Republicans and 13 (out of 212) House Republicans voted "yes." To be fair, because we always are, getting a third of Senate Republicans to vote for something good is unheard of the past few administrations. That minuscule House yes vote is more what we'd expect.) Most Republicans condemned the law for all their usual goofy-ass reasons. This includes Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who referred to the new law in a statement as “President Biden’s multi-trillion dollar socialist wish list.”

Emmer is also the House Republican campaign chairman and has organized attacks against Democrats who supported the law. So, imagine our total lack of surprise that Emmer would creep up to the Biden administration for some infrastructure action on the down low.

 CNN reports that Emmer wrote a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, expressing his support for a multimillion dollar grant to improve part of Highway 65 in his district. He stressed how critical the work was for both his constituents and Minnesotans overall. Congestion on the highway had caused significant delays. There were also several fatal car crashes.

 This section from Emmer's kissy-face message to Buttigieg is quite revealing:

This grant also strives to serve as asocial justice measure.

The completion of this project means improvedeconomic opportunities for ethnically underserved communities.Currently, Highway 65 is very difficult to travel or cross for people walking or riding bikes, which is often a barrier to economic prosperity to many living in and around the area

Our bold for shamelessness! Wow, look at that RINO!

Maybe Emmer will admit that Republicans were wrong when they mocked Buttigieg for suggesting that there was a history of racial discrimination in how highways were developed and maintained. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “I heard some stuff, some weird stuff from the Secretary of Transportation trying to make this about social issues … To me, a road’s a road.” DeSantis is an incredibly stupid man.

President Biden isn't a petty mob boss like his predecessor, so he's reportedly directed his administration "not to let politics or votes for the bill influence how project grants are awarded." Americans shouldn't suffer just because their elected officials are idiots, though it might behoove them to stop voting for idiots.

We knew Republicans would come begging for some infrastructure stimmy. Republicans probably knew this while voting against the infrastructure bill. It's not a mystery that people prefer driving on paved roads or crossing bridges that can bear the weight of the average pickup. But, as Heather Cox Richardson wrote, Republicans "just don’t want to vote for [the bill] after years of rallying voters with a narrative that any Democratic investments in the country are far-left radicalism."

During an appearance in Maryland last week, Biden read some of the CNN article out loud. He called out censured, committee-less Rep. Paul Gosar from Arizona who'd said “this bill only serves to advance the America Last’s socialist agenda, while completely lacking fiscal responsibility." Yet, he's written three separate letters between March and July requesting projects in his district.

“"I didn't know there are that many socialist Republicans ... I was surprised to see so many socialists in the Republican caucus" -- Biden in Maryland reads part of a CNN report about Republicans calling the infrastructure bill "socialism" and then asking for money”

— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1665164874 

BIDEN: [Gosar] said they’d enhance quality of life. They’d ease congestion and boost the economy. Voted against it, says it's all socialism. Go down the list, Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr ... “big government socialist agenda.” Three different projects he wants. Rand Paul! Go down the list, look it up. Socialism. I didn't know there were that many socialist Republicans.

 He’s dinged Republicans on this point, literally calling them “shameless,” for taking credit for benefits from bills they'd opposed.

Republicans will probably argue — easily, because they’re liars — that they didn’t vote for the “socialist” bills because they contained radical provisions like replacing PE in public schools with mandatory drag queen story hours. They couldn’t support the bill under those circumstances, but they’ll gladly take some bridge bucks.

Gosar's spokesperson told CNN the congressman wasn't "obligated to vote for a bill of which he supports 80 percent of the funding if 20 percent is horrifically absurd,” but that “once appropriated and authorized, Congressman Gosar is free, and quite willing, to fight for the funding authorized to benefit good projects.”

“Opposition to a spending bill does not always mean opposition to the goal of that spending; opposition to a spending bill can mean opposition to spending that adds to the deficit and is not offset with spending cuts elsewhere,” argued a [Rand] Paul spokesperson.

That's not what Rand Paul said when attacking the bill. He said the spending itself was "wasteful," but now he's written 10 (!) letters requesting funds to "expand a riverwalk, improve three stretches of roads, to strengthen a dam, support the revitalization of an old Internal Revenue Service facility in Covington, improve streets in Lexington and modernizing a bridge between northern Kentucky and Cincinnati."

This is indeed shameless. Republicans aren't telling voters that Biden's bill is only 20 percent socialism, and if a bill has 80 percent of what you want, you should've voted for it like a grown up. Democrats should remind voters that if Congress is under Republican control, 0 percent of anything good will pass.

[ Heather Cox Richardson Substack /  CNN ]

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