Today in Republicans With No Shame: Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa.
”BREAKING: We secured $829 million in federal funding to upgrade locks & dams along the Upper Mississippi River,” Hinson tweeted. “This is game-changing for Iowa’s agriculture industry & our Mississippi River communities!”
That money comes thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. You know what’s coming next, right?
Of course Hinson is now bragging about securing money she voted against. The infrastructure bill was “the biggest leap toward socialism this nation has ever seen—it takes the Marxist ideology that once only existed in textbooks and makes it law in the United States of America,” she said in a press release in November after the bill passed.
To be sure, Hinson supported the money that would be spent in her district. She joined with Republicans and Democrats from her region to specifically request investments in the Upper Mississippi. But the way Congress works is you vote on the whole bill—you look at the final form and you decide if, considering everything, you support it or not. Then you vote yes or no. Hinson voted no. In fact, Hinson voted no and yelled about socialism.
So this $829 million is absolutely no thanks to her. But it’s also no surprise to see a Republican touting the benefits of a law they voted against. In the past year, we’ve seen that phenomenon involving multiple Republicans and the American Rescue Plan. And Hinson wasn't the first Republican doing this with the infrastructure law, either.
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of Republicans scrambling to claim credit for American Rescue Plan spending, “Vote no, take the dough—that's what the Republicans do.”