The White House is continuing its campaign of sarcastic gratitude Tuesday, doling out recognition to specific Republican lawmakers who touted infrastructure investments “spurred by legislation they voted to block.”
“We obviously wish more Republicans had voted to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other legislation driving hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments,” writes White House Assistant Press Secretary Robyn Patterson in a memo first obtained by TPM and timed to welcome and “thank” members of Congress as they return to Washington after the July 4 recess.
But, she adds, the White House is “grateful” for the Republicans’ “willingness to join the Administration’s Investing in America tour.”
The administration named a “best example” under each subgenre of infrastructure improvement.
Bringing home the gold for cheering high speed internet funding is Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who tweeted in June that it was “great to see Alabama receive crucial funds to boost ongoing broadband efforts.”
Tuberville, the White House points out, had attacked the infrastructure law as “loaded with giveaways to big cities” and argued that it “fails to give Alabama a fair slice of the pie.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) wins sharpest 180 on funding for clean buses and public transit, going from deriding the infrastructure law as “wasteful spending” to, per local news reports, endorsing a Charleston bus project funded by the legislation.
“The White House is grateful to her for reminding her constituents over this recess that the bill’s dollars funding clean public transportation in South Carolina is anything but wasteful spending,” the memo reads.
Completing the triumvirate, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) cheered grant money from the administration that was funneled to various infrastructure projects.
The memo captures Hyde-Smith, next to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), beaming above a press release about welcoming over $28 million for infrastructure projects.
“Senator Hyde-Smith argued that voting for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was a ‘bridge too far to cross,’” the memo reads. “We’re grateful she made it across that bridge in time to help the President remind the people of Mississippi of the investments President Biden and Congressional Democrats are making in the state.”
The memo is part of President Joe Biden’s “Bidenomics” tour, an attempt to remind voters of the home-state benefits in the legislation the Democratic-majority Congress passed last term.
It’s also a piece of Team Biden’s push to boost his current stubbornly bad polling on economic issues. Despite an economy that has steadily improved by many metrics under his administration — unemployment is at a near-historic low and inflation has plummeted since last June — voters continue to give him low marks.
In a series of speeches, Biden has touted his economic achievements, often juxtaposing them with the Trump-era tax cuts as a giveaway to the rich.
