The Minnesota congressman who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee is the lead example of Republican hypocrisy in a CNN story:
Last November, GOP Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota released a statement slamming the passage of the freshly approved infrastructure law he referred to as “President Biden’s multi-trillion dollar socialist wish list.”
Then in June, Emmer – the House Republican campaign chairman leading attacks on Democrats for supporting the law – quietly submitted a wish of his own.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Emmer expressed his hearty support for a multimillion dollar grant to improve part of Highway 65 in his district.
I read that lede and thought, Did Emmer really say that? That seems like a pretty hyperbolic description of a bipartisan infrastructure bill, and that bill didn’t spend multiple trillions of dollars. But politicians are often hyperbolic. So I thought it would be best to check it out.
Turns out that no, he didn’t say that. Here’s what the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported last November:
Republican Rep. Tom Emmer said in a statement that “the House voted on a bill that directs only a fraction of its overall spending towards improving roads and bridges, and lays the groundwork for passage of President Biden’s multi-trillion dollar socialist wish list.”
He wasn’t saying that the bill was a multitrillion-dollar socialist wish list. He was saying that the Build Back Better Act was and that the infrastructure bill made it more likely to pass. And there’s nothing hypocritical about complaining that the infrastructure bill spent too little on improving roads and bridges and then trying to get some of that money spent on roads.
Update: At least two of the other Republican congressmen that CNN is dinging were taken out of context. Reps. Andy Barr (R., Ky.) and Ashley Hinson (R., Ia.) were making the same point as Emmer: The infrastructure bill would help Democrats get their Build Back Better legislation through, which would be a huge advance for big government. They weren’t saying the infrastructure bill itself amounted to socialism.