A number of Republican lawmakers are suddenly giving high praise to Joe Biden’s infrastructure agenda\u2014 despite voting against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2021, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville voted against President Joe Biden\u2019s infrastructure bill, which he said would fail to give his state a \u201cfair slice of the pie while also saddling Alabama taxpayers with even more debt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDemocrats,\u201d he wrote<\/a> at the time, \u201chave missed an opportunity to deliver the bill that the American people truly need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the Republican sounded a different note this week, when he touted<\/a> the \u201ccrucial funds to boost ongoing broadband efforts\u201d his state would receive \u2014 without noting that those funds were part of the 2021 infrastructure legislation he had vocally opposed. Tuberville wasn\u2019t alone in pulling the \u201cold vote no but take credit\u201d maneuver, as former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger dubbed it<\/a>. (Kinzinger, who was one of a handful of Republicans to vote in favor of the legislation, noted<\/a> his frustration with Republicans’ about-face Thursday, saying that he \u201ctook a lot of heat\u201d from the GOP over his support for the bill.) Marsha Blackburn celebrated<\/a> the \u201cprogress\u201d on broadband in Tennessee; John Cornyn did the same in Texas<\/a>; Nancy Mace held a press conference<\/a> Wednesday to promote a $26 million grant for a transit project \u2014 \u201cone of the largest\u201d such grants, she said \u2014 that was made possible through the Democratic-led legislation, which she condemned in 2021 as a \u201cmonstrosity.\u201d<\/a> Blackburn, Mace and Cornyn all voted against the infrastructure package. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost of them have opposed everything I\u2019ve done,\u201d Biden said of Republicans in a speech<\/a> in Chicago Wednesday touting his economic record. \u201cMost of them want to get rid of it all. But they don\u2019t hesitate to take credit for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hypocrisy isn’t limited to those taking undue credit for the infrastructure law; there’s also Lauren Boebert, who lamented the nation’s infrastructure issues this week, despite having voted against legislation to address them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This kind of thing is obviously nothing new; more than a decade ago, in 2010, Republicans took credit for aspects of the stimulus bill they voted against, having \u201cfound a way to have their cake and vote against it, too,\u201d as then-President Barack Obama quipped<\/a> at the time. It\u2019s not even the first time GOP lawmakers have taken credit for Biden accomplishments they fought against; in 2021, a rash of Republicans went back to their districts to claim credit for elements of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, which every single one of them lined up against. \u201cIt\u2019s heartening to see Republicans in Congress reaching across the aisle to endorse it,\u201d White House spokesman Andrew Bates remarked<\/a> at the time. \u201cEven retroactively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tuberville, Mace, and other Republicans offered tortured defenses against charges of hypocrisy: \u201cCoach voted against the infrastructure bill because it wasted Alabamians\u2019 tax dollars,\u201d a Tuberville spokesperson said<\/a> of the former Auburn football coach. \u201cBut now that it is law of the land, the people of Alabama deserve their fair share.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n No doubt. But Republicans are trying to have it both ways, and it\u2019s important for Biden\u2014 who has long struggled in approval polls, despite a record of navigating popular Democratic policies through choppy political waters over the last two-plus years\u2014 to make that clear, as he himself acknowledged<\/a> at a California fundraiser earlier this month: \u201cWe got to let people know what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n