The GOP’s greatest skill: Taking credit for things Democrats did
One party keeps lying about its public service record. Talk about “stolen valor.”
Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance has accused his Democratic counterpart of “ stolen valor,” a term that typically refers to lying about a military service record.
But the actual perpetrators of stolen valor in this election are Vance and his party — if not in the military context, then at least in the public service one. Republican politicians have repeatedly claimed credit for valiant actions they didn’t take, pro-family legislation they didn’t support and other popular policies they’re trying to repeal.
For instance, as Democrats celebrated the Inflation Reduction Act’s two-year anniversary last week, Republicans, who unanimously voted against the law in 2022, condemned it and pledged to claw it back. (They’ve already voted a couple dozen times to repeal various portions of it.)
But when it comes to the projects the law subsidized, these same Republicans are big cheerleaders — both for the projects and for their own (imagined) role in enabling them.
Many major IRA-funded projects are in Republican-held districts, so the list of triumphs to seize responsibility for is extensive. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.) has puffed up wind energy investments in his state. Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.) has likewise trumpeted an electric vehicle plant and an electric regional transit hub. Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.) touted a high-tech battery manufacturing facility. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), who has called global warming “healthy,” has since cheered a solar manufacturing project in her district.
This is hardly the only initiative Republican lawmakers have bogarted credit for despite their efforts to stop it. Last fall, House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) cheered the expansion of Florida’s Sarasota airport, which he toured with Rep. Vern Buchanan (Fla.). That project received at least $16 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. While some Republicans supported this law, both men voted against it.
Similar examples abound for Republicans who voted against the Chips and Science Act.
Vance was not yet in the Senate when any of these blockbuster bills were enacted. When he ran for office, though, he bashed the infrastructure law as “a total disaster for our country.” He has since appeared to take credit for its funding for the Great Lakes as one of his top “accomplishments” in the Senate. (Maybe he was talking about another Great Lakes bill he is co-sponsoring? That legislation might one day count as a Vance accomplishment, but it has yet to receive a floor vote. A Vance spokesperson did not respond to questions about which bill he was taking credit for.)
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