Republicans shamelessly take credit for Covid-19 they voted against

Two recent tweets from members of Congress illustrate how, following the signing of the Covid-19 relief bill by President Joe Biden, Republicans are trying “to have their cake and vote against him too”, as the ‘Barack Obama once said.

This $ 1.9 trillion US bailout, which Biden enacted last Thursday, did not receive a single Republican vote, even though a recent poll shows a majority of Republican voters said so partially or completely support it. The popularity of the legislation puts Republican members of Congress in a bind: How to message against a bill most Americans love that will halve child poverty, while extract an economy who was ravaged by the one-year pandemic?

Some Republicans, perhaps understandably, choose instead to focus on cultural warfare distractions as if Dr. Seuss is “canceled”. But others are shamelessly trying to take credit for Democratic politics right after voting against.

An example of this came last Friday, when Representative María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) welcomed the decision by Biden’s Small Business Administration to extend the deferment periods for Covid-19 loans in the event economic disaster (EIDL).

“BREAKING … So proud to announce that the Biden administration just implemented my bipartisan COVID relief bill under @SBAgov,” Salazar tweeted, referring to a statement on his website in which she said: “I am so proud that my bipartisan legislation has officially become the policy of the SBA.

The timing of the tweet, coming a day after the US bailout was signed, led many to believe that lawmakers were referring to the Covid-19 relief bill that Salazar voted against – this bill contains $ 15 billion. in EIDL funding dollars. But the SBA move she highlighted is actually separate from the US bailout, as National Economic Council (NEC) deputy director Bharat Ramamurti explained on Twitter.

“I saw some confusion about this,” Ramamurti wrote, referring to Salazar’s tweet. “On Friday – regardless of the US bailout bill – the SBA announced it was allowing companies over 3M to defer EIDL loan payments for an additional year.”

“We’re happy to see the bipartisan support for this and other changes we’ve made to help small businesses,” he added.

While it is not correct to say that Salazar is trying to take credit for the Covid-19 relief bill, his claim that the Biden administration has “implemented” its ” bipartisan COVID relief ”is bogus. The bill in question was not passed in Congress and it does not appear that the SBA’s decision was inspired by it. An SBA press release announcing the extension of the postponement does not mention Salazar.

Salazar responded to the critics on Sunday by trying to turn the tide, tweeting that his statement “has nothing to do with the $ 1.9 billion Blue State rescue. It is a bipartisan policy which I introduced separately and which was adopted by the SBA. “

But as Salazar played deceptive semantic games on Twitter, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced that it was buying billboards in her district to highlight that she and other Florida Republicans had voted against them. $ 1,400 relief checks – part of the Covid-19 Democratic Recovery Bill backed by more than 80% of Americans.

Senator Wicker voted against his own amendment, then took credit for passing it

Even more blatant than Salazar’s tweet was that of Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) praising the $ 28.6 billion in restaurant aid included in the relief bill.

“Independent restaurateurs have won $ 28.6 billion in targeted relief,” Wicker tweeted Wednesday. “This funding will allow small businesses to survive the pandemic by helping to scale their operations and keep their employees on the payroll.”

It is true that Wicker lobbied for the restaurant’s relief – he and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) proposed an amendment to the bill with the funding. But Wicker ultimately voted against his own amendment.

Wicker was severely dragged out for trying to go both ways.

Speaking to reporters last Wednesday, Wicker dismissed whether he was trying to take credit for Democratic legislation as a “stupid question.”

“A good provision in a $ 1.9 trillion bill doesn’t mean I have to vote for the whole,” he said.

But voters don’t seem to really buy Republicans’ claims that while there are good parts of the bill, it was ultimately too important to warrant support. A recent poll by Vox and Data for Progress showed that twice as many voters preferred the route Democrats took of quickly passing a big relief bill rather than a Republican option that only made up a third of the population. cut.

There is a precedent for Republicans trying to take credit for the legislation they voted against. As Amanda Terkel detailed for HuffPost, they did the same for the 2009 stimulus which, like the 2021 one, was passed without a single Republican vote:

A similar pattern occurred after the 2009 revival, when GOP lawmakers who voted against President Barack Obama’s legislation then returned to their home districts and took credit for the money that was paid. to their constituents. At the time, ThinkProgress had 114 Republican lawmakers who blocked the bill while touting its benefits. They sent out press releases taking credit for the money that funded projects in their district, even though they voted against it.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), perhaps aware of this precedent, told the House on Wednesday that “what concerns us all on our side is that the Republicans are all going to vote against this and then they They are going to show up for every tape cut and every project this bill funds, and they are going to puff their breasts and take credit for all these great benefits that are coming to their citizens.

The Covid-19 relief package signed by Biden is even more popular than the 2009 stimulus package. It also comes after many Republicans backed two Covid-19 relief bills while Donald Trump was president, as well. than 2017 tax cuts that (coincidentally) are expected to add $ 1.9 trillion to the national debt while disproportionately benefiting the rich.

But now that Democrats control the White House and both houses of Congress, Republicans are suddenly finding reasons to be against the spending, although the legislation enjoys some support from the majority of Republican voters – and, in at least minus two cases, claim they actually supported things that benefit their constituents, even when they voted against them.