Claim Credit Vote Against
12 23 mebbe redumbdent
related 8 25
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is under fire for claiming credit for new Amtrak trains, as well as funding and improvements, all of which came from President Joe Biden’s landmark bipartisan infrastructure law — the nation’s largest infrastructure investment in more than half a century.
“Announcing the NextGen Acela!” Secretary Duffy declared on Wednesday. He touted the “brand new beautiful trains” delivered by U.S. DOT and Amtrak that will, he wrote, “increase reliability,” “lower ticket costs,” and “improve Amtrak profitability.”
“This is all part of @POTUS’ vision to Make Travel Great again,” Duffy claimed.
READ MORE: Trump Orders Death Penalty for All D.C. Homicides, Defying Long Ban
But several critics were quick to point to President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that was signed into law in November 2021.
CNN senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere wrote: “as detailed on the Amtrak website, the improvements that Secretary Duffy says are all part of Trump’s ‘vision to Make Travel Great again’ are in fact from the Biden-signed bipartisan infrastructure act, and which were underway long before Trump took office again in January.”
The “information about the source of the funding for the ‘new era of rail’ — a priority for famously Amtrak-loving Biden — is up on the Amtrak site here,” he noted, pointing to this Amtrak website, which reads:
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Amtrak and passenger rail to play a central role in improving how people move and securing our economic future. This historic legislation provides $66 billion for rail, including: $22 billion directly to Amtrak over five years to repair or replace aging assets, modernize our fleet, improve station accessibility, and other capital projects and purposes defined under the law.”
READ MORE: ‘Frogs in a Boiling Pot’: Trump Blasted After Again Insisting ‘I’m Not a Dictator’
Also, Amtrak noted, “$44 billion for Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) discretionary grants to support various improvements to passenger and freight railroads.”
Others also blasted the DOT chief.
“Sean Duffy, surprising absolutely no one, taking credit for something brought to you in large part by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed by President Biden,” charged former chief Pentagon spokesperson Chris Meagher.
Watch the video below or at this link.
an badash 12 23
.uS. Rep. María Elvira Salazar is the latest Republican to be caught taking credit for federal funds despite voting against the legislation that provided them.
“I’m proud to have secured funding that will create hundreds of jobs and help dozens of businesses grow” in her Florida district, Congresswoman Salazar wrote on the social media site X. Her post includes photos of her signing a large mockup of a check for $650,000, and standing holding it up. “Today, I launched the BizGap program with [Florida International University] which will help small businesses with coaching, marketing, websites, and more!”
Under her signature she wrote in block letters, “U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar FL-27,” the number of her district.
Yet Congresswoman Salazar voted against the legislation that provided those funds to her district, as Business Insider reports:
“That bill was the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an ‘omnibus’ spending bill that passed at the end of last year, when Democrats still controlled both the House and the Senate.”
READ MORE: Fox News Hosts: ‘The Left’ Wants to Foment ‘Violence’ and ‘Civil Unrest’ With Colorado Ruling
She defended touting the $650,000 she voted against, which came from legislation passed by a Democratic House and Senate and signed into law by Democratic President Joe Biden, by telling Business Insider, “I can celebrate this victory because I fought for it and put my name on this Community Funding project.”
She added, “I voted against the Omnibus because Congressional Democrats, who had full control of Congress at the time, decided to advance reckless spending for an already bloated federal government.”
Last year Congresswoman Salazar also complained about a different kind of spending.
In a video she posted to social media, the Florida Republican complained about what she called the “through the roof” cost of back-to-school shopping, falsely telling her constituents that inflation was 40%. It was 8.3% at the time of her remarks. And while she blamed “Washington” for inflation, Congresswoman Salazar also joined with every House and Senate Republican in voting that year against the Inflation Reduction Act.
Salazar is an ally of the newly-elected far-right ultra-conservative president of Argentina, Javier Milei, and has several posts of her speaking in support of him on her social media account. She also re-posted an article touting her attendance at his inauguration.
Watch Congresswoman Salazar’s video below, and her social media photos above, or both at this link. buting pencils for kid but inflation twit?
---