Such is the state of our national politics. Representative Paul Gosar (R, AZ) tweets a doctored animation showing him killing colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez without any reaction whatsoever from Republican party leadership but a move is now being made by Republican colleagues to strip 13 House Republicans of their House committee assignments. Their crime? They voted in favor of the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill that will provide badly needed road, bridge, and internet repairs and upgrades in every state in the nation.
Meanwhile, Republican minority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has called the infrastructure bill a ‘godsend’ for his state. And major newspapers in deep red states like North Dakota, South Dakota, and Louisiana are touting the benefits the bill will provide to their own states; fortunately, they are also running adjacent articles about all the senators and representatives from their respective states who voted against the bill.
Mississippi will receive $4.4 billion to upgrade our own infrastructure. Want to guess which of our own members of Congress voted against the bill? Our own representative, Trent Kelly, along with fellow Republican representatives, Michael Guest and Steven Pallazo, and Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. Senator Wicker, to his credit, voted yes.
How did our congresspeople vote on the 2017 tax cut — the one that will add nearly a trillion dollars more to the national debt than the infrastructure bill? You’re right, aside from Senator Hyde-Smith and Representative Guest — who would probably have voted in favor had they been in office at that point — they all voted to pass it.
I am pretty sure which of these two bills will improve your life more.
Paul Mack
Columbus
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