A Republican lawmaker who voted against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and compared it to socialism recently lauded the bill after it benefitted her district.
Iowa Starting Line reports that US Representative Ashley Hinson praised the $829.1m allocated to her region by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The money will be used to modernise lock and dam systems on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers.
Ms Hinson shared a press release celebrating the funding and taking credit for the allocation.
"Breaking: We secured $829 million in federal funding to upgrade locks & dams along the Upper Mississippi River," she wrote.
Though Ms Hinson has reportedly previously advocated for targeted infrastructure upgrades for waterways in Iowa, she voted against the infrastructure bill and called it "Washington Gamesmanship."
“Too often in Washington, the potential for important, bipartisan policy is torpedoed by partisan politics,” Ms Hinson wrote in a press release on 8 November. “The need to make meaningful investments in our nation’s real infrastructure — roads and bridges, locks and dams, and broadband — was sacrificed to advance a partisan, socialist spending spree.”
She also compared the bill to Marxism.
“It’s the biggest leap toward socialism this nation has ever seen — it takes the Marxist ideology that once only existed in textbooks and makes it law in the United States of America,” she said.
Ms Hinson appeared to forget that US highways, roads, power infrastructure, primary and higher education institutions and – the nation's overwhelmingly largest monetary investment – the military, are all funded through taxpayer dollars.
The freshman Republican lawmaker is facing a challenge from Democrat Liz Mathis this fall. Ms Mathis is an Iowa state senator, and called her opponent's press release an attempt to "mislead Iowans."
“Despite Ashley Hinson’s attempt to claim credit for this much-needed investment, she voted against the bill that made it possible,” Ms Mathis said. “This is yet another example of Ashley Hinson claiming that she supports investments that benefit Iowans, but voting along party lines against their best interests in Washington. Iowa’s 2nd District deserves a representative who will work across the aisle to pass legislation and secure funding that directly benefits the district she represents.”
Ms Mathis was far from the only person to call Ms Hinson a hypocrite for the tweet. By 10am on Thursday morning, the phrase "YOU VOTED AGAINST IT" was trending on Twitter, which contained many posts aimed at calling out Ms Hinson.
Overall, the infrastructure bill will provide Iowa with $5bn and is expected to create numerous jobs.
The Independent has contacted Ms Hinson for comment.
