By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
Kentucky Democratic activist Daniel Hurt has a warning for his party:
"Don't let the Republicans who voted against the infrastructure bill take credit for the construction projects when the groundbreaking starts."
The GOP naysayers are Sen. Rand Paul, plus Reps. Andy Barr, James Comer, Brett Guthrie, Thomas Massie and Hal Rogers.
"With all this talk about the bill being bipartisan, it's important that everybody sees who didn't support it--who just played political games with the bill," said Hurt, a member of the Kentucky Democratic Party's State Central Executive Committee who has managed 13 campaigns for the state House and Senate and won 7.
He'd like to see the KDP put up billboards in Barr, Comer, Guthrie, Massie and Rogers's districts, plus statewide billboards citing Paul's vote. All six Republicans are up for reelection this year. "Kenny Colston, who used to work for the KDP, has the same idea," added Hurt, a western Kentuckian from Grand Rivers who is also an honorary delegate to the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council and the 2017 state AFL-CIO Youth Labor Award recipient.
Kentucky Republicans never miss a chance to burnish their conservative creds and profess their fealty to Donald Trump, who denounced the infrastructure bill. So Paul et al. may stick to their line that the measure is just more Democratic "socialism."
But such a partisan stand might be a tough sell even in Red State Kentucky. The legislation will pump $1.2 trillion into the economy and generate millions of good jobs nationally. Kentucky's nearly $5.6 billion share will produce tens of thousands of good jobs from Jordan to Jenkins. (Check out the AFL-CIO graphic for Kentucky.)
The bill "is an enormous amount of money that will be invested in Kentucky, and we will work to make sure that the jobs that result from these investments are union jobs," said Bill Londrigan, Kentucky State AFL-CIO president.
Hurt thinks that the six Kentucky Republicans will more likely "try to take credit for the bill they opposed and talk about the positive impact it has." He wouldn't be surprised if they put out press releases touting the legislation and show up for photo ops at groundbreaking ceremonies.
Not matter, added Hurt, the KDP needs to remind Kentuckians where the state's Washington lawmakers stood when it counted. Congressman John Yarmuth, the Bluegrass State's sole Democrat on Capitol Hill, was all in for the bill. So was Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, though only after it was pared down. He fiercely opposes the Build Back Better bill, dubbed the "soft" infrastructure bill.
The measure awaiting President Biden's signature "contains an estimated $550 billion in new spending above baseline levels," according to the Brookings Institution. "This spending touches every sector of infrastructure, from transportation and water to energy, broadband, and the resilience and rehabilitation of our nation’s natural resources."
Hurt pointed out that the legislation was only technically bipartisan. "If it were up to the Republicans, it would have failed."
Earlier this month, the House approved the measure, 228-206. Just 13 Republicans sided with the Democratic majority. (A half dozen Democrats opposed the bill because it wasn't coupled with the Build Back Bill.)
In August, the Senate passed the measure 69-30. Only 19 of 50 Republicans, including McConnell, joined all 50 Democrats in voting for it. (One Republican didn't vote.)
"Sen. Paul and the 5 other congressmen just want to be Trump acolytes and say yes to Trump," Hurt said. "This is not progress for the commonwealth and the country."
Trump has lambasted the Republicans who helped pass the bill. "Very sad that the RINOs in the House and Senate gave Biden and Democrats a victory on the 'Non-Infrastructure' Bill," the former president said in a statement. "All Republicans who voted for Democrat longevity should be ashamed of themselves, in particular Mitch McConnell, for granting a two month stay which allowed the Democrats time to work things out at our Country's, and the Republican Party's, expense!"