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Republicans Praise Money in Biden Relief Bill They Voted Against

John Micek on

At first blush, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine doesn’t look like some flaming hotbed of liberalism.

With a picturesque view of Lake Erie and scenic Presque Isle State Park — as well as campuses across the country — it bills itself as “the nation’s largest medical school,” and the “most applied-to medical school in the country.”

And last month, Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, who represents the Pennsylvania school on Capitol Hill, was only too happy to trumpet the fact that it was the recipient of a $2.2 million, “Kelly-backed grant,” that would “aid healthcare workers during the pandemic.”

The school is a “great community partner whose staff is among those in our district who can benefit from this funding,” Kelly said in a statement posted to his official website. “These funds will greatly impact our front-line heroes who have given so much to our country and their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Great cause, right? So where’d the money come from? If you guessed the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan package, give yourself a star.

And if you guessed that Kelly opposed the COVID relief bill and dismissed it as being packed with “left-wing projects,” give yourself one more star. And if you guessed on top of that that the veteran Erie pol backed a failed effort to topple Biden’s Pennsylvania victory in 2020, take the rest of the day off.

 

With that one gesture, Kelly placed himself in the growing ranks of Republican lawmakers who have gleefully filleted Biden, opposed his agenda, and then taken credit for its benefits to the folks back home.

One of the more recent public examples, Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson, was roundly criticized after she slammed the White House’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure law, and then boasted about the $829 million in funding for lock and dam upgrades it would bring to her constituents.

Kelly isn't even Pennsylvania's only example of this kind of GOP reality-distortion. Rep. Glenn Thompson, whose 15th District sprawls across the rural north-central part of the state, urged local fire companies last month to apply for a $46 million grant program that received an injection of pandemic relief money.

Of course, Thompson called that relief package "a wish list of the progressive wing of the Democrat party (sic)" and voted against it. But the firefighter grants included in the bill? That’s the good stuff.

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Copyright 2022 John Micek, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com

 

 

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