This kind of scheme is just the kind of partisan bullsh*t President Donald Trump would likely consider.
Federal spending for states should not be used as a punishment, but that’s exactly what conservative columnist John Phillips suggested Trump do during an appearance on CNN on Wednesday.
After passing the GOP tax scam plan earlier this month, Trump identified infrastructure spending as an area in which he would try to work on with Democrats.
At some point, and for the good of the country, I predict we will start working with the Democrats in a Bipartisan fashion. Infrastructure would be a perfect place to start. After having foolishly spent $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is time to start rebuilding our country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2017
But Phillips thinks that Trump ought to punish blue states by giving Republican states and districts most of the infrastructure money in order to court Republican votes despite needing Democratic support. He said:
“I think it’s wonderfully altruistic for him to want to get a bipartisan bill through. But, he should have Plan B ready to go, because that is likely to fall apart almost immediately. I suspect the Democrats will go into this being both greedy and difficult. Trump’s going to be left holding the price tag. They’ll ask for the moon and they’ll be difficult because once you’ve been part of the resistance, it’s hard to go from saying he should be impeached to saying your bridges are irresistible.”
“I suspect he’s going to need more Republican votes than he thinks that he is. And I would do that by spending the money in red states and when I spend money in blue states, I would make sure to target that money in districts where vulnerable Republicans are running for reelection.”
Phillips’ remarks stunned the panel, including Republican strategist Evan Siegfried, and resulted in host Dana Bash pointing out that such a strategy would be “blatantly political.”
Here’s the video via Daily Motion.
The strategy would also be unfair considering red states are already being subsidized by blue states.
Not only do red states receive more federal tax dollars than blue states, they also pay less in taxes.
That means red states get more back than they contribute to federal coffers. Thus, Republicans are stealing money from blue states to give to their states.
Infrastructure spending is desperately needed across the country, even in blue states. So the idea that Trump should give the lion’s share of money to red states is galling, especially since red states clearly do not use the federal tax dollars they receive very wisely.
For instance, Alabama, which is controlled by Republicans, is high on the list as a taker of federal dollars, yet has the worst poverty in the developed world.
In fact, red states have more poverty and disease and their residents are less educated than people in blue states.
So, one has to wonder what the Republicans are spending all the federal tax dollars on in their states. Because clearly, they aren’t spending it to improve the lives of their constituents.
If a bridge collapses and kills people in a blue state because Trump chose to refuse to properly and fairly disperse infrastructure money as punishment, he and the Republican Party will have blood on their hands to answer for. If they think people won’t forget about this in November 2018, they should seriously think again.
And it should be pointed out that if Republicans even think about playing these kinds of games, they should keep in mind that turnabout is fair play. So the next time Democrats control the White House and Congress, Republicans better not dare to whine when the shoe is on the other foot.
Featured Image: YouTube screenshot.
