It was eight months ago when President Joe Biden signed an ambitious Democratic Covid-relief package into law, called the American Rescue Plan. Predictably, some Republican opponents of the $1.9 trillion measure started trying to take credit for the ARP almost immediately after it passed.
This came to mind yesterday reading a press release from Doug Ducey, Arizona’s Republican governor, whose statement included a headline that read, “Governor Ducey Invests $100 Million To Expand High-Speed Broadband.”
Governor Ducey today announced a $100 million commitment to expand high-speed broadband to unserved or underserved areas of the state, making it one of the single largest broadband investments in state history. The program, known as the Arizona Broadband Development Grant Program, will enable local communities to construct or improve broadband infrastructure that connects Arizonans in their homes and serves schools, libraries, small businesses, public safety operations and more.
The GOP governor added that the funding for the state initiative came by way of “the American Rescue Plan Act.”
In other words, Ducey is taking advantage of a Democratic policy opposed by his own party — including every Republican member of Arizona’s congressional delegation — though his press release thanked GOP state officials, and not those who approved the investments in the first place.
Writing in The Arizona Republic, columnist EJ Montini made the case today that the governor’s “bogus boast … is BS.” If Ducey is as pleased as he seems to be about receiving the broadband grant it is President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats he should be thanking. Perhaps even praising, since Ducey says that the grant is actually “making it possible for all Arizonans to thrive.” But, no. Thanking those responsible for the grant would be common decency. It would not be politics. Now that Biden has signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, it’s a safe bet that plenty of Republican opponents of the package will soon try to benefit politically from its resources.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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