President Joe Biden on Thursday ribbed Republicans in Congress for boasting about investments in their districts that were spurred by laws they voted against.
Biden traveled to South Carolina on Thursday to trumpet clean energy investments at a plant that manufactures solar power technology. He touted the enactment of a climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act as well as massive infrastructure and manufacturing laws.
Since he took office, Biden said, “we’ve attracted half a trillion dollars — $497 billion — in private investment in American manufacturing, both here and around the world.”
Implementing all that legislation has had a “transformative impact,” he said. “All those members of Congress who voted against it suddenly realize how great it is. And they’re bragging about it. As my mother would say, ‘God love them.’”
It’s one of many recent visits by Biden and his top officials to red districts seeing investments in clean energy that are driven by laws enacted with mostly Democratic support. As the 2024 campaign season gets into full swing, Democrats are stressing that Republicans who opposed those laws are now gloating about investments within their districts.
Every Republican member of Congress voted against the climate law, Biden noted. And “every Republican member of the House in this state voted to repeal the clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that attracted all these jobs,” he said at the South Carolina event.
Those efforts haven’t stopped GOP lawmakers from “claiming credit now that billions of dollars and thousands of jobs are coming to the United States,” Biden said.
He also pointed to Dalton, Ga., the home of a solar plant that credited the climate law with its recent plans to expand.
“You may find it hard to believe, but that’s [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district,” Biden said. “I’ll be there for the groundbreaking.”
Greene earlier this year introduced articles of impeachment against the president. She also called the Qcells solar company in her district “fantastic.”
Some analyses, Biden said Thursday, have found that the legislation he signed will “do more to help red America than blue America. That’s OK with me, because we’re all Americans.”
