Pete Buttigieg criticizes the hypocrisy of a Republican lawmaker in one word

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks during an opening ceremony for a new Amtrak station in Mobile, Alabama, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. Photo: Gregg Pachkowski / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is apparently fed up with Republican members of Congress who voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021, claiming credit for the funding the bill provides to their constituents. She needed only a brief word to respond to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) claiming credit — less than two weeks before Election Day — for a highway project in her district that is funded by the anti- who he voted for.

“We hate traffic as much as you do,” Mace wrote on X. “We helped secure $195 million — the largest grant in South Carolina’s history from the U.S. Department of Transportation — to get the The Long Point Road Interchange Project!”

“Um,” Buttigieg wrote in response, which drew attention to a community note that pointed out Mace voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill that funded that project. It includes a link to it, explaining in 2021 that the law is “anything but” an infrastructure law, falsely claiming that “less than 10 percent” of the law’s funding “goes to real infrastructure” and asking Republicans to oppose it as “good stewards of your dollars.”

Buttigieg was one of the Biden administration’s most visible backers of the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, which passed in November 2021 and contained $1.2 trillion in funding for infrastructure projects related to transportation, access to broadband, clean water and renewing the electricity grid.

Many House Republicans vehemently opposed the bill and then, once it passed, called on the Department of Transportation to fund projects in their district with grants authorized by the law.

For example, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), called the bill a “Solyndra-style slush fund” (referring to an Obama-era program that the right attacked), condemned it as “ wasteful” and “RUBBISH”, and accused the bill of supporting “government welfare”. She called for the “fake Republicans” who voted for the bill to be “held accountable.” She called Buttigieg a “diversity hire” repeatedly and made gay jokes about Buttigieg taking “maternity leave” to “figure out how to breastfeed” her children.

None of that stopped her begging Buttigieg for funding from the infrastructure bill.

Buttigieg and the Biden administration have made it clear they will not deny grant applications just because they come from the districts of members of Congress who voted against the bill.

“It’s hard not to chuckle,” Buttigieg said in a 2022 interview when asked about receiving letters from Republicans vehemently denouncing the spending bill. “Obviously, it’s good for their districts, which is why it’s probably good for America.”

“We’re not going to try to be stupid about it,” he continued. “Also, we will not shy away from letting the people know who was with us and who was against us.”

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