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www.politico.com

A steel plant at the edge of this riverside town played a pivotal role in the family history of Sen. JD Vance.

The plant, Vance wrote in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” was nothing less than an “economic savior” for his grandparents. A steady job there for his “Papaw” is what lifted his grandparents “from the hills of Kentucky into America’s middle class.”

Its future looks bright too, thanks in part to a grant of up to $500 million from the Biden administration. The money is aimed at helping its owners replace a coal-fired blast furnace so that steel can be produced with clean hydrogen and natural gas — improvements that would cut climate and air pollution and help ensure the plant stays open for another generation.

But the political benefits for the Biden administration — and by extension Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee — are less clear. This is true not just in Middletown but in similar communities across the country that are on track to receive funding from either the Inflation Reduction Act or the bipartisan infrastructure law, arguably the two biggest domestic accomplishments of President Joe Biden’s time in the White House.

Both measures remain largely unknown to the public, polling has shown. Perhaps as worrisome for Harris is that the federal investments may not do much to break the country’s partisan divide, even in places that have benefited from the spending.

  • Boozilla@lemmy.worldEnglish
    65·
    3 months ago

    “I don’t really look for the government to do anything for you,” he said. “It’s more like just stay out of my way.”

    Same people are probably 100% fine with the government not allowing women access to modern birth control and reproductive care choices.

    They have this fantasy where they imagine “no government” would be awesome. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of shithole countries without a functioning government. They could move to one of those if they are serious and want to try that kind of life.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    26·
    3 months ago

    “I don’t really look for the government to do anything for you,” he said. “It’s more like just stay out of my way.”

    This is the problem. Instead of giving up on the government actually doing anything positive, these people should be demanding more. But their tiny brains have been so poisoned with hate that they only see the government as useful for harming others. The switcharoo their shitbag idols have pulled on them has them completely incapable of focusing on the real problems while the wealthy pillage the country further.

    “I will terminate Kamala Harris’s green new scam and rescind all of the unspent funds, give all of the unspent funds back to building roads, bridges and give it back to the government,” Trump said at a North Carolina rally last week.

    It’s almost as though they think that by not spending this money bettering communities it’ll somehow reduce how much they have to pay in taxes. No! Get the free handout!

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
    211·
    3 months ago

    “I don’t really look for the government to do anything for you,” he said. “It’s more like just stay out of my way.”- Tyler Kerby American Idiot

    I really don’t want to see a Trump presidency because of all the chaos that will ensue, but the teeny little diabalical part of me really wants him to lose his job because of it. This motherfucker is literally being saved by Joe Biden, but he’s too stupid to see it.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    16·
    3 months ago

    “I don’t really look for the government to do anything for you,” he said. “It’s more like just stay out of my way.”

    “Except on abortion. On abortion, the government should most certainly stay in the way…and on books in a library…government should stay in the way on that one too. Bathrooms! Most certainly a place government should stay in the way. I believe it is of paramount importantance to all Americans that the genitalia you use to relieve yourself match what I think it should for the room you’re in doing it…except if its a single seat bathroom, then it doesn’t matter…and government should stay out of the way.” - Vance probably

  • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
    142·
    3 months ago

    Federal money like this needs to be earmarked. Tracked. So that it’s used only to benefit the business. Not just disappear into the shareholders greedy pockets and CEO bonuses.

    • TVA@thebrainbin.org
      122·
      3 months ago

      Well yeah, now 500M will get allocated to go directly to the business only, but another 400M that previously would have gone to the business now gets to go directly to the shareholders instead since it’s unallocated! WIN-WIN!

      Requiring any closer bookkeeping than that is SOCIALISM!

      /s – kinda, but, I expect that’s the reality

  • dan1101@lemm.ee
    7·
    3 months ago

    Can’t win when you’re arguing with people who already made their minds up.