'Baby out with the bathwater': Red state Trump voters speaking out against this key policy

20 August

A supporter of President Donald Trump in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 23, 2023 (Image: Shutterstock)

Red states are now confronting the unintended fallout of President Donald Trump’s signature Republican tax-and-spending package as crucial infrastructure grants that were once intended to reconnect communities and enhance pedestrian safety have been abruptly rescinded.

Politico reported Wednesday that lawmakers from these once-safe GOP districts are now being forced to answer to residents facing transportation and safety shortfalls.

The reported noted that a city in southwestern Utah was poised to benefit from an $87.6 million federal grant to help reconnect neighborhoods split by an increasingly congested Interstate 15. But the money intended for the project in St. George vanished after Trump signed the bill.

"The solidly Republican community isn’t alone. Across the country, the new law rescinded more than $2.2 billion in unobligated dollars from a $3.2 billion Biden-era program aimed at helping reconnect disadvantaged neighborhoods divided by roadways," the report said.

In Montana, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R‑Mont.) saw his district affected too. A roughly $75 million award for reconstructing a stretch of roadway on the Flathead Reservation lost 84 percent of its funds, per the report.

"Areas hit by the cuts include some represented by GOP lawmakers who voted for the law — in the latest example of Trump’s most significant legislative triumph complicating life back home for his allies in Congress," the report noted.

According to the DOT’s awards summary, “the highway is the primary transportation corridor ... linking members of the [tribes] and other residents to jobs, schools, medical care, and other essential destinations,” yet “the road presents a significant barrier to community connectivity due to longstanding safety issues and a lack of adequate alternate routes.”

Moreover, all $24 million in federal grant money for a project from East Missoula to Missoula, including a reconstructed railroad crossing bridge, was eliminated.

Jimmie Hughes, a Republican city council member in St. George, told Politico: “There’s a 2‑mile stretch of that highway where you can’t get through."

He added: The project “really was an answer to a lot of congestion. It’s a little bit heartbreaking, but we’re not giving up.” Hughes mused that the city “may have been in a ‘baby out with the bathwater’ situation.”

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