Call it a sign of the times: The Biden administration using your tax dollars to campaign for President Joe Biden.
Literally.
In a letter to Shalanda D. Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, takes aim at an Executive Office memo “strongly” encouraging federal agencies to erect signs declaring costly public infrastructure projects around the country have been funded by President Joe Biden. Forget the fact that American taxpayers will fork over trillions of dollars — in present and future treasure — to fund the ill-named Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (aka the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law), the ironically named Inflation Reduction Act, and other debt-racking spending initiatives in which boondoggles abound.
As Ernst notes in her letter, a February 2023 Controller Alert suggests strategies, “including the use of public signage, to increase the transparency of projects funded in whole or in part” by the spending packages. The idea, according to the memo, is to make taxpayers aware just how effective “Government efforts to invest in our Nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness” have been.
And who’s paying for this awareness campaign? Why, taxpayers, it appears.
‘BIL is a BFD’
But this is no mere public service announcement. The signs are taxpayer-funded campaign ads for Biden’s re-election, Ernst says.
“[A]t the White House’s direction, the Department of Transportation, Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other agencies are treating taxpayer money like campaign donations, purchasing and placing thousands of campaign signs along roadsides and other public works sites,” the Iowa Republican tells OMB.
An Environmental Protection Agency directive makes the demand clear, informing recipients of the federal funds that they “must place a sign at construction sites that display the Investing in America emblem and identify the project as a ‘project funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’ or ‘project funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.’ The sign must be in an easily visible location that can be directly linked to the work taking place and must be maintained in good condition throughout the construction period.”
At least “throughout the construction period”? More like throughout the campaign.
Second Dude Douglas Emhoff has taken to promoting the promotion, gloating about the signs on his official X account.
“During my travels across the country, I keep running into these signs. Seems like BIL [Bipartisan Infrastructure Law] is a BFD,” wrote the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris in homage to Biden’s obscene expression of joy over Obamacare.
But Ernst spoils the party, asking on Emhoff’s post, “How much did these Biden campaign signs cost American taxpayers?”
‘Misusing Government Resources’
Ernst scolds the administration, admonishing that “campaign signs are not infrastructure” and that they detract from, not add to, U.S. highways and byways. Beyond “misusing official government resources for political purposes, these roadside eyesores violate the spirit of the Highway Beautification Act, which restricts billboards and limits other posts along federal highways to directional signs or notices of natural wonders and scenic or historical attractions.”
While beauty may well be in the eye of the beholder, there’s nothing scenic about signs promoting Biden’s role in pushing trillions of dollars of debt on the next generation of Americans — and crippling inflation on today’s consumers — for perceived political gains.
But you won’t find the cost of the projects — or the signs — on the signs, Ernst notes.
The senator does suggest a more fact-based display.
“Why is there no billboard next to the seven electric vehicle charging stations built over the past two years boasting that they were bought by the Biden administration with $7.5 billion?” Ernst asks in the letter to OMB (emphasis original). “Such a sign could proudly declare, ‘This billion dollar boondoggle brought to you by President Biden!’ Now, that would give everyone, no matter what kind of vehicle they drive, a real charge.”
She notes the tax dollar-sucking San Francisco rail extension project that “the Biden administration has committed at least $3.4 billion to build,” just a portion of the $8.3 billion (and climbing) cost of the 1.3-mile infrastructure project. Also funded by Biden — at least according to his promotional signs — the project received Ernst’s dubious Squeal Award for boondoggle. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is itching for credit, too. We’ll see if she ends up on the sign.
While the Biden administration lauds the president in signs, his infrastructure failures are lining up. As the Washington Times reported this week, rural homes and businesses still are waiting to be connected to high-speed internet through a $42.5 billion modernization program. “[N]ot a single home or business has been connected to new broadband networks nearly three years after President Biden signed the funding into law, and no project will break ground until sometime next year,” the publication reports.
‘Highway Robbery’
Ernst is giving her June 2024 Squeal Award to OMB “for playing politics with taxpayer money.” In a press release, the Iowa senator says she’s demanding a tally of the costs of the potentially “thousands” of campaign advertisements posing as government-spending promotional signs.
“This highway robbery is enough to give taxpayers road rage!” Ernst says. “I am all for disclosing how tax dollars are being spent, but the Biden signs conveniently omit the price of the projects.”
In the letter to OMB, Ernst demands the Office of Management and Budget provide the total number of “Funded by President Joe Biden” signs, including billboards, placards, and other posters, that have been paid for by taxpayers. She wants to know whether anyone determined if these “taxpayer-funded campaign advertisements and billboards misuse official government resources for political campaign purposes.”
And, as she has pressed other federal agencies, Ernst wants to know if OMB has or will take actions to enact the law requiring the disclosure of the costs of federal projects.
More Bidenbucks?
That lack of transparency is at the core of Biden’s big government racket.
As Ernst notes in her letter, the Biden administration has thumbed its nose at transparency laws, some of which she authored. That includes the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services, among other agencies, that have not implemented laws requiring the release of all costs associated with federal taxpayer-funded projects.
It’s a common theme for a closed-government administration that is using taxpayer money to run a get-out-the-vote drive for Biden and fellow Democrats led by federal agencies and White House-approved liberal activist groups.
As The Federalist has extensively reported, Biden signed an executive order in March 2021 that pushes a federalized voter registration effort that appears to be heavily targeting traditionally left-leaning voters. It’s known as “Bidenbucks,” a nod to “Zuckbucks” and the hundreds of millions of dollars donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to leftist groups. The brunt of the 2020 safe elections grants went to liberal cities, particularly in swing states, and included targeted GOTV efforts.
Despite repeated requests for information on the implementation of the executive order, including the criteria for the third-party groups, the Biden administration has either slow-walked or altogether stonewalled the release of documents.
“Federal executive agencies, which have no business engaging in voter registration or mobilization efforts, as the EO directs, will surely exceed the scope of their authority under federal law,” House Republicans wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Moreover, in carrying out this EO, employees of these agencies will likely violate other laws such as the Hatch Act, designed to keep federal agencies led by political appointees from engaging in political activities to benefit one political party over another.”
The U.S. Supreme Court recently said it will not even consider a challenge to Bidenbucks until Sept. 30, far too late to stop the Biden-led federal government form interfering in November’s election.
Biden has turned the executive branch into a black hole of transparency and accountability.
“Other agencies and departments are continuing to ignore the law by hiding costs from taxpayers,” Ernst said in the letter to OMB. “It’s frustrating fighting government agencies to get them to comply with the law.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
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