Tshibaka and Begich can't keep their stories straight on federal infrastructure law
The $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure law that Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and the late Rep. Don Young crossed party lines to support a year ago has already brought nearly $3 billion to Alaska, but Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka said she would have opposed the bill because there’s not enough money in it for Alaska.
“But this so-called infrastructure bill, it just gives Alaska crumbs. It’s really more like the anti-Alaska bill,” Tshibaka said on Nov. 8, 2021. “It’s the Green New Deal masquerading as infrastructure.”
A year later and Tshibaka is still on the crumb campaign, saying “Alaska is 18% of the nation’s landmass, but only 0.6% of the infrastructure funding is even ‘available’ to Alaska, if we survive Biden’s regulatory barriers. That means we lost a proportional 17.4% of funds when language was drafted.”
Republican House candidate Nick Begich the Third is also borrowing from the Political Math For Dummies handbook in claiming a per-acre basis is the way to decide what is fair.
They are claiming that because Alaska has nearly one-fifth of the land mass of the U.S., it should get nearly one-fifth of federal spending.
“Alaska got less than 1% of the bill,” Begich the Third told the Juneau Empire. “Alaska got shortchanged in the bill.”
“On a per-acre basis we got the least of anyone,” Begich III said.
(GOP House candidate Sarah Palin claims she would have opposed the measure because of “crony capitalism,” one of her favorite ambiguous catch-all phrases. What that means is anyone’s guess.)
Tshibaka and Begich the Third know their per-acre posturing is goofball material.
They would never mention it to the elected officials who represent about 331 million other Americans who don’t live in Alaska—a state with less than 0.2 percent of the nation’s population that will receive more than its fair share.
In large part that’s because Murkowski has proven herself to be the second most effective elected official in Alaska history, surpassed by Sen. Ted Stevens and no one else. I’ve disagreed with her on many things over the years, but no one works harder for Alaska and she is intelligent, capable and courageous.
If Tshibaka’s claim is right that “0.6 percent” might come to Alaska, that translates into something like $7 billion in crumbs.
While complaining that Alaska doesn’t get enough money from the infrastructure law, Tshibaka and Begich also qualified for the Hall of Hypocrites by claiming the law is creating inflation and should have been defeated for that reason.
They want to reduce federal spending, they say. But not in Alaska. They want it both ways. And after they are done preaching, make sure to check that your wallet hasn't been lifted.
Earlier this year, Begich the Third was telling Alaskans the infrastructure law “cost $10,000 per U.S. household” and he asked people to raise their hands if they were willing to write a check for $10,000 for what they will get out of the law.
“I haven’t seen a hand yet statewide, not one. But this is what’s so strange to me as someone who doesn’t come from government. I’ve never held a government job and I’ver never been in political office,” he told supporters in Kenai last spring.
Begich says “we’re told by the people that represent us, ‘Hey not only was this good, but you should thank me for it.’ That’s wrong. And it’s emblematic of everything that is wrong with the government right now.”
I don’t know everything that is wrong with the government right now, but the carnival barker act from Begich the Third about why no one is willing to write a $10,000 check is part of it.
Instead of boasting about his lack of experience in government, he should educate himself about what this law means to Alaska and why Murkowski, Sullivan and Young supported it.
A year ago Young said the bill would authorize $3.5 billion in roads for Alaska over five years and there are needs across the state.
“I truly believe that this bipartisan infrastructure legislation may be our last best chance to make the federal investments necessary to modernize and strengthen America’s infrastructure needs for the next century and beyond,” Young said.
Young was one of only 13 Republicans in the House to support the biggest federal infrastructure measure in U.S. history, signed by President Biden Nov. 15.
On Feb. 4, Young testified to the Alaska Legislature that Alaska will get more than $6,000 per resident for transportation support, more than any other state. “I’m proud of that fact,” Young said.
He said he wanted money to go to the Port of Alaska, despite opposition by some in Mat-Su, saying the port is crucial for the Alaska economy.
He said it was “nonsense” that Republicans would get more federal money for Alaska if they controlled Congress and the White House, saying the state can’t afford to wait for a new political order.
“I don’t want to see any bickering,” said Young.
But all we’ve gotten from Tshibaka, Begich the Third and Palin is bickering.
Tshibaka, by the way, claims every Alaska family is “on the hook for over $2,000,” because of the federal infrastructure law.
The GOP candidates make up these numbers as they go along.
On Wednesday, Murkowski and Sullivan’s offices announced that the Port of Alaska would get $68.7 million from the infrastructure law that Tshibaka, Begich and Palin oppose.
The money will be used to “reconfigure and realign the shoreline within the area north of the existing general cargo terminals as well as for the demolition of a sheet pile wall, removal of approximately 1.3 million cubic yards of material, and construction of a shoreline revetment of armor rock.”
In addition, the state will get $10 million for the Adak port in the Aleutians, $5.3 million for the Sand Point dock and $28 million for ferry terminal upgrades at Cordova, Tatitlek and Chenega.
Because Murkowski helped write the bill, there is money coming to Alaska for these ports and others—including the new deep-water port in Nome, as well as money for broadband, harbors, roads, rails, bridges, utilities and ferries.
Last spring Tshibaka posted a picture of herself on Twitter posing near the Port of Alaska, claiming to be the champion of infrastructure.
“I will support critical infrastructure development, such as the Don Young Port of Alaska, which is behind me,” she said.
But posing for pictures is all she can do.
If there is an Alaska champion of infrastructure, it’s Murkowski, who helped write the law and get it passed. She is not the type who pats herself on the back or craves publicity, but her accomplishments in the infrastructure law will benefit Alaska for decades to come.
“Over the next decade, we will be able to build and modernize our core basic infrastructure—more and better roads, safer bridges, our marine highway system, and expanded ports and airports. We’ll invest in clean drinking water systems, reliable broadband, new energy innovation and resilience projects, and so much more—without raising taxes or worsening inflation,” Murkowski said.
Tshibaka, who moved to Alaska in 2019 after spending her career in Washington, D.C., really doesn’t know of what she speaks. She is pushing a story that Murkowski has lost touch with Alaskans, doesn't care about them and is controlled by people Outside.
This is one of the most serious lies that Tshibaka is telling in a campaign stained by repeated lies and half-truths.