So it is hard for legislators to get the credit they deserve it is also hard to avoid blame. Take the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021 politicians who opposed that legislation later took credit for it. Without the partisan cue, it might be challenging for voters to know whether to reward their legislator for the local spending. On the CHIPS Act, by contrast, the partisan dynamic is more muted. But a highly polarized political environment means it is less likely for voters to switch parties and a side-effect of the relatively high turnout in recent elections means that there may be less room to get more voters to the polls. When it comes to the IRA, then, voters would have to respond by being more likely to vote for Democrats. The two pieces of legislation differ in their partisan flavor the CHIPS Act passed with some Republican support, while the IRA passed on a party-line vote. Even if voters knew the government just invested millions locally, they would have to respond by altering their voting behavior. Second, there’s the partisanship barrier. So, the media and information environment are one obstacle to people learning about government investments in the local economy. It does not help when many different policies are packaged together into one bill, as is common these days - particularly when the legislation has a name as uninformative as the Inflation Reduction Act. A lot of people receive very little news, and even highly politically engaged people do not receive a lot of local news. In our current political climate, that is especially difficult to achieve.įirst, there’s the media barrier. But for that process to operate, voters need to (1) recognize the benefit, (2) recognize that it results from government action, (3) correctly identify which party or lawmakers are responsible, and (4) support that party or those legislators at higher rates. When bills contain benefits for particular constituencies or communities, legislators want to be able to campaign on those benefits. The investments are likely to be a substantial boon for local communities - but research shows that Biden and the Democrats will not necessarily reap political benefits.Ī real challenge facing politicians is how to take credit for legislation. They are the CHIPS and Science Act, which provides for new spending on semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which contains investments in cleaner energy. Conventional wisdom would have us believe that politicians are rewarded electorally when they spend a lot of money or “bring home the bacon.” But is this true in our era of extreme polarization? This question is likely to be asked again as President Biden and Congressional Democrats attempt to claim credit for two major pieces of legislation that invest billions in domestic industries.
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