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Mike Garcia will never shy away from an opportunity to take credit where none is due. A recent Business Insider article exposes how Garcia is once again intentionally misleading voters – this time, shamelessly taking credit for federal funding he openly voted against.
Months after saying he was “voting no… obviously” on a 2023 funding bill to avoid a government shutdown and provide critical funds to California, Garcia sent mailers falsely touting responsibility for the bill’s nearly $15 million worth of investments in California’s 27th district. The mailer claimed Garcia “work[ed] hard to secure critical funds” for Californians – when in reality, he voted to deny those resources for Santa Clarita, the Antelope Valley, and the San Fernando Valley.
This isn’t the first time Garcia has been less than truthful with voters. Garcia is facing multiple ethics complaints after allegedly engaging in insider trading – using the knowledge he was privy to in the halls of power to benefit his own financial interests and then failing to disclose his stock trades to Californians until after his re-election.
DCCC Spokesperson Dan Gottlieb:
“When Mike Garcia had the chance to actually deliver funding for Californians, he instead decided to vote against these resources, risk a government shutdown, and then brag about it anyway. His voting record says it all: Garcia will continue choosing partisanship over his constituents – and then shamelessly lie to voters about it – every chance he gets.”
Business Insider: How Republicans rail against government spending on TV — only to brag about its benefits back home
Bryan Metzger | January 23, 2024
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It was late December 2022, and Republicans were furious about the 2023 omnibus spending bill, a sprawling piece of legislation designed to avert a government shutdown and keep federal spending flowing for the next 9 months.
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Rep. Mike Garcia of California, a member of the House Appropriations Committee that oversees government spending, was among those Republicans.
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“I’m voting no on this bill, obviously,” Garcia said in a Twitter post at the time.
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Just over half a year later, a mailer from Garcia’s congressional office landed in mailboxes across his congressional district, which covers northern Los Angeles county.
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The announcement: Garcia had brought home nearly $15 million in federal spending to the district.
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“As a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, I work hard to secure critical funds for our community every year,” the mail reads.
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Yet almost all of the funding that Garcia touted in the mailer came from the omnibus spending bill that he made a show of voting against the previous December.
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Taken together, it’s one example of a phenomenon that Democrats in particular have dubbed “vote no, take the dough” — referring to when Republican lawmakers and other officials celebrate government funding or programs that they actually voted against.
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Garcia wasn’t the only Republican to secure earmark funding in the 2023 omnibus, only to vote against that bill — in fact, over 100 Republicans did the same thing, according to Roll Call.
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