In my late 2024 post-election brainstorming, another idea of mine was to create a structure for pressing Republican Reps who threatened to cancel the green energy investments in their districts under the Inflation Reduction Act. It was a matter of some consternation for Democrats at the time, but those investments were overwhelmingly in Republican districts — like something like 75% of them. There were a few explanations of that at the time, one of which was that it was focused on those areas that were in whatever way “passed over” in the city-centric prosperity of the early 21st century. But we’re seeing another one of the benefits now and it’s precisely that dynamic I was keen mobilize: it makes these investments much harder to claw back by a future Republican administration.

Reuters has a piece up this morning about how it’s developing as a major complication for the Trump tax cut bill. According to Reuters, 11 of the 26 GOP Reps on the Ways and Means Committee, the folks who write tax bills in the House, represent districts getting substantial amounts of IRA green investment money. The article is replete with examples of these reps and in many cases truly eye-popping levels of investment in individual districts driven by the IRA. As just one example, Rep. David Kustoff’s Tennessee district has gotten most of the $6.5 billion invested in the district in the last four years from Ford and a South Korean partner company pursuant to subsidies in the IRA. That’s the most of any Ways and Means tax-writer. But that’s a mind-bending amount of investment for a single district.

Notwithstanding this, I’d still be leasing billboard space next to all these new plants and putting up permanent signs that say, Brought to You by Democrats (with zero Republican votes) under President Joe Biden.

In all seriousness, if you’re an eligible billionaire or even centi-millionaire (I’m not proud), hit me up. I’ve got an endless list of good ideas. I can give them to you and you’ll get an extremely high civic/political ROI and everyone will think you’re super cool and smart and doing great work like Frederick Douglass.