Bost Boasts but Doesn’t Deliver on Manufacturing Jobs

Boasts without facts

In his “Bost Bulletin” of October 6, Mike Bost talks a good game about manufacturing jobs. One thing missing: numbers. So how many more manufacturing jobs do we have after almost two years of the Republicans in charge in Washington, DC? Zero. Actually, fewer than zero: we have lost 22,000 manufacturing jobs since January 2025. Under Joe Biden, manufacturing jobs went up by 531,000.

Bost boasts about manufacturing jobs but the numbers don’t add up.

Buying America or buying Trump?

Mike boasts about his support for Buy American bills, and he does support them—when it suits him. Here’s the rub: he voted against the law that extended Buy American provisions more than any other law in decades, the 2021 Build America Buy America Act, which massively increased the Federal government’s obligation to hire American firms. Bost voted against it because it was part of Biden’s Infrastructure and Jobs Act, though 13 of his GOP colleagues voted for it. Bost’s no vote didn’t stop him from announcing a $3.6 million dollar grant for Mid-America Airport that came from the infrastructure bill he opposed. That was part of FAA Airport Improvement Grants that brought over $6 million for Mid-America and almost $3 million for Veteran’s Airport in Marion.

Bost votes “Buy American” only under Trump, then takes credit for Biden’s bill.

Removing red tape or enabling crime?

Bost claims that House Republicans have taken 646 “regulatory actions” to reduce red tape. Here’s the first problem: those are actions taken by the Trump administration, not by Congress. Mike is such a rubber stamp he takes credit for Trump moves he hasn’t even voted on. And if you look under the hood, you see that Trump’s biggest move by far was to stop enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), an anti-money-laundering law. Mike has acted here, as a co-sponsor of bill that would permanently revoke the CTA. But the CTA was designed to combat fraud, human trafficking, drug cartels, and terrorist groups by preventing them from using shell companies to hide their money. Supporters of the CTA include the National District Attorneys Association and the Main Street Alliance. Some regulations aren’t just red tape.

Bost supports Trump’s efforts to make it easier to hide money.

Rebranding the “Big Beautiful Bill”

The GOP’s one major legislative accomplishment this term, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” is so unpopular that they’ve had to rename it the “Working Families Tax Cut.” That’s a funny name for a bill that delivers most of its tax cut benefits to the top 20% of the population. Truth be told, the bill is so big that it does contain some good things: Bost touts its new Workplace Pell Grants program, a bipartisan initiative to provide funding for job training. But the rules for that program are burdensome enough that no one in Southern Illinois has received a dime yet. And while Congress prevented Trump from slashing Pell Grants for college students, House Republicans have proposed cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from Federal Work Study and other programs that support college students.

Bost boasts about small gains while supporting huge cuts for Southern Illinois.

The real GOP brand

Mike Bost knows we need better jobs, better job training, better infrastructure, and better healthcare down here in Southern Illinois. So he boasts when he can find examples of how the government is helping—even when he voted against the help. But he can’t hide the fact that under Trump and the GOP congress we’re seeing higher inflation, higher mortgage rates, and massive cuts to healthcare spending. Up to 330,000 Illinois residents will lose Medicaid coverage under new rules that start on January 1, 2027—conveniently after the midterm elections.

Meanwhile, the Big Beautiful Bill is stuffed full of benefits for the rich. Donald Trump himself is doing just fine, more than doubling his net worth, with a gain of $1.4 billion in crypto assets alone. Are you doing better under Trump and Bost? Is Southern Illinois?

They care about them, not us.