Gallery

Why Mike Kelly is Wrong for PA-16

• OBBBA: Mike Kelly voted for President Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which cut Americans’ federal healthcare benefits by over $1 trillion–the largest federal healthcare cuts in U.S. history, according to the Center for Medicare Advocacy. (1)

• The bill Mike Kelly supported effectively ended automatic re-enrollment through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces while doing nothing to extend enhanced healthcare tax credits at a time when Pennsylvanians are struggling with cost of living. (2)

• The bill Mike Kelly supported also slashed Medicaid benefits for low-income Americans and undercut Medicare for senior citizens, ensuring the Medicare trust fund that pays for hospital care will become insolvent earlier than expected if Congress does not act. (3)

• In the same bill, Mike Kelly voted yes to reset the 40% bonus depreciation tax deduction to 100% and made it permanent. These tax breaks allow a business to immediately deduct a significant portion of the cost of eligible assets, and they do not impose a dollar value cap. Benefits can theoretically exceed a company’s total income. (4)

• Mike Kelly voted to let AI data centers write off 100% of their taxes on the equipment they need to get up and running at the same time as western Pennsylvanians are paying more than a dollar more a gallon for gas every time they need to fill up their tanks–a 35% spike–compared to a year ago. (5) 

• Pennsylvanians are paying as much as 27% more for home electricity than they were a year ago. (6) The Erie Times says the typical Pennsylvanian’s electric bill has gone up $25 dollars a month, or $300 a year. (7)

• Mike Kelly has not signed on to the Reverse Big Ugly Tax Breaks for Data Centers Act, which would prevent the richest companies on the planet from accessing tax giveaways for their AI data centers while preserving tax benefits for most small businesses. (8)

• American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act: Mike Kelly voted “no” on the American Rescue Plan Act, which provided funds to get our communities through COVID. But he touted a $2.2 million “Kelly-backed” grant to LECOM that was funded by the ARP, and even wrote a letter in support of LECOM’s grant application. (9)

• The bill Mike Kelly voted against provided Erie County more than $52 million to protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, expand water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure, and preserve local government services. (10)

• The bill Mike Kelly voted against brought Erie County $2.5 million to expand childcare services and available slots, and another $500,000 for in-home childcare support. (11)

• The bill Mike Kelly voted against brought Butler County more than $11 million in infrastructure funding for projects like flood mitigation and improving water and sewer services for residents. (12) 

• Kelly speaks positively (13) of broadband deployment funds that were made available through the ARP and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), both of which he opposed.
  

• Workforce Development: Mike Kelly voted against both the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, which funded Pennsylvania’s first-of-its-kind $400 million workforce training program for infrastructure workers. (14)

• This year, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced $6.74 million for a new program supporting Pennsylvania’s advanced shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing workforce. (15) This program was funded by the Department of Labor’s Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Dislocated Worker National Reserve through its Demonstration Grants. Mike Kelly voted to slash the Reserve’s funding via a $75 million rescission in 2025. (16)

• IIJA: Mike Kelly voted against the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, even though other Republicans from Pennsylvania and neighboring states supported it. (17)

• Despite his vote against the bipartisan infrastructure law, Mike Kelly has claimed credit for district projects whose funding came in part from IIJA, such as Bayfront Parkway Central Corridor improvement. (18)

• Mike Kelly voted against the bipartisan infrastructure law, which funded airport improvements at the Erie International Airport, Cory-Lawrence Airport, and Port Meadville Airport.

• Mike Kelly voted against the bipartisan infrastructure law, which funded the replacement of dangerous lead pipes and updated aging water systems in Beaver, Butler, Erie, and Mercer counties. (19)

• Inflation Reduction Act: Mike Kelly voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which nonpartisan analysts estimated would create more than 200,000 Pennsylvania jobs. (20) He then doubled down, voting for OBBBA, repealing large portions of the Act.

• Mike Kelly voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which gave more than 158,000 Pennsylvanian families tax credits for home energy efficiency and clean energy upgrades that help lower their monthly bills. (21)   

• Mike Kelly voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which supported nearly $300 million in investment and over one thousand jobs created in Pennsylvania’s rural communities at the time President Trump’s second term in office began. (22)

• Mike Kelly voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which invested in the good-paying Pennsylvanian jobs an all-of-the-above energy strategy depends on–manufacturing jobs for products like batteries, next-generation transmission technologies, high-voltage switchgear and breakers. (23)

• Mike Kelly voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which offered over $180 million for a loan to support a new plastic recycling facility in Erie County that would have used recycled plastic to support American steelmaking. He then stood by and did nothing while the Trump Department of Energy froze the loan, killing the project and the 250 manufacturing jobs it pledged to create. (24)