Getty Images
Last year, congressional Republicans came up with an entirely new standard when it came to emergency disaster relief: Congress will consider helping struggling Americans and devastated communities, but only if Democrats accept comparable spending cuts.
It came as something of a shock. The same GOP lawmakers who saw no need to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tax cuts for millionaires, or the Wall Street bailout said American communities struck by a natural disaster can get help, but only if the costs of the aid are offset elsewhere, penny for penny. It was a standard without precedent.
Any chance Republicans would be more compassionate going forward? Apparently not.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, signaling that Republicans may revive last year's battles over offsets to disaster aid relief, says he expects that any package to help Northeast states hit by the superstorm Sandy will have to including matching cuts in spending elsewhere in the federal budget.
"We always help communities during disasters," he said Wednesday after having met earlier in the day with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is pushing for quick passage of an aid package. "The difference you have got now is that it is going to have to be offset."
And why is "going to have to be offset"? Because Republicans say so.
Steve M. reminds us of the recent history: "Republicans, led by Eric Cantor, pulled this stunt in the spring of 2011, after a tornado cut through Joplin, Missouri, and then a couple of months later, after Hurricane Irene and an East Coast earthquake (which damaged Cantor's home state of Virginia). This was wildly unpopular, even with Virginia's Republican governor, but when has being unpopular ever prevented Republicans from posturing as obnoxious hard-asses?"
The White House is still crafting a disaster relief package to aid communities hard-hit by Sandy, and Congress does not yet know the expected price tag. Most estimates, however, point to an $80 billion aid package.
Leave a Comment:
Just take the funds from the districts of every GOP representative who backs this.
There, offset.
SHAMEFUL!
Besides the funds for the local repub districts, how 'bout we take their pay until the storm debt is payed? How much money would it save to take all of their salaries for the next 10 or so years, til we've paid for this storm, and offset aid for every future disaster by extending the payless period?
How about offsetting Cost for the Dysfunctional Congress! Cut pay until work is delivered?
Is the GOP making a constructive argument? If you garage is destroyed, your car ruined and you have dedicated yourself to personal responsibility, then the only 'reasonable' thing to do is to repair your garage by using the material from you house's roof, and to buy a new car from proceed of selling your porch and bathroom fixtures.
No this not at all how to balance a budget. To improve the economy is more important than neglecting or tearing down the country.
So if we start asking at every instance how to address the gross misunderstanding of what an economy is; and how it is that energy propels the economy then we WILL make progress.
If on the other hand, journalists simply fall back to asking only old questions, seasonal questions, cyclical questions, familiar questions. It like going to your 29th annual office party, how on earth are going to diversify your information? You aren't and then we will NOT make progress.
This budget / tax discussion has gone on for decades with not one ounce of change of fact, information, and worse the talking heads always say the something. In those same decades, the general public has not been informed about these topics.
It would be like 30,000 scientists gathering for the 65 annual meeting to discuss fulcrums and levers to see of Newton could really lift the Earth.
Ok lets offset with cuts to THEIR pay & THEIR benefits.
Jenna Pope is an Occupy Wall Street photo journalist that has also worked to document the lives of those effected by Hurricane Sandy. She has very special photos and stories told from the perspective of a young women that is full of a revolutionary zeal to make a difference. This is a really nice account of a family that tlost almost everything that invited Jenna into their home just after the hurricane and then recently. This is what their home looks like now. Jenna and her friend were strangers to the family that had just lost virtually everything, but they still shared. I's a nice Christmas type story right out of the destruction of New York and the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators that have worked 17 and more hours a day to help those in need. I hope that you see this and appreciate it as much as this older grandmother does.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3850764279687&set=a.3850763559669.2134171.1595640107&type=1&theater
I wish I could bring a good family here to stay with us so they could get on their feet again. Perhaps all other states should start an" Adopt a survivor" program. Extending a "hand up" to those affected by the disaster who need to fall back and regroup as they partake of the warmth of our hearts and homes for the holiday season. Perhaps such aid could extend on into the new year until they can gain their own footing again. From what I have seen on the news, even the fully insured homeowners are left to cope on their own as they wait for weeks to get compensated.