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President Obama has submitted a $60.4 billion relief package for areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, which is actually below the total aid request from the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, but as promised, Congress is not in a generous mood.
House lawmakers don't intend to introduce an emergency funding bill anywhere near as large as the $60 billion the Obama administration is seeking to help rebuild the Northeast after superstorm Sandy, saying the administration hasn't provided sufficient details to justify spending that amount, two senior GOP aides said Wednesday.
If the Republican-controlled House doesn't take up the measure this year, it would push debate on a large rebuilding bill into next year -- something New York and New Jersey officials have said they want to avoid.
Though Republican leaders in both chambers have been cautious, saying very little about Sandy-related relief, The Hill reports that several rank-and-file House GOP lawmakers have already explicitly said they will demand funding offsets before emergency aid is approved. In other words, unless Democrats accept $60.4 billion in spending cuts, affected areas can forget about $60.4 billion in disaster relief.
And that's a real problem.
To reiterate an item from a few weeks ago, post-disaster aid didn't use to work this way. Last year, however, congressional Republicans came up with an entirely new standard when it came to emergency 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.
Steve M. reviewed 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?"
Senate action on the Sandy relief package may come as quickly as today, though House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) indicated his committee is "scrubbing the numbers," and won't act anytime soon.
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Who do they think they are, God? If it was their house or neighborhood, boy they would sure jump on it. Are they sure that they do not want to help the victims of Sandy? What is it exactly they want to do? I think they probably obstructed everything by now. Maybe they want to discuss a womens' vagina again? Maybe they're not done playing footsie with Koch, Rove and Nordquist.
Fine take it out of the money the red states - those that contribute to the national fund far less than they get back - get every year. They blame Obama for everything anyway so take away their f*cking allowance and let 'em sink or swim on their own, give that money yo the blue states that actually contribute to the federal budget.
If only that could happen, it might be an eye-opener for staunch conservative voters. After watching the opening segment of Rachel's show last night, it doesn't look good for the future of our country.
For those who missed this map of states and the percentage of federal funds that comprise their budgets, it's well worth looking at:
http://taxfoundation.org/blog/monday-map-federal-aid-state-budgets
As has been mentioned previously, find the offsets in the states of the most staunch obstructionists - cut funds that go to Virginia (Cantor) and Ohio (Boehner), then the cut them going to the red states (the biggest takers of federal funds).
Why not offer to offset the Sandy disaster aid by eliminating draught relief for Midwestern farmers (who presumably voted overwhelmingly for Republicans)?
After all, in Midwestern farmers had acted responsibly, they would have ensured that they had a source for fresh water -- just like the good folks in the Eastern cities.
Because Iowa and Southern Illinois are both affected by the drought and both went for Obama -- Iowa by a surprising and important margin -- and Iowa is one of the hardest hit states.
Yeah who all voted stupidly for obama. Idiots...
Step out onto Runway 24, LAX, and get squashed by a 747. You moron.
I'm just waiting for them to say that aid will be distributed by Congressional district...because you know that's where this is going.
Oh yea sure, you need to fix your homes and rebuild your destroyed infrastructure, but look at poor Donald Trump, he can't afford another lear jet. Do you really want to deny Trump another lear jet?
Let them hang themselves and send relief by another means. It really is time for Mr. President to speak to the press. This issue followed by the "fiscal follies" is ripe for the picking! Do some good from the pulpit Mr. President and shame these clowns into submission. The gloves are off, still.
Obama won't have to go to the press. If Republicans insist on offsets then they are going to have to deal with Christie and all the Republican legislators from the affected states. There are also some Republicans in the other states that are looking for drought aid. It is a little difficult for some red states to ask for offsets when some of the states along the coast have received aid for hurricane relief. When the issue comes up, the Republican caucus is going to split with some members joining Dems on the disaster relief. This is just another issue that some Republicans can bolt from the party and say enough with the radical right.
Easy: the people of the northeast where Sandy struck didn't vote for the GOP. So this is their payback.
Has there ever been a more wretched pack of skunks in power?
During the Bush years, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were always funded by emergency measures that came before Congress twice a year, because the administration said it was impossible to predict how much the wars would cost. There was never any grumbling from Congress at that time about spending offsets. When Obama took office, he immediately ended the practice of emergency funding for the wars, as every other president has been able to do in the past. Well, natural disasters ARE impossible to predict in time, location and cost, so this is absolutely a case where emergency funding should be approved. Logically, this is one of the very few situations where funding should be provided on an emergency basis, but I know that repubs feel that only wars and tax cuts don't have to be paid for. One can only hope that the homes of these obstructionists will be destroyed in the future, so that they get a small glimpse of what it's like. Of course, they are all wealthy, so it's not as if they will end up like the victims of Sandy and Katrina, without a home or a job.
Why can't funds come from a big cut in force in Afghanistan? I know the date is set for 2014, but why can't POTUS make this one of the offsets? "Let's play hardball."
"Well, you know, I don't think it is necessary to make offsets for disaster relief for families and small businesses who have paid taxes for years for precisely this kind of protection. But if that is what we have to do, I won't waste time fighting while Republicans make victims of Sandy suffer. We will reprioritize our discretionary spending to put disaster relief ahead of desireable, but non-disaster projects. So as of this morning, I am proposing to rescind federal funding for the deepening of the Port of Charleston, South Carolina, and the funding to repair Brent Spence bridge at the Ohio-Kentucky border. That will be our downpayment on funding Hurricane Sandy relief, and I trust that Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell will now join Governor Christie and I in supporting appropriate and prompt relief for families suffering in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Going forward, we will be looking for savings out of the budget for border security in Texas and Arizona, and commercial river and port improvements in Louisiana and Mississippi. Although I am happy to stop looking if the Republicans change their mind about disaster offsets."
That is a great idea... you my friend, are a genius. I am sure Paul Ryan will do the same for the monies he received from the Federal Government also.
This is what they are. This is who they are. This is what they want us to become.
Honey, before we take little Susie to the emergency room to have her appendix out, we need to agree on cutting our electric bill back by 20% and the groceries by 40%.
It is time for the prez to send troops into the disaster areas to protect the oil. Gov. Christie won't mind being invaded. That will also take the paychecks of these troops into the damaged area. Building supplies from bases will be used to rebuild. Virginia can send a couple of ships full of supplies and be based there indefinitely. Farm subsidies can be diverted and oil subsidies can be temporarily (3-4yrs) diverted to rebuilding the area power grid.
I remember when our country came together in times of a natural disaster to help our neighbors in a time of need. That is not the case with this republican congress. They are on a direct course to destroy anything that is good about the United States. What I find unbelievable is that we stand by and let them get away with it. I would urge every single voter who gives a damn to contact their state congressional and senatorial leaders and demand to be heard. The last time i checked the citizens of the United States and their opinions meant something
Sadly it is not just the Republican Congress. Over the past 10 years or so, I hear and see comments from an increasing number of people who really do see every man as an island, who really don't have emapthy for others, don't believe they are their brothers' keeper, and feel no greater sense of community beyond the walls of their own house. Some of these are people I grew up with and I end up thinking "who *are* you? where did you come from?" Something has changed, culturally, but it was like we were frogs in a slowly warming pot of water -- we didn't notice where a rare view has slowly reached critical mass, where the glue that held the society together reached a tipping point where it no longer did its job. If I could afford to quit working and go back to school, it would be a fascinating (but sad) graduate study. I'm not sure how we go back -- in terms of selfish individualism we don't seemed to have bottomed out yet.
It's what 40 years of wingnuttery create.
We the people do want to help. The teabuggers do not. It is clearly politics above people.
GOP to New York area: Drop Dead.
How about using the oil and gas subsidies? that is one of the most pressing items to be cut anyway...use that money for disaster relief...
Future Headlines:
- "Republicans taking revenge on Chris Christie, throwing Sandy."
- "Republicans Compete by making Chris Christie look Democratic.",
(Beneath Chris Christie's soft Fleece, Hides a [Rick "The Spider" Snyder.])
I know how Christie can win handily in NJ in 2014, run as a real Republican against the current Republican Party.
He should also make sure that every NJ district with a Republican congressman knows just where they stand on this.
Same deal for NY and Conn. if he really does go into the 2016 primaries.
You know what would stop them from doing @!$%# like this? Getting voted out of office. As long as their constituents keep rewarding them for engaging in odious conduct because the alternative would be *gasp*cough*hack*"oh Nelly, fetch me my smelling salts" voting for a Democrat, they'll keep doing it.
The only way for that to happen is for the Iowa-style redistricting model to be adopted uniformly nationwide. The non-partisan Legislative Services Bureau, staffed by long-tenured merit-system bureaucrats (i.e. not beholden to or under threat from any political official) operate a computer program whose instructions are to look at the population and prepare a map based on *only* the following criteria: (1) how close is it to equal population in each district? (2) how "compact" is it -- how small can it make the linear mileage of each district's boundary? (3) Can it acheive a good result in steps (1) and (2) observing existing boundary lines for political subdivisions (i.e. try to keep counties, or at least cities, intact.) The program does not look at party registration, it does not know where incumbents live. It views this solely as a math problem with no politics involved.
The legislature has two options when it gets the map. It can vote up or vote down, but it cannot tinker with boundaries. If it rejects the map, the computer generates its next best iteration -- the legislature has no way to know if it will be better or worse. You can only go to the third iteration, which can be amended, but still has to pass both chambers and the governor. If it doesn't the Iowa Supreme Court does the redistricting. No legislature wants to risk losing control, so they always agree - in fact, I don't recall it going to a third map.
It ia great process that ensures voters select their representatives rather than having representatives select their voters.
California went to independent-drawn districts this year and the result was the complete rout of the Republicans outside of Okieland.
^TC is absolutely correct.
Repugs believe only multimillionairs and billionairs deserve financial relief without any strings attached.
They never change. Ever. Here is Vice-Traitor Alexander Stephens in 1861, describing "Southernomics" (from The Cornerstone Speech):
Again, the subject of internal improvements, under the power of Congress to regulate commerce, is put at rest under our system. The power, claimed by construction under the old constitution, was at least a doubtful one; it rested solely upon construction. We of the South, generally apart from considerations of constitutional principles, opposed its exercise upon grounds of its inexpediency and injustice. Notwithstanding this opposition, millions of money, from the common treasury had been drawn for such purposes. Our opposition sprang from no hostility to commerce, or to all necessary aids for facilitating it. With us it was simply a question upon whom the burden should fall. In Georgia, for instance, we have done as much for the cause of internal improvements as any other portion of the country, according to population and means. We have stretched out lines of railroads from the seaboard to the mountains; dug down the hills, and filled up the valleys at a cost of not less than $25,000,000. All this was done to open an outlet for our products of the interior, and those to the west of us, to reach the marts of the world. No State was in greater need of such facilities than Georgia, but we did not ask that these works should be made by appropriations out of the common treasury. The cost of the grading, the superstructure, and the equipment of our roads was borne by those who had entered into the enterprise. Nay, more not only the cost of the iron no small item in the aggregate cost was borne in the same way, but we were compelled to pay into the common treasury several millions of dollars for the privilege of importing the iron, after the price was paid for it abroad. What justice was there in taking this money, which our people paid into the common treasury on the importation of our iron, and applying it to the improvement of rivers and harbors elsewhere? The true principle is to subject the commerce of every locality, to whatever burdens may be necessary to facilitate it. If Charleston harbor needs improvement, let the commerce of Charleston bear the burden. If the mouth of the Savannah river has to be cleared out, let the sea-going navigation which is benefited by it, bear the burden. So with the mouths of the Alabama and Mississippi river. Just as the products of the interior, our cotton, wheat, corn, and other articles, have to bear the necessary rates of freight over our railroads to reach the seas. This is again the broad principle of perfect equality and justice, and it is especially set forth and established in our new constitution.
Anyone who views the 121212 concert will understand how out of touch and out right anti american the gop have become on this issue .... With holding disaster relief from people who are now homeless and trying to rebuild it all , all while still going to work every day ? So they are not penniless also? Scumb bag is to kind a name for the GOP
Where were all these fiscal hawks when we were spending billions every month in Iraq?
Of COURSE the Republicans don't want this....After all, look which states will need it....too BLUE. Now if it was Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama or one of those other RED states with all those low information Fox News watchers, they'd be falling all over themselves. I don't recall them worrying about Federal money going to help Joplin, Missouri recover.