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It's taken far longer than it should have, but federal aid for areas affected by Hurricane Sandy is finally on the way.
The Senate Monday night passed a $50.5 billion emergency spending bill to aid people in New York and New Jersey who are trying to rebuild their homes and businesses after last October's devastation from super-storm Sandy.
The vote was 62 to 36, with 60 votes needed for passage.
The vote came nearly two weeks after the House approved an identical measure, and sends the bill to the White House for President Obama's signature.
But before we move on, it's worth pausing to note the partisan split on Sandy relief -- in the Senate, 36 Senate Republicans, including members representing coastal states like Florida, Texas, Alabama, and the Carolinas, voted against the federal aid. Or put another way, 80% of Senate Republicans opposed post-Sandy relief.
In the House, we saw roughly the same outcome -- 78% of House Republicans voted against the emergency assistance.
What we're seeing, in other words, is a fundamental shift in how GOP policymakers respond to communities struggling after a natural disaster.
For generations, these votes were not politicized or considered particularly controversial -- Americans could count on their elected representatives to step up if a natural disaster struck. It wasn't partisan and it wasn't ideological; this is just what the country did. It was a reflection of who we are.
And those days are over. As the Sandy votes demonstrate, it is now effectively the standard position of congressional Republicans to reject disaster relief unless the funding is offset by other spending cuts. So long, compassionate conservatism, we hardly knew you.
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At least the tax hike on the rich went to a good cause. It's all gone for this year.
But who knew there was problems with Sandy victims? They've been blacked out of the media so Obama doesn't look bad. If this had been Bush, network quarters would have been set up and desperate pictures sent out every day. This is proof positive that the news is tailored for politics. Only having Obama as president would have killed an otherwise pithy story. Bias? IOKIYAD.
Re: #1
That's poppycock. There has been lots of coverage about this! Just recently the coverage showed the difficulty people are having coping with the cold snap.
BTW, I live in an area that very rarely needs disaster relief. I don't have a problem seeing my tax dollars going to help people out - over and over and over - when hurricanes (too far inland here), tornados (we get really little ones once in a while), wild fires (not a problem here), earthquakes (nope not here), drought (nope not here)...
I am pretty disgusted with the Republicans who voted against this - from areas that have received aid over and over and over. Perhaps we should think twice next time they ask for help.
That's odd. I've heard stories on NPR and seen stories in Huffington Post within the past week about Hurricane Sandy's victims' continued struggles. Looks like it's just the Conservative Media - Fox, CNN, CBS News, etc - that's removed them from the spotlight.
Sandy was more severe than Katrina, caused more damage over a wider area, and affected more people. Make no mistake - There are still people suffering its effects.
That said, because the recovery efforts were run by an effective community organizer instead of a horses ass in a playland flightsuit, we don't have the widespread lingering effects of the devestation.
Yes, Shooter, I know you can search the interwebs for some scraps of proof that show some stuff still not fixed - Go talk to the House GOP who held up aid for 3 months.
Funny, I don't remember any continuing Sandy coverage here, or any of the other lefty blogs I frequent. UP is one of my favorite programs, nothing there. Morning Joe, nada.
Any network specials? Not that I can remember. Looks like a news blackout to me. As always IOKIYAD.
In the recent elections, my district, NC-8, voted out its Blue Dog Democrat-who-voted-like-a-Republican and voted in a Teapublican - Richard Hudson. You know - big difference, right? I recently let Hudson know via email how disgusted I am about his anti-aid votes (I never was shy about blasting former-Representative Kissell, so I'm keeping up the tradition of crusty, complaining constituent).
To my surprise, I received a long and gracious reply on official email letterhead. It was, however full of Republican propaganda about the national debt and pork and it just didn't sit well, coming, as it did, from a Congressman from a delegation in hurricane country. I called bullpucky on it. My final paragraph:
"Americans do *not* refuse help to those in need when they need help. That includes the victims of natural disasters, the poor, the elderly, wounded warriors, the unemployed and those without healthcare. We may ask the more fortunate among us to pay more in taxes and we may end corporate subsidies for Big Oil. We may re-jigger our budgetary priorities toward reducing and streamlining our military forces. We may put many more people back to work with some well-timed, federally funded projects to repair our crumbling Interstate bridges (thus putting much more money into the economy). We may also make use of the abundant and free wind off our Outer Banks in North Carolina to create electricity and thus, reduce dependence upon coal.
But we do not refuse help to those in need. It is not the American way."
Then you don't remember much. There's been quite a bit. You could search for it, if you cared about facts.
Not surprising you missed it. In Republicanworld, "confirmation bias" = data.
Better get out the Preparation H again, blanks is back with more burning and itching!
Sorry kids, but next to the day to day, wall to wall, 24/7 coverage of Katrina, this is a news blackout.
oh, i so can't wait until congress gets to respond to the next natural disaster to hit a state with a republican governor and legislature. don't get me wrong, i'm not advocating not giving them aid as we always have, but sure would like to see the occasion used to make a point, and really make them squirm first. it's time to stop this nonsense in its tracks. now.
Good Luck . It is adorable to think of Republicans as a group possessing the ancient virtue of shame . Considering the alternatives , I'll repeat myself , adorable .
The GOP rationale was the measure was not revenue neutral. Fine- we can take that theme and beat them to death with it. The hidden cost of burning fossil fuel is paid by society. Instead, it is morally right to take that externality and feed it back into the dynamics of the market. Besides providing for revenue neutral way of paying for disasters, it will have benefits for reducing carbon and aiding US Industries who must obey EPA controls, versus companies who have exported the carbon pollution to countries who do not have any pollution restrictions.
Prior to the next inevitable extreme weather event that will hit the South, we need to have a bill that establishes an Extreme weather disaster fund. The Fund will be defrayed by fines on Carbon Pollution- Both domestic and foreign. The Carbon Pollution content of products from high CO2 polluting countries is estimated, and duties levied on products from those countries to recoup the fines. Similarly, export of CO2 polluting energy such as coal, oil and Natural Gas is fined unless it is shown that that its CO2 will be sequestered.
Domestically, if LNG is converted to Hydrogen and the CO2 sequestered, then there is no fine. Otherwise, US industry will no longer enjoy the privatization of profit, and socialization of the extreme weather hidden cost of that wealth extraction.
It is time to end socialism for the Oil Industry.
Your post implies that the GOP can as a party enjoy the benefits of reason . Until the broader part of a party surfaces to consider the liabilities of an obstinate reduction of facts into the dead end of contrarianism , and the fatal slogans comforting them , one is left speechless .
I am sorry to have left that impression. I intended that we beat them senseless with their own memes of financial responsibility. The right is giving up on their climate denialism. Colbert last night lampooned the transition, mentioning in particular Erick Erickson's transition to fatalism regarding Climate Change (Media Matters article). Ok, take Erickson's message and cast him as an irresponsible child unwilling to live in a grown up world.
A world we must pass to our children with climate conditions that are still able to support carbon based lifeforms.
After all, it makes economic sense to do this. Or do the republicans have a problem with policies supportive of business?
It is tempting to rationalize whether or not beating a horse merely bereft of a heartbeat is futile or beneficial . Understanding this , it becomes a necessary , and instructive employment . After all , if an occupied Erick Erickson can be mused upon , isn't that activity better exercised on something in the next world where the supposed subject of his worship may chide him on his heresy , softened by the praise of his fine style in laying it on metamorphosed tissue .
If the moderation of their (collective) face is only discernible in the disappearance of an appliance , lets say a nose , then why yes we have no bananas today , with business , or the exceptionalism it is entitled to .
So it is safe to say that the enlightened Republican Libertarian will partake in a rational negotiation of policy with the end of fitting reason in its conclusions , when you pry it out of its cold dead fingers .
The next Republican state that gets hit with a natural disaster needs to get the one-finger salute and be told to "take responsibilty," they're nothing but welfare states anyway and always have been, the South ripping off the rest of us.
The first time the GOTea demanded that disaster relief be paid for by equal spending cuts elsewhere was in the Spring of 2011. That was when it was clear that Republicans had lost all sense of decency and could not be embarrassed.
Republican have no shame. We must crush them. Without mercy.
It must be a terrible feeling if you happen to be a conservative in one of the states affected by Sandy. I mean, how do you rationalize your way through this vote? As a moderate, I'm offended that any public disaster relief would be politicized under ANY circumstance. If I were a lock-step GOP member, I'd feel abandoned.
You should be blaming Democrats for larding the relief up so much it was impossible to pass the House. Pork killed the original bill.
Yeah they "Larded it up" with things like money for "Flood prevention" and "Disaster preparedness training for first Responders" I mean comon like we all know we would be better off spending that money on lots of other things...Like that critically important bridge in Alaska...
Well hang on , Saint Christie vetoed Keynesian policy for the quality of suffering last night . A virtue found in the bad medicine bag where a degree in confusion is the highest achievement .
So no worries about sainted leaders of the Grand Old Party drifting about in a ideological wonderland , they are still hard bound to destroying comity along with its cousin comfort .
Bravo FRP+4characters! -Kevo
Here is the list
•$2 million to repair damage to the roofs of museums in Washington, D.C., while many in Hurricane Sandy’s path still have no roof over their own heads.
•$150 million for fisheries as far away from the storm’s path as Alaska.
•$125 million for the Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Watershed Protection program, which helps restore watersheds damaged by wildfires and drought.
•$20 million for a nationwide Water Resources Priorities Study.
•$15 million for NASA facilities, though NASA itself has called its damage from the hurricane ‘minimal.’
•$50 million in subsidies for tree planting on private properties.
•$336 million for taxpayer-supported AMTRAK without any detailed plan for how the money will be spent.
•$5.3 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers – more than the Corps’ annual budget – with no statement of priorities about how to spend the money.
•$12.9 billion for future disaster mitigation activities and studies, without identifying a single way to pay for it
Insp.
ok lets take that list apart shall we the total for the first seven things on that list comes to $698 Million dollars, that is Million with an "M" it amounts to less than one fiftieth that's (> 1/50th) of the total package and all of those things are related to the area of this bill in that they are important to Disaster prevention and response.
The last two add up to $18.2 billion and I would say that if you are going to actualy work to prevent or at least mitigate future disasters then those are the agencys and things you would need to fund to do that.
Further if you look at that list most of those programs have alocated significant portions of those funds to "Red" states as carrots to get the republicans to sign off on the damn bill to get the people in the north east taken care of.
So there are two things going on here. First the GOP are pretending to be penny wise and pound foolish to make their base of brain dead rednecks happy and they are lying and being completely disingenuous about where the money is going so that they can keep those same brain dead rednecks happy at home.
Its not about getting mad it's about getting mad about the wrong things and for the wrong reasons. You been played
Dragoon
Any money spent on anything that is not directly related to repairing the infrastructure of the northeast has no business in that particular bill. Anyone that needs to have their house rebuilt should call State Farm. I'm sorry, but if a tornado hits my house this April I will be put up in lodging within two hours of the damage. And be back to work the next morning. I have no problem with my taxes paying to rebuild infrastructure in affected areas. But as it stands right now my taxes are going to service the debt put on us by clueless politicians on both sides of the aisle. Have you seriously ever listened to these morons speak?
Inspector-
Regular insurance companies don't cover flood damage, which is what most of the hurricane damage was. That's WHY the government HAS to get involved.
That is what flood insurance is for. Banks won't lend money on houses in floodplanes unless you have it. In the event that you don't have a mortgage, you should be able to pay for flood insurance. Personal responsibility helps us all in the long run. If the government can make us buy healthcare and car insurance they can sure as heck make people dumb enough to own a structure in flood prone areas buy flood insurance.
You need to go back to inspecting your ass, "Inspector." It's what you're good at and "a man's got to know his limitations."
WOW TC
No need, last night your wife was telling me how nice my a$$ is.
Why should builders even be allowed to build in flood plains? People assume that if a house is there, it must be ok. Or sometimes they were built in a fine place but the weather destroyed them. We have earthquakes out here, what do we do, make the entire state leave? How about tornados. That is a large swath of the country to deny Americans so they won't need FEMA/gov't money in a disaster.
Builders as a rule only build where the client wants it built. If the builder is the developer the subdivision plans are submitted to the county. They are then overlayed on a county map that has topography and flood planes on it. Due diligence suggests that any home buyer take the time to fully understand all of the possible problems associated with the building. Currently appraisers are armed with this knowledge to assist the banks in telling whether the property is a good investment or not. The problem with New York and New Jersey is that most homes in he affected areas were built before there were zoning laws or building departments. As for the west coast I believe that all homeowners should assume the risk of building/living on a fault line. As I posted earlier, I live in tornado alley. My insurance company and I assume the responsibility associated with the rebuilding of my home. I never expect FEMA to come bail me out. When hurricane Katrina hit. most of the people that ended up homeless were already on public assistance. My take on this is that there are alot of people that don't have any survival skills at all, and it is just getting worse. Enabling people is not the best thing we can be doing right now.
Here (in So Cal) they build tracks of houses in flood plains. Sure, it might normally be flooded every hundred years, but it seems wrong to me. Maybe the dry river bed has been dry for years, but heavy rains will bring huge problems. And while we were careful buying our house (specifically looking for a house on ground that is more stable in an earthquake), not every future disaster can be predicted. And since most people at the bottom of the ladder are working on daily survival needs, I don't think it is wrong to help them back on their feet when something happens. It's not like they are sitting on wads of cash to deal with these things.
In the New Republican Party, human lives are leverage, nothing more, nothing less.
Never forget that, and you'll always be able to figure out what they're going to do next.
Reminiscent of FMA's analogy that the "Philosophers Stone" like Soiliant Green was made of , People !
Those were the days my friend
Knowing the jingoistic party before regions bowing
A country hale an hearty , but not for thee
Who could have suspected that it would fail to end
No more walk about with the wind at your back my friends
The "vengeance party" will have its vengeance .
For more oxymorons , please study the Republican Platform . Thank you
It needed 60 votes to pass? As in they're already filibustering? On something this important and what should be nonpartisan? How's that gentleman's agreement working out for ya, Senator Reid?
The Nevada league of professional we'll get 'em next years debut , substituting for supine verisimilitude , was a few years back . This is a championship effort .
Rah rah sis boom bah
And the shift in attitude couldn't have come at a worse time, either. As the planet continues to warm, this kind of superstorm is going to be happening more and more often.
The shift in attitude comes at a time when Republican law makers are recognizing that the world's weather is changing, not that they will ever admit it (the Koch brothers are in the oil business after all) but they have come to realize that future storms will be stronger and more frequent.
That 60 vote thing struck me as well. Really they had to overcome a filibuster to pass emergency aid. Reid should have been fired his last election, but who would want Sharon Angle as Senator.
There was no other consideration possible for S.P. ? !
Lifetime sinecures Cheep , your local cynical twist and shout , now available at the Eddie Haskel Institute of pbbbt .
"compassionate conservatism"? Those two words couldn't be more unsuited to each other..It's time for people regardless of circumstances to see them for who and what they really are and it's not all that much.
Just as amazing as one of my senators, the Amazing Invisible Richard Burr, voting against this knowing full well that the Carolinas are the Atlantic hurricane bullseye and that they will sure as anything get hit again before his term is over is the number of senators from tornado prone states who voted against it.
Amgen Scandal !!!!! Total silence.......???
AFT.. This is why congress needs to be disbanded and Bernie Sanders instated as Emporer of the Human Republic
Susan H from Texas banned, flaming...everyone, including Ms. Maddow, in comment spam.
Are we surprised that the Republicans are against disaster aid for blue states. Really, are we?
Y'all are too kind. The Republicans have become a party of unprincipled mofo's that vote against ANYTHING that is not in' my backyard'. The UNITED STATES? Nope. They just want the tax dollars of those states but 'do it yourself' if you need aid. In my neck of the woods we call those people grifters.
To all those folks who are in the Teaparty...next time there's a disaster in your town, refuse the money from "Big Government"......return your Social Security checks, refuse to use Medicare/Medicaid (maybe you'll die sooner so intelligent people can replace your votes), don't use the highways built under the Eisenhower years with Federal money, stay out of the Federal Parks (that includes the monuments in Washington DC).
To those Senators and Representatives in the Sandy-hit states, remember John D Rockefeller's motto the next time there's a hurricane that hits the Carolinas, or a flood in Tennesee, or a tornado in the south, or an earthquake in Alaska.......
Don't get angry....get EVEN