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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced yesterday that congressional Republicans would like to help the victims of the brutal tornado in Joplin, Missouri, but emergency aid wouldn’t be automatic. The community would get its federal disaster relief, just as soon as the GOP received a ransom: off-setting spending cuts.
He wasn’t kidding. When Tom DeLay was the House Majority Leader, Republican agreed that emergency disaster relief should be immediate. But by 2011 standards, Tom DeLay was a moderate.
And sure enough, House Republicans yesterday approved a $1 billion aid package, right after they got their payoff.
House Republicans, who require spending cuts whenever new spending is proposed, said the FEMA funds would be paid by cutting $1.5 billion from an Energy Department loan program for the production of fuel-efficient vehicles.
Yes, of course. Discouraging the production of fuel-efficient vehicles when gas is $4 a gallon, in order to help a decimated American community, certainly makes sense, doesn’t it?
Did voters elect congressional Republicans or comic-book villains?
Or as Oliver Willis put it, “Let me repeat: Republicans say that the gods of spending cuts must be appeased before we assist our fellow Americans in a time of disaster…. The Republican party has so far gone around the bend, it’s beginning to resemble an actual monster.”
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D) of Missouri was on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” last night, and the segment is well worth watching.
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c u n d gulag on May 25, 2011 10:11 AM:
Republicnas, have you no snese of shame?
At all?
This is madness.
A reckless, careless madness.
And further madness is to take money out a program designed to help slow down global warming, too.
Idiocy. Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.
But I'd bet the house that Cantor would set the Congressional land-speed record running for UNQUALIFIED aid if this was his district.
martin on May 25, 2011 10:15 AM:
sure enough, House Republicans yesterday approved a $1 billion aid package, right after they got their payoff.
Steve, they didn't "get" their payoff, they took it. They are in charge of the budget, they are in charge of the committee that appropriates the aid.
I haven't checked to see if the Dems on the committee caved or how it happened. Don't know if it has to make it through the Senate where the real hostage taking will occur.
Jamie on May 25, 2011 10:21 AM:
The strangest thing about the maneuver is that Joplin is pretty solidly GOP part of the state.
Josef K on May 25, 2011 10:22 AM:
Steve, they didn't "get" their payoff, they took it. They are in charge of the budget, they are in charge of the committee that appropriates the aid.
Fair point, martin. Thank you for the rational response; I myself was about to write something indelicate. This does lead me to wonder why Cantor and McConnell haven't done something similar with the whole debt ceiling issue.
I'm also wondering how well this will play out if the Democrats decide to make it a larger issue. Steve's point about defunding fuel efficient cars during high gas prices strikes me as salient and could play well.
Likely as not they'll let this slide, but we'll see.
Danp on May 25, 2011 10:25 AM:
This vote says they would rather help victims of climate-related disasters rather than prevent new ones. Crisis management at its worst.
berttheclock on May 25, 2011 10:26 AM:
Why does the Associated Press even waste money on having an AP "reporter" write this news? In their "Joplin Relief" release, the writer adds this to a line about the cutting of the fuel efficient funds. The AP writer wrote by cutting the fuel funds, this wouldn't allow the relief money to being "tied to out of control budget deficits". Hey, AP - Save money - Just use the RNC press release. It would come off as the same.
Please, Steve, Eighty Six CAPTCHA!!!
Anonymous on May 25, 2011 10:28 AM:
c u n d, my thoughts exactly. But don't worry. republicans have this uncanny knack for being able to wrestle hypocrisy out of the jaws of projection. Within a few days, he will say or do something that lays bare his staggering hypocritical stupidity.
N.Wells on May 25, 2011 10:29 AM:
The R's seem to be going out of their way to pursue the most insane, unthinkable, short-sighted, finger-in-your-eye course of action in every situation. We have the worst oil spill ever: their solution is to deregulate and push for more drilling. We have a hideous financial calamity: their solution is deregulate, & double-down on the policies that caused the problem in the first place. Our students perform badly on international tests on math and science: their solution is to push creationism and deny science, trash education budgets, and punish teachers. We have a awful public calamity from tornadoes: their solution is cut back on aid to victims, cut back on tornado warning capabilities, hack money out of a program designed to help solve two other major problems. This is both monstrous and insane.
T2 on May 25, 2011 10:35 AM:
I confess to no longer understanding how today's Republicans- I refer to Jane and Jim and our neighbors and fellow citizens who vote Republican, not Republican elected officials like Cantor, how they can sit back and accept the shameful joke their Party has become. Refusing to help a town that's lost 125 of its citizens to a tornado? Come on...that's, well, un-American. I think last night's NY House election may be the start of generic GOPers starting to say "hey, stop this shit".
Roger the Cabin Boy on May 25, 2011 10:36 AM:
Again, where was the call for "offsets" when the republicans were proposing $70b supplementals to finance their war of choice in Iraq? Btw, wasn't that supposed to pay for itself or certainly not cost over a few billion?
jjm on May 25, 2011 10:40 AM:
Only one word comes to mind: DESPICABLE.
berttheclock on May 25, 2011 10:42 AM:
It was a Voice Vote, but, when, you have 29 RepuGs on the committee and only 21 Democratic US Reps, why bother with a roll call vote.
The 29 is made up of a who's who of far righters.
kc on May 25, 2011 10:47 AM:
Cantor is an odious little wormy type. The Democrats really ought to be putting his face out there in their TV ads.
karen marie on May 25, 2011 10:49 AM:
Will this pass the Senate?
I find it really hard to fathom how Republicans can get away with this. But then I remember everything else they've gotten away with.
If American voters don't throw them out in the next round of elections, I will be forced to concede that I live in a country of morons governed willingly by malicious psychopaths.
Ray on May 25, 2011 11:03 AM:
A part of me blames the Democrats, not because they agree with GOP nonsense (they don't), but because they continue to try to negotiate in good faith. You can't negotiate with crazy. Once you reach a consensus, crazy doubles down to crazier.
jpeckjr on May 25, 2011 11:13 AM:
I'm trying to understand why the House had to act at all on disaster relief for Joplin, or any of the many other places experiencing natural disasters this spring? Doesn't FEMA have a budget? Isn't money for disaster response already approved? Had FEMA asked for a supplemental appropriation?
It's my understanding FEMA assistance is activated by a Presidential disaster declaration, and does not require an act of Congress. If FEMA needs a supplemental appropriation to meet the needs, it would not be tied to any specific disaster.
It seems to me the Republicans used the suffering of Americans as justification to gut an Energy Dept. program they wanted to gut anyway. Opportunistic exploitation of the suffering of Americans -- stupid and disgusting.
jomo on May 25, 2011 11:17 AM:
Canter can argue that he is consistently applying a principle - a pay as you go. But the optics on this thing are terrible. It can so easily be positioned that he is asking for a ransom to help victims of a disaster. And this in the ultimate of swing states. The ads write themselves.
Darsan 54 on May 25, 2011 11:27 AM:
I can only weep for our nation. To use the suffering of disaster victims in order to achieve a limited political end is disgusting beyond words. And, yet Cantor will feel absolutely nothing. He feel no empathy for these people. It is taking Rand's philosophy to its ultimate end; you are alone and no one -absolutely NO ONE - cares about you.
We all are better than this.
Hannah on May 25, 2011 11:33 AM:
Phooey on the Repubs. Unfunded tax cuts for the rich, unfunded wars, but help to those hit with a natural disaster only by robbing Peter to pay Paul. I guess we should be happy they didn't fund it with cuts to Medicaid, WIC, Head Start, S-CHIP, etc.
jpeckjr: I'm not sure of the specifics you address, but the article Steve links to says this:
"FEMA has already deployed more than 4,300 workers this year in response to dozens of federally declared disasters and has distributed about $149 million in aid. But it is carrying more than $17 billion in debt from storm-related aid in the past six years. On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved $1 billion in additional disaster relief for FEMA as part of a measure funding the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal 2012. FEMA would use the money for the final four months of fiscal 2011."
So perhaps it's because FEMA is overbudget?
berttheclock on May 25, 2011 11:43 AM:
FEMA has said it will have a $3 Billion shortfall unless the $1.8 Billion request by President Obama is granted. This measure only gives FEMA $1 Billion. BTW, part of the FEMA money has been taken away by Hal Rogers the RepuG head of the Appropriations Committee in order to fund his pet 3-D scanner program in Eastern Kentucky.
The truly sad part of this is this voice vote is only the beginning of the budget bills. There are 12 more to follow this one. With Rogers and his Gang of 28 leading the way, look for more dispicable moves.
RepublicanPointOfView on May 25, 2011 12:04 PM:
It is disappointing that our republican leaders balanced this spending by cutting dollars that would have gone to corporate interests.
A much better alternative would have been to balance this spending by increasing revenues by providing additional tax breaks for the top 0.5% of income earners.
xpatriate on May 25, 2011 12:15 PM:
Let's not get all weepy for Tom DeLay. Consider the situation in Sept. 2005. The Katrina disaster had blown up in Bush's face. Hurricane Rita, a category 5 storm, was on track to hit the Texas coast. He was seeding the clouds for the rain of federal dollars to follow the storm. Which, BTW, fixed our rotten, falling down back porch 200 miles from where Rita came ashore. Just sayin'.
exlibra on May 25, 2011 12:31 PM:
http://www.borowitzreport.com/
FEMA declares Cantor a disaster area; Cantor denies funds to self.
Cantor is a prick. He has always been a prick but, since November (and, especially since January), he seems to have become an engorged prick. He's an abomination.
On the matter of the clip. The guy Carnahan sounded like a robotic twerp, spouting nothing but platitudes. The host handed him a rope with which to hog-tie Cantor but, no; can't be uncollegial, can we? It's not as if Carnahan was required to think on his feet; I'm sure he knew what the subject was going to be. Pfui.
And second gulag; taking money away from a program which is intended to prevent similar disasters in the future to help the victims of this disaster is so bizarre, it's mind boggling.
mellowjohn on May 25, 2011 12:49 PM:
oy, vat a schmuck!
bdop4 on May 25, 2011 12:58 PM:
Yet another cudgel laid by republicans at the feet of their opponent. Another cudgel in a long line that have remained untouched over the years.
Will the Dems pick this one up and hammer them into submission?
I'm not holding my breath. I'm also not seeing any indication of Democratic resistance to what is becoming SOP for republicans.
Dr. Squid on May 25, 2011 1:01 PM:
Cantor and McHenry together look like Fanboy and Chum Chum.
TCinLA on May 25, 2011 1:07 PM:
The attack ads write themselves:
In Red State America, just hit by the worst tornadoes in generations (maybe ever), the House Republicans want to cut the weather satellite system, delaying the replacement of aging satellites, which satellites have been crucial to the severe weather warning system. And now they are dicking with the disaster aid.
Do these morons even realize they are fucking around with their own voters??????? Do they even care??
kevo on May 25, 2011 1:29 PM:
Cantor has a jabberwocky moment every time he steps infront of a microphone and TV camera! -Kevo
Alex on May 25, 2011 2:37 PM:
The key to the whole report: The average income of the people is about $30,000 with 15% below the poverty level. If it was a community of rich people, they would have responded immediately, and then later 'shake them down' for campaign contributions. Because, that is how they roll...
Alex on May 25, 2011 2:46 PM:
We spend $3 billion PER DAY on the military budget. Just 12 hours of the military budget would have paid for the disaster recovery. Take the money from there YOU BASTARDS!!!
And while you're at it, CUT SALARIES OF ALL REPUBLICANS and use it to pay for education.
RockyMissouri on May 25, 2011 2:53 PM:
I'd say the republicans have been showing us their lack of humanity for a while, now. By this petty and cruel gesture, a new, true, defining lowest level yet..
kazza on May 25, 2011 3:10 PM:
Un FUCKING believable.... Cantor is such a douch. Cant wait for his ass to be booted out by voters. Dont the Crazy republicans realise that WE PAY THEM??? So Why cant WE FIRE THEM????
JW on May 25, 2011 3:33 PM:
From Wikipedia: "United States Geological Survey (USGS) scientists state that a major earthquake occurring on the zone [i.e. the San Francisco Bay Area's east bay region] is "increasingly likely".... If a major earthquake were to occur on the fault, damage would be catastrophic. More than 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars in property exists in the affected area, and more than 165 billion US dollars in damage would likely result if the 1868 [Hayward] quake were to recur. Since the fault runs through heavily populated areas, more than 5 million would be affected directly. The Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge will probably be destroyed (unless its replacement span is completed), and this would cut off easy transportation between San Francisco and Oakland along with up to 1,100 other roads. Water could be cut off to 2.4 million people living in California's San Francisco Bay Area.[14] And hundreds, maybe even thousands, of lives would be lost.
The estimated probability of a major earthquake on the Hayward within the next thirty years was estimated at nearly 30 percent..".
Whose ox would be gored in that scenario before the republican party would deign offer help? That's assuming the GOP would even be willing to offer any aid to what they perceive as the domestic enemies of the Bay Area.
jpeckjr on May 25, 2011 5:22 PM:
Did some research and found the bill Cantor is talking about is an appropriations bill for the Dept of Homeland Security. The section for FEMA totals $6.785 billion.
Funny thing is, I can find only two appropriations that are around a billion. One is for state and local grants -- $1 billion. These grants support state and local emergency preparedness programs, not disaster relief. The other $1 billion is for commissions, fees, and taxes paid to agents working with the National Flood Insurance Program. The section for Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance is $2.65 billion.
Now, of course, I was working off a copy of the bill posted to the Appropriations Committee website on May 18, 2011. It could have changed since then.
Wait. That's several days before the Joplin tornado. That timing suggests THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP between the Joplin disaster and the appropriations bill, at least as originally submitted.
All this makes Mr. Cantor's comments even more vile. They were completely unnecessary for debating or passing the bill. Vile and stupid.
turk22 on May 25, 2011 5:39 PM:
OK,Rep Cantor here is my idea. To offset the spending, we cut all funding to Congress...No Congressional Staffers, No Postal Usage, Cut your pay down to the minimum wage. Cut the Healthcare to you and your family. Cut the earmarks to your districts. Cut the retirement funds that you have voted to give yourselves,your retirement will be Social Security just like the rest of us. We'll see how you live on about $1000 a month if you're lucky. Be aware that with you only making $12,000 a year you qualify for some assistance with your food. You can get Food Stamps, well they issue a EBT card now with a PIN code for you to use.
Basically lets cut all funding for you cut your staff down to zero. Also we could cut funding for Israel that alone frees up $3 Billion. They are richer than 132 nations. Most which we do not give any aid to.
Kathryn on May 26, 2011 10:23 AM:
If Sen. McCaskill (D.Mo.) doesn't get her face on every newspaper and local news show to highlight and denounce that worm Cantor, she's missing a golden oportunity.
redwolf68 on May 30, 2011 3:14 PM:
Absolutely typical GOP - they're so far up the Koch brothers' asses, when Charles or David yawns you see Cantor's face, Bachmann's, Pawlenty's, pick your assclown. Can we PLEASE get pink slips to hand off to these idiots?! Forget about voting - I think we should just walk the aisles of Congress handing out pink slips to the bastards. "Two weeks' notice, buddy, pack up your desk and GTFO. Oh, and no severance pay, no vaca pay, nothing. Amscray."
Do we have Dems who can do the job better and more conscientiously? Probably, but they've been so busy rolling over and showing their bellies, most of them deserve pink slips, too. We need to cherry-pick from the ones who actually seem interested in representing us, the people who essentially hired them in the first place, give them incentives to the right things, and then start the search for replacements for the rest - or maybe this is where smaller government could come in. Two reps - one Senator, one House Representative - for each state, and make sure they actually care (rigourous testing to determine that might help) about us and will do the right thing.
Just floating that idea - YMMV.