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Republican Party a Disaster When It Comes to Disasters (Guest Voice)
Republican Party a Disaster when It Comes to Disasters
by Karl Frisch
You’ve got to hand it to the Republicans. They’re doing a heckuva job when it comes to their political posturing on emergency response and disaster preparedness. You know, like Michael “Heckuva Job Brownie” Brown did as George W. Bush’s FEMA chief during Hurricane Katrina.
At least Brownie had an excuse. Before Bush tapped him for the big leagues his last gig was with the International Arabian Horse Association — not exactly the best training.
Of course, today’s Republicans have no such excuse — other than heartlessness and a belief in the powers of Libertarian magic dust.
Take House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for example. His Virginia district housed the epicenter of August’s headline-stealing east coast earthquake. While there was minimal damage reported from the quake, Cantor made it clear that he would only support disaster relief funding if Congress paid for it by cutting money from other important programs. It’s the same position Cantor took following the devastating tornadoes that hit Joplin, Missouri and — you guessed it — the same position he took as Hurricane Irene zeroed in on Virginia and the northeastern seaboard.
Perhaps this heartless tin-man strolling the yellow brick halls of Congress never considered the impact such a policy would have on those whose lives are forever changed by events beyond their control.
Maybe you’re a senior living on Social Security and relying on Medicare. Perhaps you’re a family or four hit hard by the GOP-destroyed economy and living on unemployment benefits. Now imagine you’ve just lost literally everything to a hurricane, tornado, or maybe an earthquake. If Cantor had his way, it would be easy to answer the question, “how could it get any worse?” To help you get back on your feet, he just might let the federal government step in and help rebuild your home and community but its going to cost you dearly in cuts to programs you rely on just to get by.
If Eric Cantor were King Solomon, he’d cut the baby in half before even speaking to the two women claiming to be its mother.
He’s hardly alone.
For those wondering why so few give Ron Paul’s presidential campaign the time of day, the answer just might have something to do with the insanity that is his political philosophy.
After Hurricane Irene killed at least 10 and left 2 million without power and many communities under water, the Texas Republican made it clear that he wasn’t backing off his view that FEMA should be scuttled and that it was time for Americans to, “transition out of the dependency on the federal government.”
Thankfully for us all, Ron Paul will be transitioning out of his “dependency” on the federal government very soon. He’s decided to forgo running for reelection to Congress in order to focus his efforts on the futility that is his presidential campaign.
Cantor and Paul’s GOP colleagues in Congress want to go even further. It would seem they don’t even want us to have a heads up when potential disasters are on the horizon.
Over the past year, Republicans have attempted to severely cut funding for the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Such cuts would cripple our tsunami warning centers and could ultimately lead to the loss of many lives. Additionally, such steep cuts to the NOAA would eliminate our ability to warn Americans about hurricanes five or ten days in advance making it even more difficult to evacuate communities when necessary and only compounding disaster relief efforts (if the GOP chooses to fund those).
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what the anti-Science GOP looks like on steroids and it’s happening on the local level too.
In GOP presidential frontrunner Rick Perry’s home state of Texas, the Republican-led state legislature responded to the wildfires that blanketed more than 2.5 million acres of the Lone Star State this year by seeking to cut millions from fire fighting and the state agency responsible for fire prevention. The proposed cuts came at a time when Perry was busy complaining in the media that President Obama wasn’t doing enough to help him combat the wildfires despite the fact that the federal government offered the “states’ rights” Governor at least 26 different kinds of federal assistance and paid for a considerable potion of the firefighting bill.
Yes, the Republican Party is a disaster when it comes to disasters. But, if you can manage to avoid earthquakes, wildfires, floods, mudslides, tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, avalanches, famines, and locusts it just might be the party for you.
Copyright © 2011 KarlFrisch.com, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Karl Frisch is Democratic political strategist at Bullfight Strategies based in Washington, DC. He can be reached at KarlFrisch.com. His column is licensed to run on TMV in full.
11 Responses to “Republican Party a Disaster When It Comes to Disasters (Guest Voice)”
The Republicans want to cut everybody out of the American pie but the rich. Makes no difference if we are in debt or not, crushing down the working class has ALWAYS been the Republican end game. What more could they possibly want out of Americans? All Americans are asking for is a damn job, but Republicans won’t even compromise for that. What corner of hell did these Republican Demons spawn from anyway?
The President should have the power to dissolve congress and have new elections.
That is because they have so much money invested in China and they are making so much, but don’t you think the Chinese government is taxing them? And why is it that the Democrats don’t bring up this subject? Is it because they have a lot of their own money invested there? They feel they shouldn’t have to pay taxes in the U.S. Because they are paying so much to China in taxes. You can’t listen to the politicians folks because they have so much to hide and they are afraid of being exposed.
What is not being mentioned here, is that we’re broke. There is no money left.
Now we have a disaster that requires money that doesn’t exist. Congress can easily just “pencil whip” some funding into the budget to cover this, but at the cost of even more debt. And this is precisely what they are trying to prevent.
It’s not about being heartless, and anyone that is demonizing these people is just making silly crap up.
EVERYONE knows this disaster needs to be alleviated with Federal Funds. Absolutely nobody is going to leave the east coast hanging. But we have to be realistic, and actually manage the money we have.
Government has been operating with ridiculous “endless coffer” logic for so long, that people actually think that’s how Federal Finances work now, and want to crucify any politician that seeks to end this financial fantasy that we can afford ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.
It’s time to step back into the real world, and use real math to spend the amount of money we have, and manage our finances responsibly. That is neither demonic, or cruel.
What is evil and cruel, is the eventual complete shutdown that inevitably will occur to the Federal Government, if we don’t change the way we handle Federal spending. At that point Every Single American loses.
We have no money because of the Bush tax cuts. We have no money because the GOP deregulated the financial sector and gutted the oversight and they promptly went about bilking everyone in sight and let the taxpayers pick up the tab when the music stopped. They don’t get to tell us we can’t afford to deal with natural disasters while still shilling for corporate tax breaks, WAY more military spending than we actually need, and oh yea, special tax breaks for oil companies, who have not only the richest industry in the world, but sky high prices on a commodity that sells as fast as they can pump it out of the ground. They do this all with a straight face. They can go to hell.
Those are different debates entirely.
I think the Tax laws need to be completely erased, and re-written from the ground up, but that’s an entirely different debate.
The East Coast needs money now, and we have to apportion it from somewhere, and not just pull it out of our asses.
@Slamfu: “We have no money because of the Bush tax cuts.”
What about the other trillions in the budget?
“We have no money because the GOP deregulated the financial sector and gutted the oversight and they promptly went about bilking everyone in sight and let the taxpayers pick up the tab when the music stopped.”
First, the SEC scandal shows a complete lack of oversight coming out of both Republican and Democratic administrations over the course of decades. How can you can see only Republicans?
Secondly, the GSEs also played a role by insulating the loan originators for the consequence of their own, often criminal, acts. The government and the Fed have made losses public and gains private, with approval from both Democrats and Republicans. The bailouts and Grahm-Leach-Bliley were also bipartisan acts, but again, Democrats can do no evil.
If the Democrats as a party were pushing for the end of corporate subsidies, serious financial reform, and/or real military reductions, you might have had a point.
Japans debt is over 200% of GDP. are they in danger of default? Are they ignoring a meltdown and earthquake?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_future_gross_government_debt
Gross government debt
(sortable; in percent of GDP) Country?
2011? 2012? 2013? 2014? 2015? 2016?
Japan
229.081 233.374 238.04 242.392 246.654 250.475
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10290933
Japans debt been over 100% of GDP since 2000.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/government-debt-to-gdp
@Rudi
Japan’s debt is mostly internal. They have a culture of saving, and the banks are required to buy government debt. It all works out beautifully for a while. Their younger generations aren’t saving as much, and they have the same demographic problems that many countries are facing (like our baby-boomers, but worse). When it crashes, it’s going to be historical. On the other hand, because that debt is mostly internal, it won’t have the immediate impact on world finances, like the US or Europe’s will have.
Let’s just say that that’s not where we want to be.
Stray Mongrel-
“What is not being mentioned here, is that we’re broke”
Yes and the Republicans caused it! They have allowed the rich to TAKE all our money! Even helped them do it!
So now the RICH need to start already with the shell-out for job creation. Like, already already!
You demonize Demons. Because THAT is exactly what the Republicans are!
[...] Republican Party A Disaster When It Comes To Disaster (Guest Voice) [...]
Dr. Paul is for less govt. He never said no federal govt. At one time the U.S. was the envy of the world with our excellent education and creative ingenuity and prosperity. And at that time, we didn’t have the bloated govt that we have today. However, with the exponential growth of our federal govt over the last half century, it is a fact that we’ve seen a substantial decline of our nation’s productivity and prosperity. The more dependent we have become on federal govt coincides with how deplorable things have become. It is, of course, a combination of things but at its root, the expansion of govt. Which makes sense as all these programs created cost money. They are not free. The money comes from somewhere. Take for instance all the govt agencies that have been created since say late 1960?s: Dept. of Education 1979; FEMA established piecemeal thru from the 30?s thru the 60?s it really came into its prime in 1979; Social Security and medicare had its beginnings in the 1930s but eventually amended over time came into being with what we have today established in the 1960s. Presently, we have seen a huge increase in Govt agencies ie. Homeland Security and a litany of agencies created with the passage of Obama’s health care legislation. All agencies created with good intentions and all cost a great deal of money to run, money via tax dollars. Notice today that our jobs have been going over seas, been going overseas for quite sometime. That song “We Can’t Make It Here Anymore” by James McMurtry should be our anthem.
We’ve regulated ourselves right out of the marketplace point blank. Liberals can complain all you want about the evils of corporations and the need for more regulations. However, the cry for this regulation and that regulation has lead to corporations using our good intentions against us. We’ve allowed our govt to get too cozy with corporations (and unions) via lobbyist who write laws that favor corporations, which causes monopolies which crushes competition. It is true that people and their ingenuity, freedom and creativity along with capital create businesses and corporations and prosperity if there is a proper balance between govt and the market place. Our federal govt does not create jobs; it doesn’t create anything, rather it takes from elsewhere in order to provide. The Constitution was created to protect the people and bind govt from. It is a contract, one that has been sadly trampled. Our congress men and women are bought and paid for lackeys that care more about their careers than the people. That’s why when the democrats got in control in 2006 they did NOTHING because they were more worried about 2008 elections and keeping their jobs. God forbid they put their big boy pants on and do what needs to be done. Same with the republicans. Both are two legs of the same pants. And they don’t do anything because quite frankly what needs to be done WILL hurt! It’s easier to tell lies and put off the hard work for a later day or pawn it off to the next person in office. After all, isn’t that what we are doing with all the damn borrowing???? Putting it off for another day so future generations pay the bills????? It’s disgusting. Truth is, we cannot have all these govt agencies and expect to fund them when we are overtaxed and under employed and have created an atmosphere that stifles our creativity and ingenuity and capital. Our public schools are so over regulated and dumbed down, it’s amazing students walk out of high school with any real knowledge. It’s disgusting what has become of our pubic education today. With all the money we throw into it, it only gets worse. Sorry my liberal friends, I think my local school district and state can do a better job if left to it, if we could keep more of our tax dollars to be spent locally. That goes for medical care, emergency response, etc. The idea that a central govt can suck up all these tax dollars and redistribute them arbitrarily, cause that’s what our federal govt does, it uses those funds arbitrarily, and to think it can solve local problems in an efficient manner is ridiculous. People need to realize that over the course of the last half century, we have slowly slipped into bondage with govt gaining more and more control over our lives piece by piece. Just like the piecemeal fashion that all these govt agencies have come into being. Our wars are a direct result of a lack of our Govt coming up with a realistic energy policy way back in the 1960s. Instead of allowing states and businesses the freedom to be creative and use ingenuity to create alternate sources of energy. Instead we just got lazy. It’s easier to bomb other countries and manipulate 3rd world nations who don’t have a military that could even touch ours in order to control oil. Thus making us dependent upon our govt, and of course, at the mercy of Big Oil corporations. It’s easier to give poor people money and housing than it is to teach them to be self sufficient. It easier to pass kids along grade after grade, teaching to the mandated tests so schools get those federal tax dollars instead of actually teaching students to critically think, so they can analyze material and think for themselves. It’s easier to allow the govt to put your hard earned money into a “retirement” account, so you can draw it when you get old (if in fact it will be there for you to rely on) then to think and plan for yourself for your retirement. And for all those who go nuts thinking Ron Paul is gonna dump all the poor and invalid off social security and into the streets, you obviously don’t listen closely to what he proposes. We have to be real here, people. There is NO MORE money to go around. Especially fighting all these insane wars. All paid for on borrowed funds. We never declared war, never went into a wartime economy. We are living on borrowed funds today and borrowed time. We can’t keep doing things the way we have been doing them. Do you think we can borrow our way to prosperity? Do you think it’s good that the Federal Reserve keeps printing money??? With each dollar put into circulation, the value of that dollar diminishes; it will eventually be worthless. Then what? how in God’s name do we pay the bills? Or take care of those who have become so dependent upon the govt???????? Dr. Ron Paul is giving common sense solutions to our problems as they exist today. Believe me, it will be change. It needs to change. Fear is natural when change is on the horizon. Question is do we want to have a say in how things change and be a part of it or do we want that dictated to us?????