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Republicans To Disaster Victims: Drop Dead
When historians look back at America over the three years following the historic 2008 presidential election among the patterns that will emerge is all of the once sacred cows that the Republican Party slayed at the altar of obstructionism.
They have called the president unpatriotic, some have questioned whether he is even an American while some have not so subtly attacked him for the color of his skin.
They have criticized the Federal Reserve for trying to bail out the economy.
They have chosen to twice shut down the federal government — backing down only at the last minute — rather than make a good faith effort to keep it running, and are on the verge of succeeding on the third try.
And they have scorned the honorable American tradition of providing prompt disaster aid to the victims of hurricanes, fires and earthquakes.
The death of that last sacred cow is perhaps the most egregious. Washington has always been there for these victims no questions asked, but Republicans are demanding that there be spending cuts to offset disaster aid.
The specter of a shutdown after Saturday loomed large after the Senate easily defeated a House spending bill on Friday.
The Senate voted 59-36 to set aside the bill, with a handful of conservative Republicans joining with Democrats. Democrats oppose the bill because they believe that it does not provide enough relief for victims of the never ending disasters this year — including wildfires, a hurricane and an earthquake or two — while the Republicans felt that their House colleagues had failed to cut deeply enough.
House Speaker John Boehner played hardball as House members left for a scheduled recess, stating that the only way to advance the legislation, which would replenish the nearly empty coffers of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and finance the federal government through mid-November, would be for the Senate to capitulate and accept the House bill.
6 Responses to “Republicans To Disaster Victims: Drop Dead”
This apparent, “hatred for the American people”, is just on going. It’s like the Republican party don’t want any tax money to help “people” at all, only corporations. First they make this massive tax cut for the rich, when they held all three branches of government, then fund massive and wasteful defense programs that even the Pentagon don’t want. They then increased spending many times over AND cut taxes. No money coming in, but a heck-of-lot more money going out. They then dump it all in the incoming administrations lap saying: “look we started the recovery by bailing out corporations and investment firms, you take it from here. You need to do the same bro”….but somehow…somewhere down the line all this mess became the Democrats fault ENTIRELY!
The Republican manor of governing is just, for the lack of a better word,…CRAZY!
Who never said “drop dead” to NYC in 1975? It was Gerald Ford. His treasury secretary said:
“Mr. Simon warned that bailing out the city would amount to nationalizing municipal debt and rewarding local officials who lacked the will to stanch the inevitable hemorrhaging inflicted by bankrupt liberalism.”
Sounds a little like the TPers. A few commenters praised Ford because it forced NYC to “galvanize,clean up our act and was a plus”
Just sayin.
Nice point, duck.
Shaun, your position is that disaster relief doesn’t need to be paid for? I don’t get it.
Dr. J, I interpret it as some things need to be put on the credit card, and this is one of them. And by denying people in their time of need, they are showing a lack of basic humanity.
Well, obviously it’s going on the credit card. The sticking point seems to be whether we need a plan for paying it off.