Peter Fenn

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Eric Cantor Is a Hypocrite on Disaster Relief Spending

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September 6, 2011 RSS Feed Print

Buried in this Saturday’s Washington Post Metro section was a short piece about the request from conservative Virginia Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell for $39 million in federal disaster relief for his state.

This was an initial request for 22 localities in Virginia hard hit by Hurricane Irene. According to the article, other local governments can request more aid and, in addition, McDonnell also asked for Hazard Mitigation Assistance for all Virginia localities.

This comes from a governor who, along with his Republican congressional counterpart Eric Cantor, rails against Washington and "government spending."  [See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]

What makes this quite interesting is the position taken by Cantor last week on Federal Emergency Management funding for disasters. We have had a record 66 natural disasters this year and Hurricane Irene was one of the 10 most costly ever.

Cantor, whose district was hit hard by the earthquake and the hurricane, has said that any spending for FEMA should be tied to cuts elsewhere, dollar for dollar, "Just like any family would operate when it's struck with disaster," says Cantor. Funny, that is not how he felt back in 2004 when he appealed for money for his district after another hurricane and voted against the amendment by Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas to do require offsets.

Did Eric Cantor ask for dollar for dollar cuts to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Did he ask for dollar for dollar cuts to pay for the Bush tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires? Did he ask for dollar for dollar cuts to pay for increases to homeland security? How about border agents? [Read 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Bush Tax Cuts.]

Another very conservative congressman from Virginia, Leonard Lance, totally disagrees with Cantor. Help is needed now. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, no friend of government spending, talks as though Eric Cantor has lost his marbles: "Our people are suffering now, and they need support now. And they [Congress] can all go down there and get back to work and figure out budget cuts later."

It is time for a host of protesters to go to Cantor’s district office and call him on his absurdity. Does he believe we should help the victims of these disasters? Is that what government has done for over 200 years? Does he just want to play politics and delay help? Does he represent the people of Virginia? Does he care about the others who have been the victims of tornadoes and floods across this country?

It reminds me of a Senate debate where a certain Republican from Idaho was complaining about a bill that included funding for rat control in New York City.

"In Idaho, we take care of our own rats," to which the New York senator replied, "In New York, we take care of our own forest fires."

That about sums it up.

Tags:
Eric Cantor,
natural disasters,
Robert McDonnell,
deficit and national debt,
federal budget

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Eggman of CO _ Says "The August FAA reauthorization fight was another instance such of hostage-taking: “Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees..."

Wrong:

"Democrats whine that media won’t republish their spin on FAA impasse"

August 4, 2011

"This story from The Hill has a double dose of irony after a week in which the national media, which had been on New Civility watch since January, ignored the explosion of angry rhetoric from Democrats and their own ranks comparing Tea Party activists to terrorists . Harry Reid and other Democrats in the Senate now whine that the national media won’t report their spin on the impasse over FAA funding as fact":

"One reporter asked why Democrats didn’t swallow the cuts to small airports in their states to pass the short-term authorization and then return in September “to fight another day.”

"But Reid retorted that Republicans would find other “hostages” to force Democrats to back down on the labor issue."

"That’s why the FAA remains in partial shutdown. It’s not because Republicans took the FAA “hostage,” or some equally demagogic and paranoid fantasy in the febrile recesses of Harry Reid’s mind. It’s because the Senate didn’t do anything on the FAA extension until it was too late, thanks to Reid’s apparent fantasy of running a House of Lords rather than an American Senate."

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/04/democrats-whine-that-media-wont-republish-their-spin-on-faa-impasse/

___

REMINDS ME OF REID NOT WANTING TO PASS DEBT CEILING RAISE IN DECEMBER. WANTING NEW REPUBLICAN HOUSE TO TAKE SOME OF THE BLAME...

Bill Hedges of MO 8:57PM September 06, 2011

Many people are buzzing about an article at truthout.org by one Mike Lofgren, a longtime Republican staff aide on Capitol Hill who just couldn’t take the crazy anymore, left his job, and produced this buzzy (and quite well-written) lamentation about his party’s tactics and goals. If you haven’t read it, you must

The Lofgren piece is full of harsh observations and accusations, but here’s just a little sampling:

• The debt-ceiling debate was an act of “political terrorism,” in which the GOP concocted a crisis and used it to ensure that the party's unprecedented demands were met. He writes: “Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care.”

• The August FAA reauthorization fight was another instance such of hostage-taking: “Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, 70,000 private construction workers, and let FAA safety inspectors work without pay, in fact, forcing them to pay for their own work-related travel—how prudent is that?—in order to strong arm some union-busting provisions into the FAA reauthorization.”

• The GOP plan to discredit government in the people’s eyes is very conscious: “A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.”

• As for belief as opposed to tactics, the party basically really cares only about the rich. Actually, Lofgren doesn’t say “basically.” He says “solely and exclusively.” And he explains how they’ve camouflaged this with talk of protecting small businesses and so on.

There is much, much more. He’s not very happy either about his party’s militarism, its cynical use of religion, its total opposition to doing anything about the environment, and other matters, but most

programs so they will be there in the future."

Eggman of CO 8:57PM September 06, 2011

Yes both dems and repubs tend to look for balanced budgets more often when the other party controls the white house. But it should be kept in mind that Pres O and the dems have expanded government spending rather dramatically from about 21% of GNP to about 24%, which is a huge increase.

In principle it should be easier to find a few cuts here and there in the new larger budget than the old one.

Its amazing how easy it is for new programs to become necessities.

rdeco of WV 8:56PM September 06, 2011

Peter Fenn

Peter Fenn

Peter Fenn is a Democratic political strategist and head of Fenn Communications, one of the nation's leading political and public affairs media firms. Fenn Communications has worked in over 300 campaigns, from presidential to mayoral, and has represented a number of Fortune 500 companies. Fenn is also an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. Follow him on Twitter @peterhfenn.

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