Following the unprecedented encroachment of Hurricane Sandy, the Republicans are up to their usual tricks of demanding spending-cuts in exchange for disaster relief funding. And not only that. They also want to provide far less funding than states have requested.
(Reuters) - Senate Democrats are moving quickly to push through the Obama administration's full request for $60.4 billion in emergency aid for Superstorm Sandy, but a growing number of Republicans are arguing for a smaller initial amount. [...]
Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona said on Tuesday that Obama's Sandy request was simply "too much."
"At $60 billion? In this time when we're trying to solve the deficit problem?" he told reporters. [...]
The amount in the Senate bill is considerably less than the $82 billion in aid requested by New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the states that bore the brunt of damage from the storm.
Senate Democrats have put forth a bill that provides $60.4 billion of disaster relief funding, which is less than the $82 billion requested by the states, but regardless of this, Republicans still say its "too much."
More from ThinkProgress
A day after Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) called disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy “wasteful spending,” Reps. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Steve King (R-IA), Raul Labrador (R-ID), and Jeff Landry (R-LA), all from the more conservative wing of the House GOP, told The Hill that they will demand offsets for disaster spending
And what would we cut in return? Education? Healthcare?
This has to be a very confusing time for Governor Chris Christie who has been in Washington lobbying for more disaster relief funding only to be rebuked by his own party. Whether or not this gives him any pause remains to be seen.
This also must be comforting to anyone who lives in areas of the country that are at risk of suffering from natural disasters (basically everyone), because in addition to worrying about whether or not your insurance company will screw you over, for the foreseeable future you will also have to worry about being screwed by Republicans in congress. But what else is new?