And then have a good laugh about it!
In a country that claims to be the greatest nation on earth, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, shows once again why Republicans should be voted out of office with extreme prejudice. Having held the world’s economy hostage all summer long and caused more hardship for people while attempting to extract even more money from poor and middle class Americans, Eric Cantor and his Republicans have decided to continue their assault on the American people.
Even before Hurricane Irene came ashore, the Republican leader made it clear that they weren’t going to help any of those people who were sure to be affected by the hurricane — that they weren’t going to get shit from the government unless it comes out of the pockets of the rest of the working and poor people in our country. He made it quite clear on Fox News that Republicans don’t care about hurricane victims at all…
Despite the devastation caused by Hurricane Irene this weekend, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) today stood by his call that no more money be allocated for disaster relief unless it is offset by spending cuts elsewhere. The Washington Post reported this morning that FEMA will need more money than it currently has to deal with the storm’s aftermath and is already diverting funds from other recent disasters to deal with the hurricane, but Cantor’s comments suggest Republicans won’t authorize more funds without a fight.
So here we go again, a new hostage crisis and this time it’s people along the east coast who were unfortunate enough to have chosen to live in the path of hurricanes. You have to wonder if the Republican’s really believe that their game of hostage taking is going to help them politically. The way I see it, hurricanes don’t discriminate against one party or another and in natural disasters, people pull together and put partisanship aside. Not so much for the current Republican Party, they are out of their fucking minds. Steve Benen sums it up like only he can do…(emphasis mine)
In the interview, the dimwitted Majority Leader tried to make this sound like common sense — instead of an unprecedented move. Remember, no modern Congress, regardless of which party was in the majority, has ever demanded offsets in response to American natural disaster, not even Tom DeLay’s.
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Let’s also not lose sight of the larger context here. As far as Eric Cantor is concerned, launching wars in Iraq and Afghanistan do not need to be paid for. Tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires do not need to be paid for. Bailing out Wall Street does not need to be paid for. But when American communities are struck by a natural disaster, all of a sudden, House Republicans discover a new standard: if Democrats want to help affected areas, the GOP has some demands that must be met.
As if that isn’t enough to show that Republicans don’t deserve to be in power, lets “pivot” to one of the leading contenders for the Republican nomination, Michelle Bachmann, who decided to joke about the hurricane while it was happening. I’m sure you’ve seen our read her comments where she joked about the hurricane and earthquakes.
“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now.
I’ll once again let Steve Benen put this into perspective for us.
I’ll gladly concede that the right-wing Republican delivered the comments in a seemingly lighthearted way, but it’s also worth noting that presidential candidates don’t generally joke about deadly natural disasters while the disaster is unfolding. Bachmann clearly liked the line well enough to repeat it more than once, but while she was drawing laughs, people were literally dying.
When anyone says to you that there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats, smack them upside the head and direct them to this post.
Cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles
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