By
The Big Guy
Senior
Contributor
This week,
ten weeks after Hurricane Sandy struck the northeast, the House of
Representatives passed a bill augmenting a previous allocation of federal funds
with an additional fifty-one billion dollars to help restore the devastated
area. The vote was 241-180.
When
Hurricane Katrina destroyed lives and uprooted families in Louisiana and
Mississippi in 2005, Congress was quick to overwhelmingly approve funds for
that devastated area. Wilma later that same year destroyed coastal regions of
Florida and again Congress was quick to decisively act. In 2008 the name was
Ike and the target stretched from Louisiana all the way over to Texas with
additional damage to the Florida panhandle and Mississippi. More congressionally
approved monies.
Then there
are the tornadoes. There was Joplin, Missouri, May 2011 where 185 people died.
One month earlier several cities in Alabama suffered major damage or were wiped
out entirely. Last year, eleven people were killed in Indiana, ten in Kentucky.
Eighty percent of the town of Moscow, Ohio was destroyed and three of its
residents killed. In April a tornado caused severe damage in the Dallas-Fort
Worth area. A month later six were killed in Oklahoma. And just this past Christmas
tornadoes touched down in Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. Fortunately, they
brought no fatalities. And each time, as needed, Congress stepped in and
without much deliberation passed whatever spending bills were necessary to
provide funds to allow for rebuilding, to bring whatever relief they could to
people who had their lives tossed in the fury of the storms.
Let’s get
back to that vote earlier in the week: The bill passed the House by a vote of
241-180. Four Republican congressmen from Alabama voted against the aid.
Thirteen Republican congressmen from Florida also felt the aid bill unworthy of
passage. Indiana Republicans provided six ‘no’ votes, Kentucky, three and
Louisiana three more. Apparently five Republican congressmen in Missouri have
already forgotten about the aid that came to Joplin so they also voted in the
negative. Ohio managed ten ‘no’ votes on the Republican side, not counting the
speaker who, as is customary, did not vote. On the roll goes, capped by a
resounding twenty-three Republican ‘no’s from the great state of Texas, which
you may note has apparently decided to disregard the fact that they are no
stranger to natural disaster.
In all, 179 of
the 180 votes against sending aid to rebuild the destruction of life and
property in the states of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut came from
Republican congressmen who apparently now look upon disaster relief as charity.
Only forty-nine Republicans (and twelve of them were from the states struck by Sandy)
voted with 192 of 193 Democrats to send the essential aid.
This is what
it has come to. New lines are being drawn. Where are we all going when you
can’t look to fellow countrymen for comfort in a time of need?
5 comments:
These people are beyond contempt. Where was the Speaker in all this? A leader with his clout pulls his members into a room and tells them they are approving this bill and that those voting "no" will be dealt with.
And this civil war will continue, bloody and shameful, regarding gun rights. SSDD.
I agree, it's a shame. Our Congress, our House is filled with pathetic peoples.
I agree with the no voters. There is absolutely zero reason to rebuild New Jersey.
I think those were exactly Jimmy Hoffa's last words.
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