GOP's Concern for Disaster Preparedness Doesn't Extend Beyond Tampa

[babylonsister]

GOP's Concern for Disaster Preparedness Doesn't Extend Beyond Tampa
George Zornick on August 27, 2012 - 12:05 PM ET


When the edge of Hurricane Isaac brushes Tampa Bay today, the Republicans gathered here for the national convention will be ready—events have been canceled, speakers re-shuffled, and the convention staff “is working around-the-clock to ensure the delegations housed in storm-impacted areas have alternative housing if needed.”

This may not have been necessary, as it’s been clear for over 24 hours that the storm is shifting away from the area; blue patches of sky were even visible over the city this morning. But the party is clearly sensitive to evocations of Hurricane Katrina, which top Bush advisers viewed as “the final nail in the coffin” for the Bush-era GOP after the administration failed to respond properly. (“Ghost of Katrina hangs heavy as Romney readies for convention,” reads a headline in today’s Washington Post.) So Republicans are willing to sacrifice their carefully planned itinerary in the name of appearing responsive and sensitive to the impact of major storms.

This, to be clear, is purely optical. Since assuming control of the House, Republicans have consistently played dangerous politics with disaster relief funds and slashed the budgets of storm monitoring agencies, thereby executing the same small-government-at-all-costs mentality that led to widespread destruction in New Orleans. They may go to great lengths to assure the safety of party delegates in Tampa Bay, but they have not shown the same compassion for storm victims in the rest of the country.

When the GOP nominates Paul Ryan as its vice-presidential candidate on Wednesday night, they will be putting a man who proposed steep reductions to disaster relief funds in his most recent budget—restrictions so radical that GOP appropriators in the House disobey them. Ryan proposed that Congress adhere to the debt-ceiling limitations, and not spend over them when appropriating disaster relief, but instead make cuts elsewhere to pay for them. This is the same “morally reprehensible” approach to disaster relief funding taken by House Republican leaders last summer: even as Hurricane Irene bored down on the eastern seaboard, Congressional Republicans threatened to withhold disaster relief funds if offsetting cuts were not made elsewhere in the federal budget. Holding federal disaster relief hostage to political food-fights was a truly unprecedented move.

Republicans have also continued to starve the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the money it needs to respond to natural disasters. It held FEMA hostage to the same budget battles last summer, withholding money until cuts were made elsewhere. This brought the agency literally to the brink of bankruptcy, and it was even forced to temporarily suspend relief efforts in Missouri and elsewhere last summer as the dispute raged on in Congress.

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[Angry Dragon]

1. republican leaders have no morals

[Generic Other]

2. This is such an important point Babylon Sister!!!

I just read Tampa has been spared. It occurred to me that the GOP extravaganza of excess and revelling in the destruction of the country is set to resume full blast now. We will be driven mad by the damn fucking lies they spew.

Yet, there will be a hurricane winding its way up the Gulf coast . The ghost of Katrina will follow it like a windy shroud. And we Democrats need to make sure we get it right. That no one compares our response to Bush eating cake as NOLA drowned, that no one compare our response to the events in the super dome, that no one says Obama did a "huckuva job, brownie." Because those assholes who care nothing and will lift not a finger to help the communties that will be impacted by that storm are only to willing to blame Obama and the rest of us for whatever goes wrong.

We need to be prepared.

[babylonsister]

3. I hear you, but am quite sure this President

has his ducks in a row and is getting FEMA prepared as I type. I just hope the rethugs stay the hell out of the way.

[Generic Other]

4. Let them yap in Tampa because every single word will make them look evil

This is a golden opportunity to prove by action what fools they are. It is a weird wind that is blowing down there. Almost like a voodoo wind. And I think you are right. FEMA and Obama will not get it wrong. They are not so tonedeaf as that idiot Romney. He can only hear the sounds of coins clinking together.

I just feel for those who will feel the brunt of the storm.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021210832