Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

octoberlib

(14,971 posts)
Tue Oct 30, 2012, 01:49 PM Oct 2012

Why Democrats Are Right to Politicize Sandy

....SNIP...What you are going to see over the next week is an overt effort by Democrats to politicize the issue of disaster response. They’re right to do it. Conservatives are already complaining about this, but the attempt to wall disaster response off from politics in the aftermath of a disaster is an attempt to insulate Republicans from the consequences of their policies.
Funding for FEMA is something the parties wrangle over, with Republicans pushing to limit the agency’s budget, and Democrats pushing back. FEMA has to fight for its share of a constricted pot of money for domestic non-entitlement spending, a pot of money that the Republicans propose to radically constrict. How radically? Romney’s budget promises require shrinking domestic non-entitlement spending as a share of the economy by about two-thirds.


The Republican proposal to eviscerate this wide array of public functions is one of the underdiscussed questions of the election. Republicans have defended it using a very clever trick. They don’t explain how they would allocate the massive cuts to all these programs. When President Obama explains what would happen if those cuts were allocated in an across-the-board fashion, Republicans scream bloody murder. And when any single one of those programs enters the political debate, they can deny plans to make any specific cuts: They won’t cut education, they won’t cut support for veterans, and so on.

The GOP is the party arguing for splurging on a long vacation at the beach rather than repairing the roof. Naturally, they want to have this argument only when it’s sunny and never when it’s raining. There’s no reason to accommodate them.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/10/why-democrats-are-right-to-politicize-sandy.html

3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Why Democrats Are Right to Politicize Sandy (Original Post) octoberlib Oct 2012 OP
An involved president giving briefings sure beats a pretender mannequin at "non-campaign events" NRaleighLiberal Oct 2012 #1
Not just the disaster response. I heard a meteorologist say that the National Hurricane Center's gateley Oct 2012 #2
I'm sure it is. octoberlib Oct 2012 #3

NRaleighLiberal

(60,014 posts)
1. An involved president giving briefings sure beats a pretender mannequin at "non-campaign events"
Tue Oct 30, 2012, 01:52 PM
Oct 2012

The ads of the coming days will pretty much write themselves. Of course, the brainwashed will be unmoved....

gateley

(62,683 posts)
2. Not just the disaster response. I heard a meteorologist say that the National Hurricane Center's
Tue Oct 30, 2012, 01:57 PM
Oct 2012

predictions were perfect and helped areas be better prepared. Isn't that one of the agencies the R's want to defund?

octoberlib

(14,971 posts)
3. I'm sure it is.
Tue Oct 30, 2012, 02:06 PM
Oct 2012

They want to cut everything but subsidies to oil and gas, methinks. They even want to defund the FAA! We'll all be dead.

Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»2016 Postmortem»Why Democrats Are Right t...