Congressional Inaction, National Shame
There’s a $13.6 billion package of disaster relief money sitting on some shelf in a Congressional conference room, waiting to be passed. It includes hundreds of millions of aid money for farmers in south Georgia, as well as residents in north Florida, and Americans from Puerto Rico to Hawaii. But it’s been six months since Hurricane Michael made landfall as a (recently reclassified) Category Five Hurricane, wrecked Tyndall Air Force base, knocked down three-quarters of all the structures in Mexico Beach, and inflicted some $2.5 billion in devastation on the farms in south Georgia. Six months that people in Florida have been living in tents and farmers in Georgia have been going bankrupt. While FEMA has made some $1.1 billion available in grants and no-interest loans, most of the disaster relief package sits hostage to the only force more powerful than a CAT5 storm: congressional gridlock and partisan finger pointing.
While there’s plenty in Washington to be outraged at these days, this should be at the top of the list. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, told the Valdosta Daily Times that both sides are to blame: “He said the Republican side of the aisle failed to provide a formal request for disaster assistance, while the Democrats have used Puerto Rico as an excuse not to provide disaster relief for the areas that need it.”
Georgia Senator David Perdue, though, used Fox News to blame his Democrat colleagues by name and process: “Last December, disaster aid got caught up in the border security debate and was left out of the spending bill. Senate Republicans went back to Senate Democrats to see what was needed in order to make a deal on disaster relief as soon as possible.
I personally brought this updated request to the president, and he agreed to it.
Schumer watched carefully as Democratic senators cast their votes on the disaster relief bill. After the senior senator from California, Dianne Feinstein, voted “yes” on the bill – which includes billions for her state – the Democratic leader pulled her aside and then she switched her vote to “no.” At the same time, the other Democratic senator from California, Kamala Harris, was in Nevada campaigning for president and missed the vote entirely.”
Okay. Partisan points scored: 100! Actual good done: <null>
Relief to those whose businesses have been destroyed and homes have been flattened by natural disasters ought to have a higher priority than parsing the Mueller Report, playing semantic games about “wall” vs. “barrier,” or arguing how high a high crime has to be. Bragging to your fans about how much worse the other team is stupidly boring and counterproductive.
At its most basic level, our government was formed to protect the governed. It’s to our national shame that Congress is proving that it can’t protect the people it is supposed to serve, and if it can’t perform that most basic fucntion -in South Georgia, or Puerto Rico or Florida or anywhere- then what good are any of them?
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Mike Hassinger
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Once again you make a very weak attempt to blame the Dems for everything. Last time I checked Hurricane Michael hit landfall in early October 2018 when Republicans held every lever of power in Washington. In fact the mid-terms didn’t happen until November 6, 2018 fully a month later and Nancy Pelosi became speaker on January 3, 2019, three months later.
Let’s face it Donald Trump hates farmers. He used them as a cheap prop in his tarriff war. Then he promised them welfare payments they didn’t want. He was and is slow on delivering those welfare payments and now he’s moved on from them like the pimpled teen at prom just when they needed him most.
I might help if Kemp promised him tax breaks for a Trump Tower in Valdosta or told him he has big hands. Who knows what will motivate him to take his job seriously.
Stop this nonsense and urge your president and the two Perdue enablers to get serious about running the country and stop creating dehumanized bogey-men to explain every issue to the dumbdown “base.’
Here’s my theory: Trump loves big-corporation-farmers. Who wins when the smaller or family-owned farms go bankrupt? The big-corporation-farmers who buy up the assets at fire-sale prices.
Put on your parka, Satan, because I’m about to defend ol’ Hot Take Hassinger here:
His post wasn’t an attempt to blame the Democrats. He ran Austin Scott’s quote blaming both sides and he seems to be trying to convey that both parties share some blame here.
I would be remiss, however, if I didn’t note that Perdue’s op-ed conveniently fails to mention the role Donald Trump has to play in this whole matter. There’s a reason the Puerto Rico aid in Perdue’s bill is only for nutrition assistance, Trump has refused to support any additional assistance to the island. The Administration is currently withholding HUD grant funding that’s already been allocated for Puerto Rico. The Democrats want guarantees Puerto Rico will get that money, the White House refuses to play ball on that point. Meanwhile, the Adminstration’s own comms team can’t help but saying the quiet part loud by calling Puerto Rico “that country” as if the folks living there aren’t American citizens.
Let’s also not forget that McConnell controls what sees the Senate floor and he’s refusing to allow a vote on a Democratic bill that would provide the disaster aid Perdue purpotedly wants while also making sure Puerto Rico gets the money it needs and the money it’s alrwadg been promised, too. The issue isn’t partisan bickering, the issue is that Congress refuses to act like a co-equal branch of government. They could pass the Democratic bill with a veto proof majority in both houses, but McConnell isn’t going to publicly buck the President or force Trump into vetoing diaster aid.
Most of the word count in his partisan puff piece was devoted to talking points from Perdue. Not one word about Trump’s role in making every issue about the ” base”. Donald Trump is president of the USA, when are Republican going to tell him? Oh, never!
This isn’t a mainstream media site which would spend 99-100% of the article blaming Republicans and then throw in a sentence – or even just a clause – at the very beginning or end claiming that “both sides are to blame.” Look, every single U.S. print major media outlet except MAYBE the Wall Street Journal is ensconced within your echo chamber. Don’t expect a right-leaning blog to join it also.
One of the new rules is that the President is no longer the President of all Americans. Only his base, with just enough lip service to keep RINOs in line.