Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) told ThinkProgress at a Hispanic Leadership Network luncheon that Republicans should take a similar approach with disaster funding for Hurricane Isaac as they did after natural disasters last year. In 2011, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) led the Republican charge to deny disaster funding following major hurricanes and tornadoes unless the federal budget was cut in other areas.
Labrador said that Congress must “readjust everything we do” in order to find cuts to pay for Hurricane Isaac disaster relief. “If there’s emergencies, we don’t always need to keep borrowing money,” said the freshman Republican.
Here's the thing. We don't need to borrow money. Disaster relief funds are already in the budget and Republicans know it. That's why they're trying to get rid of funding disasters ahead of time.
As Hurricane Isaac bears down on the Gulf Coast, there should be plenty of money — some $1.5 billion — in federal disaster aid coffers, thanks, in part, to a new system that budgets help for victims of hurricanes, tornadoes and floods before they occur.
It's a system that Paul Ryan, the Republican nominee-to-be for vice president, had hoped to scrap as a way to make his House GOP budget look smaller by about $10 billion a year. Politely, party elders told him no way, at least for now.
Do you think that if Romney/Ryan win and the GOP gets control of the Senate that disaster relief will still exist? What do you think?
The answer of course is that it will exist for those who vote Republican. They're eager to give rural red state farmers hundreds of millions to make up for lost crops in this year's drought. But urban hellholes like New Orleans?
How long can you tread water?
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