Is Eric Cantor nuts? Millions of people are facing down a category 3 hurricane headed towards the major cities on the east coast. Is this the kind of news they need to hear?
According to businessinsider.com:
A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that if there is any damage caused by Hurricane Irene requiring federal disaster funding, the money would have to be balanced out by spending cuts elsewhere in government.We aren’t going to speculate on damage before it happens, period,” his spokesperson Laena Fallon told TalkingPointsMemo. “But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts.”
If the storm causes damage while passing over highly populated areas as predicted, help from the federal government might not be quick in coming.
Already states from North Carolina to New York have declared states of emergency in preparation for the storm.
Part of governments job is protecting its citizens. There are times that people do all they can do to take care of themselves and it still doesn’t cut it. Obviously it can’t send an army to stop a hurricane, so it must help rebuild and repair. What is Eric Cantor thinking? Is he playing tough guy or is he just stupid and insensitive?
Yes,
I cannot fathom that comment. He should defund NOAA to pay for damages (sarcasm alert). He also said the same thing for the earthquake damage – http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/cantor-cost-cutting-will-offset-earthquake-damage/2011/08/24/gIQAT81xbJ_video.html – but I question if the Federal’s actually have a role in the earthquake damage, which was quite small.
But what if it wasn’t small, Pat? What if bridges and highways were damaged, for instance? How much will it cost to repair the Washington Monument?
I just think Cantor is an irresponsible politician who is so married to his ideology he cannot make rational decisions. Time for his sorry butt to go.
I agree Moon. I wonder if Eric will want to tear down the Washington Monument – might be cheaper than fixing it.
Probably. He can sell it chunk by chunk to the real Patriots…own a little piece of the monunment.
See the pictures of Agnes, Eric, you smug little ^&*()_ prep school so and so!!!!!! Tell me you wouldn’t offer federal assistance to the people in this area! He is too far removed from real people. I still fear for VRS because his wife is chairman of that board of directors. He isn’t real pension friendly. Do you suppose her best interest serve the fund being married to him?
So much is needed by people who have been around floods, starting with typhoid shots.
I think he is nuts saying no Fed assistance especially if infrastructure is damaged. But on a sidenote, back in 2003, then NC Governor Easley announced the State would stop repairing the Outer Banks after ‘caines and just let nature take it’s course with the Barrier Islands. He had a point there.
Does it really need to be said that he didn’t say that funding would be available but rather that on the backend the numbers have to be juggled around to afford the outlay?
It’s just a scaled down version of the conversations we private citizens have at our dinner table. The car needs repairs. We didn’t budget for it. So, what do we lose today to make those repairs? Maybe we don’t treat ourselves to Applebee’s this month. Maybe we dip into our savings? Maybe we ask lil’ Johnny to get a job and pitch in for the family.. Those are all things done on the backend to confront the front-end issue of an unplanned expense that must be dealt with (like an emergency).
I see no traction here. But, if you guys want to *itch about something.. I’d look at the payroll tax issue. That one you can score points on.
Gonna get right on that, are ya?
His jurisdiction isn’t in the path. Simple and very easy for him to say.
Well, if you could get Chris Christie to back him up today on that statement, I’d say we’re getting somewhere.
@Raymond Beverage
OBX brings in a huge amount of revenue to the state. Most of the revenue is not tied to good roads or schools. Kids come for a week and leave, as tourists. The roads haven’t seen major improvements in decades.
The governor might have made a really stupid statement. Furthermore, many who live there have some big bucks.
@SlowpokeRodriguez
I won’t need to if he keeps that attitude up and his district gets hit like it did during Camille. His constituents will run him out of town on a rail.
I agree with Marin. There are limited resources, There has to be a prioritization of projects. Money spent in one area means less money must be spent somewhere else. I don’t understand why his comments are controversial. It seems to be common sense.
Check out what Hurricane Camille did to his district. Scroll down to Virginia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Camille
People need to take the warnings seriously. It is very fearful to see something like this hurricane coming at you. People need to be reassured, not made to think that their government is abandoning them.
Alanna, so if the roof blew off your house, you wouldn’t fix it until you had the cash? How are things going to go down at Camp Alanna.
And your government isn’t your family. Bad analogy Marin.
If my roof caved in, I would use my credit card or get a home equity loan, I would not live in sqaulor. Furthermore, NEVER in all my life, have I EVER seen or heard this conversation take place. When Katrina hit, I did not hear a peep about cutting down on our defense spending to cover the billions needed to those hard hit regions. Our debt has been grown exponentially in the last decade, true. But this country has ALWAYS carried some debt, just like EVERYONE on this blog. I have a house payment, a car payment, and a small standing balance of a few credit cards. Granted, nothing overwhelming, but still DEBT. Where will the cuts come from, will Canot suggest instead we have tax increase from citizens to PAY for the infrastructure needs? Doubtfully, instead, most likely, he will look to the most vulnerable in our society to bear the burden.
@Elena
Or you could apply for a govt loan if your insurance didn’t cover it all.
Why all of a sudden are we supposed to live like a third world nation? Sorry I don’t have proper debt guilt or something.
Maybe he could just take everyone’s social security, or ever better, take everyone in congress’s pay check including their f-ing benefits. Bet that would add up!
@Elena
“PAY for the infrastructure needs? ”
See the “stimulus” bills. Oh. That’s right. That money went to other things than the “shovel ready” projects that were said to be the target.
What I hear Cantor saying is – let’s have a discussion of where the money is going to come from to pay for this. Let’s just not pay for it now and worry about the rest later. Let’s figure out from which pot we are going to be pulling the funds from. His response seems reasonable.
Cargo,
Are you pursposefuly being obtuse? Infratsturcture needs from the the Hurricane damage. Disaster relief is not “stimulus”.
Alanna,
The issue I have is that there is already a discussion, one that created an unnessary crisis in this country over the debt. Eric Cantor is a hyprocrite of the worst kind. He voted for every war, medicare prescription drug act, both Bush tax cuts, emergency aid for all the stated devestated by Katrina and never ONCE asked how the United States would pay for these very costly ventures.
NOW he cares about how to pay for disaster relief? Really? He is completely disingenous in my opinion. He refused to talk about revenue as part of debt reduction and ONLY entertains cutting from those who can least afford it, the most vulnerable in our society. I am all for entitlement reform, but not as the only solution to our debt problem.
Why would he make such a statement while people are preparing for a huge storm? Eric Cantor might want to look at how stingy response to Hurricane Andrew impacted the 1992 election. Cantor can probably count on getting Itene-boated next election for his remarks.
When we as a nation help out at every other natural disaster anywhere in the world, it only makes sense that the American people receive the help that they need.
NYC is looking pretty vulnerable at the moment. I bet those folks could sure dump a lot of money into the campaign of any challenger to oust Cantor. Its just more of that brinksmanshiip talk again.
•With damages worth $40.7 billion, hurricane Andrew was a costly Atlantic hurricane, second only to Hurricane Katrina which caused damages worth $89.6 billion.
Daddy Bush had federal response to Andrew used against him during the election of 1992. His own response time was cited as well as federal response time. Homestead, FL was flattened.
It’s really simple. Eric Cantor is NOT affected by this storm – easy to say anything.
He must be vacationing in Colorado at the moment then.
re Cantor
Well, let’s see what damage reports come out of the 7th.