Opportunity that is, to take advantage of the disaster to pursue a political agenda. As though the Republican party has not pursued enough shameful policies and tactics in the last two years, they are now delving into a deeper part of the abyss.
Today, the House of Representatives rejected a spending measure that would have provided disaster relief for the victims of recent natural disasters - notably Hurricane Irene. In fairness, many of those who voted against the measure were Democrats who protested that not enough funding was available to the victims. However for the House to pass anything Republicans must carry most of the vote and enough Republicans joined Democrats for this bill to fail. Unfortunately the motivation of the Republican bloc was somewhat different than their Democratic counterparts. Whereas Democrats did not vote for the bill because it didn't provide for the victims, Republicans rejected it because it didn't offset that limited funding with cuts elsewhere. That's right America, Republicans will only help those in need if they can find a way to take money away from others in need.
As disgraceful as this is, the hypocrisy of it is just as appalling. Certainly even those who believe in small and limited government should recognize that if government has any responsibility at all it is to help those who have been struck by calamity, but now we have abandoned even that principle. Now all we care about is cutting funding. Somehow it seems a little late for that. As Nancy Pelosi pointed out, "We never paid for tax cuts for the rich. We never paid for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."
Ms. Pelosi has a point, the only time that we need to offset spending with cuts is when the spending benefits Americans in need. When spending is for outrageously expensive foreign wars or to pad the wallets of the wealthiest Americans we can do it at will. In other words, spending only needs to be offset with cuts when the spending is being done by a Democrat. And when that Democrat wants to spend money to help those in need then it is acceptable to use those people as hostages to extract concessions.
The Republican party has swung so far to the right that those running the show represent a fringe minority with no ideas for how to govern, no vision for America's future and no empathy for their countrymen. Despite being a small minority of the party's elected members, these radicals have monopolized the national conversation and forced party leadership into uncomfortable positions with their ferocious stupidity and tenacious refusal to compromise. They have exacerbated America's suffering since their election and now, when some in our nation need help recovering from a hurricane they are willing to use those people as hostages to get even more of what they want. Unfortunately, more of what they want is more of what is bad for our nation.
Next year Americans will be faced with two fundamentally different versions of how to run our country. Neither group has all the answers and our country would be well served if both groups would be more willing to compromise and answer tough questions about the future of our nation. But one party - even if their ideas are not perfect - shows empathy and vision. The other party offers us the failed policies of the past and refuses to help their countrymen.
If the world's greatest country cannot find the money to assist those in need that is indeed a problem. But this is not an issue of can or cannot. It is an issue of will or will not. And those pulling the strings in the Republican party will not vote to aid Americans in need.
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