Would Republicans Really Refuse To Help Joplin ?

I'm sure you probably know by know that an F5 tornado (the most powerful rating) hit the community of Joplin, Missouri. So far, the death toll due to the twister rests at 125 people and the number of the injured is over 900 people. It is one of the deadliest tornadoes to ever strike in the United States.

But what you may not know is that House Republicans are using the disaster as an excuse to play politics. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) declared after the disaster that there would be no help for the tornado-ravaged city unless Congress could cut some government program to make up for it.

It has been obvious for a while now that Republicans don't care about ordinary Americans. They have proposed cutting programs that help hurting Americans like Social Security benefits, unemployment insurance, food stamps, education, family planning & women's health, Medicaid, and even gone so far as voting to abolish Medicare for the elderly. But holding disaster relief for the people of Joplin as hostage to their budget-cutting frenzy is a new low in mean-spirited politics.

The Republicans want to cut $1.5 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program at the Department of Energy (although they would only give 2/3 of that money to FEMA to help in Joplin). This program is to help develop clean-energy automobiles -- cars that would help to stop global climate change, which very likely is the cause of the Joplin tornado. That's not irony -- that's just mean and stupid. Note -- these same politicians refused to remove the subsidies from Big Oil (which would have been more money in the government's pocket and actually helped the climate).

Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Missouri) said, "When you talk about cutting clean energy programs versus cutting subsidies for big oil, let's have that debate here in Washington. But not on the backs of the people of Joplin."

The Republicans will probably get away with this horrible game they are playing with the lives of the people of Joplin. But I am left to wonder, what if the Senate refused to cut the money from that program and voted to give FEMA the money anyway? Would these Republicans vote to not help the people of Joplin?

Is there any bottom to how low the Republicans will stoop to find the money to give their corporate masters more tax cuts (while holding hurting Americans hostage to those budget cuts)?