GOP Refuses To Help Hurricane Victims

A couple of nights ago, a few Republican House members joined Democrats and made sure that taxes won't go up for over 98% of Americans. Even though most of the House GOP voted against the tax cuts, some of us had hoped that those that did vote with the Democrats had a crisis of conscience and were maybe now willing to act for the benefit of the American people. Unfortunately, that was not true. It looks like they voted that way simply to protect their own political careers, because almost immediately after that vote they joined their GOP colleagues in proving they are still hard-hearted and mean-spirited when it comes to helping hurting Americans.

You all know about Hurricane Sandy, which struck the East Coast shortly before the election and caused serious damage to several states -- especially New York and New Jersey. For nearly two months now the victims of that storm have been waiting for Congress to act and approve the emergency disaster relief that they need so badly. The Senate finally approved that disaster relief and sent it to the House. There were 32 senators who voted against giving disaster relief to the victims of Hurricane Sandy -- all of them Republicans (and they are listed in the graphic above).

It was hoped that the House would also act to approve the disaster relief after voting on the tax cuts. They did not. It a move that could only be called heartless, the House Republicans refused to even allow the disaster relief bill to come to the House floor. They wouldn't allow the bill to be debated or voted on, and instead adjourned after the tax cut vote. That means the bill will not be approved in the 112th Congress, and will have to wait for the 113th Congress to be sworn in. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was not happy, and blasted his GOP colleages:

"Last night, the House of Representatives failed that most basic test of public service and they did so with callous indifference to the suffering of the people of my state."

"There is only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: the House majority and their Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)." Historically, "disaster relief was something that you didn’t play games with, but now in this current atmosphere everything is a subject of one-upmanship.It  is why the American people hate Congress."

"Shame on you, shame on Congress. My hope is that the good people in Congress will prevail upon their colleagues to finally put aside the politics and help our people now."

Those are strong words, and well-deserved by the congressional Republicans. Maybe the governor should consider joining a party that cares about ordinary Americans. I'm sure there would be a place for the honest and pragmatic governor, who has already shown he can work with anyone to get help for his constituents, in the Democratic Party.

NOTE -- It looks like the House GOP has been embarrassed by their ridiculous maneuver the other night. Reacting to the public outrage, Speaker Boehner has now said that the new Congress will vote on $9 billion in immediate aid on Friday, and will debate the rest of the aid on January 15th. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see significant GOP opposition at that time to the relief though. There seems to be no bottom to how low the Republican Party will go.