Sandy Raging

Parasite politicians in New York and New Jersey, Republicans and Democrats alike, went ballistic with unrestrained rage last week when they found out that House Speaker John Boehner and the Republican leadership decided to allow the current term of Congress to expire without holding a vote on the $60.4 billion Senate giveaway bill originally proposed by President Obama as financial aid for those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., called the decision "absolutely inexcusable, absolutely indefensible. We cannot just walk away from our responsibilities… I would say the Republican Party has said it is the party of family values,… Last night it turned its back on the most essential value of all, and that is to provide food, shelter, clothing and relief for people who have been hit by a natural disaster. And I would say that the Republican Party has turned its back on those people."

"This is an absolute disgrace and the speaker should hang his head in shame," said Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.

"I'm here tonight saying to myself for the first time that I'm not proud of the decision my team has made," said Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. "It is the wrong decision, and I' m going to be respectful and ask that the speaker reconsider his decision. Because it's not about politics, it's about human lives."

"I truly feel betrayed this evening," said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.

"We need to be there for all those in need now after Hurricane Sandy," said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.

"We cannot leave here doing nothing. That would be a disgrace." moaned House Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.

New Jersey governor, Chris Christie whined: "Last night, the House majority failed a most basic test of leadership and they did so with callous disregard to the people of my state. ... It was disappointing and disgusting to watch… There's only one group to blame ... the House majority, and their Speaker, John Boehner."

Now, of course, I do indeed sympathize a great deal with all the folks affected adversely by Sandy. I sympathize with anyone who has experienced a devastating loss through no fault of their own. I have nothing against the government helping people who are the victims of a disaster.

But helping out is one thing. Simply giving away $64.4 billion in taxpayer dollars is another. These craven parasite politicians are actually demanding that the government reimburse all the states and their populations for all the losses caused by the storm without any provisions what-so-ever for paying any of the money back.

Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo, R-N.J., said Obama's request was not enough. "I disagree with President Obama's decision to not fully request the funding the states of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut say they need to recover and rebuild from the unimaginable, widespread damage caused by Hurricane Sandy," he cried.

If they want to whine and moan about disgraces – that is the disgrace.

We see this kind of thing time and time again after a natural disaster which affects a large number of a politician’s constituents. Large numbers of constituents amount to large numbers of potential votes, and it’s those votes that the politicians are concerned about – not the individuals who have suffered financial losses.

"Our Nation has an obligation to assist those who suffered losses and who lack adequate resources to rebuild their lives," acting Office of Management and Budget Director Jeffrey Zients said in a letter to Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Oh, yeah? Well, what about an obligation to individuals?

If John Q. Individual suffers a devastating financial loss through no fault of his own you can be absolutely certain that no politician will be demanding taxpayer dollars to cover the damage free of charge from the government treasury. Mr. Individual is simply shit-out-of-luck unless he has full coverage insurance paid for by expensive premiums to make him financially whole. There is no free lunch for him.

But if thousands of folks in his state or community suffer the same loss from the same kind of cause, well, they’re all of a sudden entitled to free money from the taxpayers in order to bail them out, courtesy of their local parasite politician.

If that money isn’t forthcoming right away, it’s a: “disgrace,” "absolutely inexcusable, absolutely indefensible,” “disgusting,” “a shameful betrayal,” “because it's not about politics, it's about human lives." Individual human lives can go suck on lemons, but if a multitude of potential voters is affected, that’s a different story entirely.

And we know for sure that much of the requested $64.4 billion is pork. That’s right, pure pork loin which has nothing to do with disaster relief to the poor victims of the storm. Rep. Paul Ryan, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, for example, has criticized the Democratic bill as "packed with funding for unrelated items, such as commercial fisheries in American Samoa and roof repair of museums in Washington, D.C."

Senate Republicans observed that $150 million would go to places in Alaska, the Gulf Coast and New England states for things like funding for fisheries, $2 million for roof repairs at Smithsonian Institution museums and $58 million in subsidies for tree planting on private properties.

We also know for certain that the government is totally incompetent when it comes to spending money wisely. Usually it simply doesn’t know what the Hell its doing. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), for example, told a group of first responders to the Sandy disaster to go “sightseeing” while the storm’s victims suffered and the agency decided how to deploy them.

One worker described a chaotic scene at New Jersey's Fort Dix, where emergency workers arrived as the storm bore down on the Atlantic Coast. He said that government officials at the staging area were unprepared and told the incoming responders there was nothing for them to do for nearly four days.

“They told us to hurry, hurry, hurry," he recalled. "We rushed to Fort Dix, only to find out that our liaison didn’t even know we were coming… The regional coordinator even said to us, ‘I don’t know why you were rushed here because we don’t need you,'… They told us to go to the Walmart nearby or to check out the area but told us to stay out of the areas affected by the storm… If our boss back at headquarters had not been alerted and didn’t make a push to get us assignments, the people running the show on the ground level would have just kept us sitting in the barracks.”

A FEMA administrator in Washington urged the regional team to get his people into the field after learning they were idled. "My people are being told to go sightseeing," he said in an e-mail.

So while Sandy was raging, and thousands were suffering, the government with all the taxpayer money bulging in its pockets was essentially doing nothing. But now the same parasites are raging about not getting all the money they requested from the taxpayers right away.

Sandy is still raging.