Am I the only one who notices just how smoothly and effortlessly the Democrat Party plays the American people and establishment Republican leadership?
Basic timeline:
Last week of October: Hurricane Sandy visited destruction upon the East Coast, most severely New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.
First week of November: With the presidential election just days away, Obama lands in New Jersey to get bear hugged by Gov'r Chris Christie in order to give off a semblance of "bi-partisanship," and to secure extra votes from stupid Americans who actually thinks Obama caaaares about them. (Indeed it worked: Exit polls showed many still-undecided voters ended up pulling the lever for the president because it look like he cared about Sandy victims). Stupid-ass Christie took the bait.
First week of December: It took the administration over a month to formally request hurricane relief funding from Congress. Requested amount: $60 billion. (But remember: Obama really cares.) By stark contrast, George W. Bush got $51 billion in Katrina relief funding requested, approved by Congress, and on his desk for signing in less than two weeks. (But remember: George W. Bush hates people, especially black people.)
Mid-December: The Senate releases its first draft of the relief bill, which is laden with pork and goodies for items and locales not remotely related to Sandy! Such expenditures include:
- $500 million to the NOAA (one full tenth of its annual expenditures nationwide). Part of that includes $150 for fishery disasters, including those having taken place as far as Mississippi and Alaska;
- $50 million for the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund (double its yearly funding);
- $5.4 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers and $12.1 billion to the Transportation; Department, mostly to rebuild public transit in the affected areas or to pay for projects that could prevent problems in other transit systems;
- Over $200 million for the VA Manhattan Medical Center;
- $100 million to Head Start programs;
- $41 million to fix up eight military bases along the storm’s path, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba;
- $4 million for repairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida;
- Over $3 million for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a federal research facility on Long Island, N.Y.
- $1.1 million to repair national cemeteries;
- $2 million to repair roofs on the Smithsonian in D.C.;
- Over $7 million to replace vehicles and/or repair buildings and equipment belonging to an array of federal agencies, including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration;
- Nearly $11 billion for public transportation, which FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe explains is mostly "allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief";
- $17 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which Kibbe says "has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program" and which Heritage Foundation's Patrick Louis Knudsen describes as an embarrassingly transparent slush fund."
- $13 billion for “mitigation” projects to prepare for future storms.
That's not all, but when you add this all up, not even half of the $60 billion would be going to help private citizens whose lives were uprooted by Hurricane Sandy.
Last two weeks of December: Despite criticism of Congressional Republicans and some of the news media, the bill sat languishing on the Hill without one penny of pork being stripped.
It bears noting that not all, but the lion's share of this pork was put in there by Senate Democrats. Indeed, the bill was co-sponsored by Chucky Schmucky Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Bob "Dominican prostitutes? What Dominican prostitutes?" Menendez (D-N.J.). Democrats knew that when it came to the Republican-led House voting, there would be one of two outcomes:
(A) The bill would be passed and all their cronies, home states, and pet agencies would get their taxpayer-funded goodies, all the while conning the American people into thinking they really care about them.
(B) The House Republicans would refuse to sign the bill, making them look really callous and cold for holding up such an urgent bill out of ideological spite and petty politics.
First week of January: As we catch up to the present tense, one of the above predictions comes true. Yesterday outcome (B) happened: GOP House leader Boehner and enough Republicans refuse to sign the bill, and it goes down in the defeat.
(That would make it the second time in one week Boehner and the House Republicans got played by the Democrat Party, the "fiscal cliff" "deal" being the first time.)
Here is where N.J. Gov'r Christie and N.Y. Congressman Pete King come in. Not only did Boehner and the House Republicans get branded Scrooge of the Century by the usual suspects (Democrats in Washington and the lib media), but both Christie and King took to the mic to lambaste their fellow Republicans for playing petty politics and putting their own interests above the people.
At his press conference yesterday, Christie said,
"Unfortunately people are putting politics ahead of their responsibilities... You do the right thing. Enough with all the politics ... We respond as Americans, at least we did until last night... it was disgusting to watch. ... In our hour of desperate need, we've been left waiting for help six times longer than the victims of Katrina with no end in sight ... Sixty-six days and counting, shame on you. Shame on Congress."
On the House floor, Rep. King even more hostile. He threatened not to support the reelection of Boehner as House Speaker and said Americans shouldn't even donate money to House Republicans. He used the words "betrayal" and "cruel knife in the back."
These might as well have been Democrats talking!
Sorry, guys, but you are both sorely mistaken. It's the Democrats, who over two weeks ago presented a $60 bill filled over 50% with pork, who are playing petty politics and not putting the American people first.
Instead of bashing Boehner, Christie and King should be castigating the Democrats. This pork had no business being in there in the first place. If they didn't stick it in there, the bill wouldn't have been voted down!
Unfortunately, Christie and King played right into the hands of the Democrat-media complex: They're now being used as pawns to further paint the Republican Party as cruel and heartless. And, may I add, Mr. Christie: You, sir, have an election coming up this November. You wouldn't happen to be playing Mister Bi-Partisan, Mister Populist right now for that reason, hmmmm? If so (And I, for one, do believe that to be so), then it is you who are putting your own personal political interests over the people.
As for you, Mr. King: In the arena national security/defense you are a patriot and deserve respect. In this instance, though, you are playing the boneheaded self-interested politician you accuse Boehner of doing.
So where are we now? Well, as of late last night, it was already being reported that Boehner was starting to cave and will approve an initial installment of the requested funding.
What of the rest of the $60 bil? Will it contain the pork, or will Democrats be asked to remove it?
What difference does it make? The damage has been done and the Democrats got what they wanted:
A Republican Party whose strength and influence in D.C. have been severely damaged and whose popularity with the American people is sure to plunge even further from the gutter-level depths it has already been.
And a Democrat Party who, knowing full well our nation is already $16 trillion in the hole, has no problem adding tens of billions of pork into a bill intended to help hurricane victims, and who will come out of this, no matter what happens, squeaky clean.
No thanks to Chris Christie and Peter King.
UPDATE (1/4): I can't believe who actually has the same opinion as I on this issue ... Nanny Bloomberg! Well, sorta. He thinks both sides are to blame. How egalitarian.
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