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GOP Senator says disaster relief for California fires should come with “strings attached” [1]
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Date: 2025-01-13
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) says that Federal disaster relief funds distributed to California should be treated differently than similar funds sent to MAGA states. Proving that, for Republicans, it is always too soon to do something about gun massacres. But it is always the right time to play politics during a disaster — as long as it’s in a blue state.
On Sunday, Barrasso explained his philosophy on CBS’s Face the Nation. Margaret Brennan set the stage by asking the GOP’s #2 Senator about Congress’s plans for aid to California to help it recover from LA’s ongoing fires.
BRENNAN: There's a busy week ahead in the Senate, but before I get to that business, I do want to ask you about these fires in California. Do you expect that Congress will have to provide an additional aid package, and if so, when?
Barrasso replied with some pro forma sympathy and a shoutout to his home team.
BARRASSO: What we're seeing is heartbreaking. It’s horrible, affecting people, old and young, rich and poor. Everyone in the Wyoming National Guard is there on the scene, helping with manpower as well as equipment.
So far so good. Then Barrasso, being a Republican, turned to rumormongering and the GOP’s talking points — I apologize for repeating myself. He offered the quickly agreed-upon lies and distortions to play politics with tragedy.
BARRASSO: When you see what's being shown on television, in addition to the tragedy on the ground, you're also seeing gross mismanagement in California by elected officials, and it's heartbreaking to hear the fire chief say that they've diverted all of this money away from the fire department to be used for social programs when they were already stretched too thin. So yes, I expect there's going to be hearings, there's going to be requests of Congress.
Of course, there’s going to be hearings. It’s what Republicans schedule in DC to pretend they are doing something to earn their taxpayer-funded salaries and expense accounts. In the GOP’s Alice in MAGAland, words speak louder than actions.
Also, those who assume GOP congressional hearings are exercises in uncovering the truth should gird themselves for disappointment. RW Reps ask questions for self-promotion and witness flagellation, not elucidation. Should any testimony run counter to the official propaganda, some reactionary motormouth will interrupt to drown it out. A Republican hearing has all the disinterested fairness of a Soviet show trial.
Barrasso then got the boot in:
Barrasso: There can't be a blank check on this, however, because people want to make sure that as rebuilding occurs, as things go on in California, they have to be resilient, so that these sorts of things can't happen again. And the policies of the liberal administration out there, I believe have made these fires worse.
By his choice of words, Barrasso has let the cat out of the bag. He already “believes”. That is not what open-minded truth-seekers say.
Margaret then asked John if, in his desire to stick it to Dems, he was prepared to make the victims — many of whom are Republican — suffer.
BRENNAN: Do you expect, though, that Congress and Republicans will still help these Americans in need, even if they don't like their local politics in the party?
The Senator is not so far gone (give it time) to say he would deny aid to American taxpayers. But he again confirmed that any hearings would be window-dressing as he already ‘knew’ that Democrats had been naughty.
BARRASSO: I expect that there will be strings attached to money that is ultimately approved, and it has to do with being ready the next time, because this was a gross failure this time.
This is not the first time a blue state has had its paid-into disaster relief threatened. In 2012, Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn both voted against federal aid for NJ and NY after Hurricane Sandy’s catastrophic landfall.
Then Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2013. And they were both cap-in-hand, begging Congress for cash. When he was excoriated for his hypocrisy, Cruz tried to explain that Harvey was different from Sandy. He said he wasn’t against relief. He was voting against pork.
This two-tier approach to disaster aid confirms that, to conservatives, money going to liberal states is pork. While money going to God’s country is what Jesus would have voted for. It must be. Because the Bible Belt has 8 out of the top 10 states receiving FEMA aid (TX, FL, GA, SC, NC, LA, AL, MS) — blue states have 2 (CA, NY). And let’s not get started on the relative contributions made by red vs blue states to federal revenues. Republicans say they are against welfare. But what they mean is that they are against support for poor people, not poor states.
However, while I could dismiss Barrasso and his teammates as hypocritical and avaricious sadists, who think red states should be untroubled by oversight while blue states should suffer the Spanish Inquisition, in the spirit of fiscal probity and general comity, I propose a compromise. California can receive Federal dollars with strings attached. MAGA states can receive Confederate dollars with no strings attached.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/1/13/2296788/-GOP-Senator-says-disaster-relief-for-California-fires-should-come-with-strings-attached
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