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I disagree. We all pay Federal income taxes equally, we should all receive equal Federal help when needed.
Politics is just politics. A lot of stupid stuff gets said by politicians for political reasons.
That shouldn't stop us from doing the right thing.
Well, we don't really pay taxes equally. Higher earners typically pay more taxes. Higher earners in states with a high cost of living like NJ are taxed the same as lower COL states like Texas. So we actually pay more of our relative income to support states like Texas than the people earning the same amount in Texas pay. But people like Ted Cruz think we don't deserve federal disaster aid if the bill has "pork" in it. Again, I'm waiting to see if he supports a Harvey aid bill if it contains non- Harvey spending.
Location: Big Island of Hawaii & HOT BuOYS Sailing Vessel
5,277 posts, read 2,784,452 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by katygirl68
Still on about this?
So far we have 18 casualties, and they were awful. If we had tried to evacuate before the storm it would probably be 1800 or more casualties. You really don't know the scale of this storm or the unpredictability of where it would flood before it hits. And you definitely don't understand mass exodus of cars from a city unless you live in Houston, where we experienced it a few years ago during the Hurricane Rita evacuation. I don't know a single person in Houston that thinks we should have had evacuation orders.
You want to evacuate a city this large, you better have at least a week to do it and even then it would be bad.
No, my figure is between 200 and 300 thousand.
I think Houston highways can easily safely move this number of people in 4 days notice to higher ground. Don't you?
I think the point was that storms don't cause much damage compared to Cat 4 hurricanes, problem is that it not true in many cases. The damage caused by Harvey was not mainly due to the hurricane force winds.
How soon people forget. Here's the pork money from the Sandy bill put in by Democrats to get it passed (only half the bill was actually for Sandy relief):
"Consider just a handful of the goodies contained in the final legislation:
$150 million for Alaska fisheries (Hurricane Sandy was on the east coast of the US; Alaska is the country’s western most tip);
$2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in Washington, D.C. (a city largely unaffected by Hurricane Sandy);
$8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments (at the time of the Sandy supplemental, these agencies already had 620,000 cars between them);
$1.1 million to repair national cemeteries (because why not?);
$821 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge waterways with no relation to Hurricane Sandy (the Corps never likes to waste a disaster);
$10 million for FBI salaries and expenses (it seemed like a good idea);
$118 million for AMTRAK ($86 million to be used on non-Sandy related Northeast corridor upgrades)."
The Sandy bill came up during a lame-duck session, and Dems packed it with pork to get "reluctant" senators to vote for it.
The House broke the bill down, got it passed, which then passed by overwhelming support. The House had to be the adult in the room to get the bill passed.
How soon people forget. Here's the pork money from the Sandy bill put in by Democrats to get it passed:
"Consider just a handful of the goodies contained in the final legislation:
$150 million for Alaska fisheries (Hurricane Sandy was on the east coast of the US; Alaska is the country’s western most tip);
$2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in Washington, D.C. (a city largely unaffected by Hurricane Sandy);
$8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments (at the time of the Sandy supplemental, these agencies already had 620,000 cars between them);
$1.1 million to repair national cemeteries (because why not?);
$821 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge waterways with no relation to Hurricane Sandy (the Corps never likes to waste a disaster);
$10 million for FBI salaries and expenses (it seemed like a good idea);
$118 million for AMTRAK ($86 million to be used on non-Sandy related Northeast corridor upgrades)."
The Sandy bill came up during a lame-duck session, and Dems packed it with pork to get "reluctant" senators to vote for it.
The House broke the bill down, got it passed, which then passed by overwhelming support. The House had to be the adult in the room to get the bill passed.
Again. Almost all of that is disaster relief for incidents that were declared federal disaster emergencies
For instance the Alaska fishery allocation. That was declared a federal disaster the year before but they never received funds. Why? Well how many electoral votes is Alaska worth. If the same thing occurred say in NY or Texas the funds would be there.
I think the point was that storms don't cause much damage compared to Cat 4 hurricanes, problem is that it not true in many cases. The damage caused by Harvey was not mainly due to the hurricane force winds.
This is correct. Storm surge and flooding from the stalled storm are the biggest contributors to damage and loss.
Some of the most costly storms share a similarity there.
How soon people forget. Here's the pork money from the Sandy bill put in by Democrats to get it passed:
"Consider just a handful of the goodies contained in the final legislation:
$150 million for Alaska fisheries (Hurricane Sandy was on the east coast of the US; Alaska is the country’s western most tip);
$2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in Washington, D.C. (a city largely unaffected by Hurricane Sandy);
$8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments (at the time of the Sandy supplemental, these agencies already had 620,000 cars between them);
$1.1 million to repair national cemeteries (because why not?);
$821 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge waterways with no relation to Hurricane Sandy (the Corps never likes to waste a disaster);
$10 million for FBI salaries and expenses (it seemed like a good idea);
$118 million for AMTRAK ($86 million to be used on non-Sandy related Northeast corridor upgrades)."
The Sandy bill came up during a lame-duck session, and Dems packed it with pork to get "reluctant" senators to vote for it.
The House broke the bill down, got it passed, which then passed by overwhelming support. The House had to be the adult in the room to get the bill passed.
People are just misled by the msm and really have no clue on who voted for what or in some cases even who their actual representatives are. They just read a headline or a rachel maddow quick little piece and they are off to the races without having a clue about the sandy bill and who voted for what.
The $17 billion to help those left homeless in the wake of the storm that was immediately necessary was approved. The Senate had already passed, with Cruz's and Cornyn's approval, $9.7 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency aid, right after Sandy hit. The Senate approved the package immediately by voice vote. Cornyn and Cruz didn't object at all.
Alot of politicians from all over the country had questions about stuff in the second bill. not just in Texas. Non emergency stuff should go through the standard appropriations process instead of being rushed through under the cover of emergency funding. That doesn't make all these national politicians hypocrites for asking what was in the bill.
Cruz and Cornyn won't be guilty of hypocrisy unless they use Hurricane Harvey as political cover to sneak through non-emergency funding without proper oversight.
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