Thursday, September 8, 2011

Disaster Prone Strategy

I know I give Harry Reid a hard time most of the time (OK, nearly always) but he's got the right idea here:  to put Republicans on the spot by offering a clean disaster aid bill in the Senate.

"We need to get this relief funding to the American people as quickly as we can, and we're going to do that -- I'm going to bring a free-standing bill, and we're going to have a chance to vote on it," Reid told reporters at his weekly Capitol briefing Wednesday. "Some of my Republican colleagues are trying to -- I was going to say something that was vulgar and I'm not going to do that -- are trying to cater to the Tea Party by holding up relief efforts."

Reid singled out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) who was an early, vocal advocate for offsetting. I put in a request for comment on Reid's specific plan with Cantor's office, but it's worth pointing out that Cantor addressed this to some extent earlier Wednesday. "I am for making sure people get their money [and] that there will be no hold up," he told reporters. 

So go ahead Republicans, vote against disaster relief for the Gulf Coast, the Carolinas, the mid-Atlantic states and New England.   By all means, hang Texas, North and South Carolina, New Hampshire, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama out to dry, GOP.  You do that.  Reap that little whirlwind.

Smart, smart move by Reid for once.  I applaud it...because after all, disaster bills SHOULD be clean.

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