When Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan, and Mick Mulvaney (now Trump’s budget director) insisted that any disaster relief had to be offset by budget cuts.
They said the bill was loaded with pork. It wasn’t.
Will they insist that the disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey be offset by cuts? Will they complain about any disaster relief for Texas and Louisiana? Of course not. Nor should they.
Maybe Hurricane Harvey will teach them that there actually is a need for a strong federal government to help people who are in need. Maybe they will discover that problems of epic size can’t be solved by volunteers alone, though volunteer help has been necessary and wonderful. Maybe they will learn something about the importance of the common good, not selfish individualism. Maybe I’m a foolish optimist.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This came in an email from the WH:
“Trump surveys Harvey damage, calls for recovery ‘better than ever before’”
– Alex Pappas in Fox News
……………………………..
It figures that The Orange IDIOT would have a recovery ‘much better than ever before’. What will he say when the bill for all of this comes in?
I’ve never understood the need for ‘small government’ since the need to help people cannot be met by churches, non-profit organizations or volunteers alone. Is a red state going to change its color when it is in need? Is there hope that the US will begin caring about humanitarian issues?
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Cruz and Ryan are thuggish, sociopathic creeps. Ryan pretends he’s a “good Catholic”, but his brand of cruel, uncompassionate Catholicism was recently exposed for what it really is: Randian Libertarianism which exalts the greedy, selfish individual while holding the society and the Common Good in contempt, as that other sociopath, Maggie (“There is no such thing as society.”) Thatcher did.
See how a Catholic nun took Ryan down a few pegs:
Article: Paul Ryan Debated a Nun and the Nun Won | OpEdNews
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Paul-Ryan-Debated-a-Nun-an-by-John-Nichols-Catholic_Medicaid_Medicare_Paul-Ryan-170828-512.html
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Too bad Cruz and Ryan did not drown in the Texas floods. That would be the most effective lesson for them.
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I bet Cruz and Ryan will give aid to families that lost second homes in Texas but deny aid to the poor. Sorry, I am not optimistic. We have a flood insurance program that helps people who want to live on the coasts and rivers, but balks at helping the people who have to live there.
Back when the antiquated dike system failed New Orleans during Katrina, it was followed closely by Rita. My conservative students came in mouthing sloganesque mantras about how much better Houston handled its hurricane. Ironically, it was the poor part of the Mississippi coast that took the brunt of the record storm surge in Katrina. New Orleans was a failure of government, national government, instead of a natural disaster.
Government should organize for people who do not have enough material wealth to help themselves. On his deathbed, the sun King, Louis XIV, was said to have begged his five year old great grandson to take a different course than he had. Instead of building exorbitant palaces and digging expensive wars for power, Louis advised, see to the needs of your subjects. But the kid was only five. How could he listen? He was not college-ready, I guess. He made the same mistakes as Louis XV.
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Off with their heads!!!!!!!!!!!
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Democrats and Northern Republicans should make Cruz publicly apologize for shafting Sandy victims before voting to help Texas.
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If I were Schumer, I would announce the Democrats intention to vote for a generous package of assistance contingent on a Republican apology.
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You get what you vote for.
………
How Texas Lawmakers Failed To Plan For Climate Change And Harvey Floods
BY JAY CASSANO
With rising sea levels and increased rainfall, experts agree, climate change made the flooding from Hurricane Harvey far worse than it would have been even a decade ago. The Texas legislature had multiple opportunities to create a “climate adaptation plan” that could have resulted in preparations, but the bills were killed every time. The sponsor of the legislation told International Business Times that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry made sure that the climate adaptation bills would not pass.
“When I filed that legislation, then-Governor Perry’s legislative staff told me that no legislation that had climate change in it would get out of committee,” former Texas state representative Lon Burnam told IBT. “They came to our office and said to stop filing these bills: ‘We’ll never let it out of committee.’”
Houston is the heart of the nation’s fossil fuels industry, making the discussion of climate change post-Hurricane Harvey particularly relevant. The Texas state government has been widely criticized for being beholden to oil industry interests. Campaign finance records bear out that claim: Over the last two election cycles, Texas state lawmakers have received more than $11.3 million from the oil and gas industry, including $2.3 million for Texas State House Speaker Joe Straus. Former Gov. Perry, now Donald Trump’s Secretary of Energy, received more than $1.6 million from the oil and gas industry during his very brief 2016 presidential run. As governor of Texas, he received more than $10 millionacross three elections, including $6 million in the 2010 race.
“Because of the total Republican control of the legislature, it’s very easy for the governor to tell committee chairs to not let any bills mentioning climate change out of their committee,” said Burnam….Burnam blamed “multiple bad public policy decisions over the decades” for leaving Houston and other areas vulnerable to deadly flooding…
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/how-texas-lawmakers-failed-plan-climate-change-harvey-floods-2583983
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Texas needs to update and improve its levee system. Houston has flooded several times before because the storm ditches fill up and the water has no place to go but backing up on people’s property.
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The Ayn Randian/libertarian GOP legislators are without conscience, shame, empathy or compassion unless you happen to be a billionaire or a giant corporation. Texas Rep. Ted Poe said that those people without home insurance would be on their own as regards aid for rebuilding. These TX GOP gargoyles will scream for aid for their own state but the east coast can go to hell as far as they are concerned.
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“Maybe I’m a foolish optimist.”
Foolish? NO
Optimist? YES Better than the alternative, especially when matched with a lot of savvy and well-placed outrage at injustice.
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You are a foolish optimist … and I am proud to be a member of your club.
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After Harvey is done wreaking its havoc, will the Deformers decide to swoop in, fire all the teachers, close the public schools and send in KIPP to the rescue? There are profits to be made after all. Deformers – they love a good natural disaster.
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