As most of you know, Joplin Missouri was hit by an EF-5 tornado Sunday… the most powerful tornado on the scale, with winds at 200 mph.
Longtime readers know that I live in St. Louis Missouri… on the other side of the state.
Pause…collect thyself…continue.
When 122 people are dead…when a city has been leveled…when people are searching for over 1,500 missing loved ones…when disaster stretches out as far as the eye can see…when the storms keep coming and the warning sirens sound again…
Now is not the time to use massive devastation as leverage to negotiate spending cuts in the federal budget.
So far this week I’ve learned that my co-workers in Joplin are alive…that a board member lost his home…that friends are traveling to Joplin to help out with medical care.
I learned that over a thousand people are unaccounted for in Joplin…and, I hope beyond hope that they are just out of touch due to the overwhelming communication drama impacting the area.
And yesterday I learned that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is an EF-5 level asshole.
As expected, his ghoulish reflex triggered a sharp response from most but not all.
Think Progress reports that Missouri Rep. Russ Carnahan (D) had this response on MSNBC's The Ed Show Tuesday night:
"We have a long history in this country of backing up people when they're at their worst, when they've gone through natural disasters. ... But to have that debate in the face of the suffering we've seen in Joplin is just plain wrong." [...]
As I said, by most...but not all.
Cantor’s homeboy, Missouri Senator Blunt, pulled his punch…um, well it was more like a tap.
In a statement to Politico, Blunt said, “We need to prioritize spending, and this needs to be a priority,” Blunt said. “I’m sure Eric will help find the necessary off-sets.”
Nice.
And that lame ass shit was from a man who used to represent Joplin in Congress!
Someone obviously reached out to Cantor with instructions on how humans usually react to natural disasters, because he eventually took to Twitter with this gem.
"Our hearts are w/ victims of #Joplin tragedy. House #GOP ready to help & has found offsets for emergency $$$."
Oh, thank the Goddess – the GOP leadership in the House found a way to get their budget cut on so now Joplin won’t be left to rot!!
Rumor has it that lawmakers had to offer up over a billion dollars in cuts to a program encouraging fuel-efficient vehicles to get Cantor’s heart redirected toward the victims of the tornado in Joplin.
Up next - Cantor and the “ready to help” after “offsets” GOP minions will unveil cuts to the tornado-forecasting program.
Blink.
5 comments:
I told you about this yesterday - it made me SOOOO MAD!!! I am glad you are talking about this here. God bless you guys in Missouri.
Oh, SharkFu, but you are so late to the game....Cantor and his GOTP buddies have always been gunning for abolishing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the fed agency that oversees weather forecasting, so that their cronies at AccuWeather and The Weather Channel can take over forecasting for profit...and to play Climate Change Denial.
I'm sure that tornado victims in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, would well appreciate Mr. Cantor's fiscal conservatism. Not to mention, those recovering from flooding on the Mississippi River, too.
I only wonder...with hurricane season about to start and the threat of a Cat 3 or above major hitting a major metro area hard well overdue, will Reps. Cantor and Ryan insist on offsets before or after the Big One hits?? Or, will they just insist that the victims of natural disasters fend for themselves??
Much love and condolences to the people of Joplin and everyone else who suffered from these catastrophes.
Anthony
I don't understand how one person can hold up the whole system and even hold it hostage. I am going to have to really look at how our governmental system works. Because it should be impossible for one person to do this. Everything is really insane. I have been watching this movie called American Drug War. It attempts to show how the government has really gone crazy. Every day we see examples of the insanity.
I cannot express the horror I felt when I heard what happened to Joplin, and they cannot express the disdain I feel for Eric Cantor. Truly he is the scum of the earth.
Shark-Fu, bless you for putting out there what a monstrous, hypocritical, cynical being is Eric Cantor. An American elected representative, using his taxpayer-funded job in Congress to BLOCK aid to his fellow Americans in Joplin who have seen their homes and city decimated, as a political power play. This is what the GOP thinks government is for: To withhold government financial aid to Americans when they're down -- even when that aid is composed of the tax dollars of the unfortunate tornado victims. Would that Eric Cantor and his family could have the chance to switch houses, and places, with a Joplin family who have lost everything. How in the world have we elected ourselves a Congress led by people like this? Shark-Fu, if you ran for Congress, I would donate!
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