We’ll just hit the reset button and no one will ever bring it up again:
Perry’s hypocrisy isn’t nearly good enough for Texas’s junior senator, Tea Party darling Ted Cruz.
Cruz defeated Perry’s favored candidate in the GOP primary by attacking the big-spending establishment that didn’t spend enough time pretending they were the only people who had ever read the Constitution.
One of Cruz’s first stands as a senator was to vote against aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Why?
“Emergency relief for the families who are suffering from this natural disaster should not be used as a Christmas tree for billions in unrelated spending, including projects such as Smithsonian repairs, upgrades to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration airplanes, and more funding for Head Start,” he said in a statement.
What Cruz didn’t note is that the extra appropriations in the bill were mostly demands — some would say bribes — that red-state senators negotiated for their states to pass the aid that had been blocked by the last Congress.
Cruz’s stand after the Sandy aid — which took exponentially longer to arrive in the affected blue states than it typically does when a disaster strikes a red state like Texas — is in sharp contrast to the statement he made after Wednesday’s explosion in West.
“It’s truly horrific and we are working to ensure that all available resources are marshaled to deal with the horrific loss of life and suffering that we’ve seen,” Cruz said.
LOL. All available resources. Hmmm. So the blue states shouldn’t do to Texas what Republicans did to the northeast after Sandy?
Paul Abrahams calls this a “teachable moment” and thinks help for Texas should be tied to numerous demands, including Cruz being forced to lead the fight for aid on the Senate floor and Texas being forced to accept Medicaid expansion. Basically, in exchange for help, Texas would be forced to do something it hates doing — saving the lives of the uninsured.
But President Obama has already pledged help to the region and Democrats likely will rush to do what they believe the federal government exists to do — provide the help no one else can. Then perhaps we can get to the darkest part of both Perry’s and Cruz’s hypocrisy in attacking federal government overreach.
Cruz has falsely accused the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of “trying to use a lizard to shut down oil and gas production.” Perry has built his career on attacking the EPA. If God wanted us to protect the environment, why would he have created Republicans?
We’re not sure how many of Texas’ recent disasters were caused by climate change, but it’s certainly making the state a tinder box.
The government that deals best with disasters is the one that avoids them.
This isn’t a natural disaster. It’s deregulation and lack of enforcement that caused this explosion. The disaster relief should be tied to the hiring of site investigators in the EPA and OSHA.
If BP was found responsible for the Gulf oil spill and made to pay for the clean-up and damages, then this company should be forced to pay for whatever damages its explosion caused. Isn’t that how Capitalism is suppose to work? Of coures Perry being the Socialist that he is believes that we the people as a collective should foot the bill. Ideology always goes out the window when it costs a Capitalist some money.
The first two commenters are correct. No way in hell is this a natural disaster – if you think it’s great to run a plant in Texas the way Union Carbide ran their plant in Bhopal, then you get a Bhopal.
And if you think it’s freaking great to take all the shackles off business, then by golly you shouldn’t want any ‘gunmit’ around to deal with the aftermath, should you?
No. No.
IOIYAD. Stop being stupid.