Scum

The Republicans in Congress, especially Eric Cantor. Here's a fairly low-key commentary from Steve Benen on Cantor wanting to hold disaster relief hostage for more spending cuts.

This week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the GOP approach would break from how U.S. policymakers have operated. Whereas Congress used to provide emergency funds after a disaster, without regard for budget caps or offsets, Republicans have said they will no longer accept such an approach — if Democrats want emergency assistance in the wake of a natural disaster, Republicans will insist on attaching some strings to the relief funds.

In this case, the strings are cuts elsewhere in the budget. Or as Cantor’s spokesperson put it, GOP leaders expect “additional funds for federal disaster relief” to be “offset with spending cuts.”

If anything demonstrates the moral poverty of the contemporary Republican party, this is it. This is Eric Cantor, whose district contains the epicenter for last week's earthquake. He's screwing his own constituents, as well as gods know how many people on the East Coast.

OK, so maybe Irene won't be that bad and no emergency disaster relief will be needed from the federal government. It can all be paid for by states that don't have any money to begin with.

The point is that anyone who could even consider making federal disaster relief conditional on anything is about the lowest form of life. About the only thing that comes close is Ron Paul saying FEMA is unnecessary, because it's still 1900.

Aside from specific policy issues on which I disagree with Republicans -- and needless to say, there are many -- I think what has turned me off most about the Republican party as it has degenerated over the past couple of decades is that it makes a deliberate effort to cater to the worst in people. Making disaster relief conditional on budget cuts? That's totally unAmerican.