Sen. Coburn: Oklahoma Aid Must Be Offset

From the Washington Post: 

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) will insist that any federal aid to deal with the tornado in his home state must be offset by budget cuts. 

“He will ask his colleagues to sacrifice lower priority areas of the budget to help Oklahoma,” spokesman John Hart said. Should other Republicans join Coburn, it could set up a fight similar to the January tug-of-war over Hurricane Sandy funding. That aid package was delayed by GOP opposition and ultimately passed with mostly Democratic support. 

In a statement, Coburn said that “as the ranking member of Senate committee that oversees FEMA, I can assure Oklahomans that any and all available aid will be delivered without delay.”

It is truly a shame that whenever such disasters occur and people are in desperate need, there are some who have no problem holding up the process. The sooner the people of Oklahoma get the aid they need, the better. Despite his platitudes of aid delivery without delay, the course which he wants to take almost ensures delay. What is worse is that this is regarding his own constituents. Lucky for him, he will not be seeking re-election, so he does not have to worry about facing the voters again. Otherwise, I am sure they would not forget this.

Thousands Still Powerless After Hurricane Sandy

Romney Ducks Questions on Eliminating FEMA

 

In case you missed the mention, Romney has previously stated that he would get rid of FEMA as president. Then again, this is Romney, so who knows what his position is on the matter now.

Romney on FEMA: Shut It Down!!!

From Salon:

In June 2011, Mitt Romney said in a Republican primary debate that he “absolutely” thinks FEMA should be shut down, and disaster relief moved to the states.

Ryan Grim  of the Huffington Post reported that Romney was asked by CNN’s John King if he thinks disaster relief would be better handled by the states. “Absolutely,” Romney said. “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.”

“Including disaster relief, though?” King asked.

“We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids,” Romney said. “It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all.”