Oklahoma Senators Repeatedly Opposed Disaster Relief Funds

Serious question here: I see a ton of ranting about "FUTURE DISASTER MITIGATION ACTIVITIES AND STUDIES", but nothing at all about "DISASTER RELIEF". Just what was in that bill that you're chuckling over? Mitigation activities sounds like some environmental projects, and 'studies' are academic grants. I don't see a damn thing about getting money to people to help them rebuild.

So, what was the title and number of the bill that you're so gleefully parroting? Let's see exactly what it is that they voted against.

A Coburn spokesman explained that “[as Coburn’s] voting record and campaign against earmarks demonstrates … he makes no apologies for voting against disaster aid bills that are often poorly conceived and used to finance priorities that have little to do with disasters. […] That's always been his position [to offset disaster aid]. He supported offsets to the bill funding the OKC bombing recovery effort."

http://www.policymic.com/articles/43451/tom-coburn-after-moore-tornado-senator-plays-politics-with-disaster-aid

So, he didn't vote against Disaster relief after all, he was doing exactly what he said he'd do and voted against pork in the form of earmarked local projects and study grants.

Nice attempted deception LJ... Y'know, except for the fact that you didn't even come up with it - you just pasted it off HuffPo.

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=82c5222b-3bfd-4592-a29c-0f1f7bf4fdc9&ContentType_id=d741b7a7-7863-4223-9904-8cb9378aa03a&Group_id=41cf7e93-d82e-44c6-b4fb-f686b568e689

“This is a preliminary list of questionable spending in the bill:


•$2 million to repair damage to the roofs of museums in Washington, D.C., while many in Hurricane Sandy’s path still have no roof over their own heads.

•$150 million for fisheries as far away from the storm’s path as Alaska.

•$125 million for the Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Watershed Protection program, which helps restore watersheds damaged by wildfires and drought.

•$20 million for a nationwide Water Resources Priorities Study.

•$15 million for NASA facilities, though NASA itself has called its damage from the hurricane ‘minimal.’

•$50 million in subsidies for tree planting on private properties.

•$336 million for taxpayer-supported AMTRAK without any detailed plan for how the money will be spent.

•$5.3 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers – more than the Corps’ annual budget – with no statement of priorities about how to spend the money.

•$12.9 billion for future disaster mitigation activities and studies, without identifying a single way to pay for it.


“All told, 64 percent of the $60.4 billion in ‘emergency’ spending in this legislation will not be spent for nearly two years.


“Americans impacted by Hurricane Sandy deserve better than this. We look forward to working with our colleagues to address these issues on the floor of the Senate this week.”

Facts are kinda pesky little critters when someone's trying to work up a good head of unjustified righteous indignation.

NTM, how dare you question stimulus spending!!!!! Just trust your representatives to bankrupt us even faster. Like those energy jobs that cost one million dollars each.

Time to trot out the "bankrupt us" parrot again?... Better keep that Kool-Aid coming... Wouldn't want you to run out.

Do you POSSIBLY think that *I* would think that stimulus spending to do disaster-mitigation, in advance of the next disaster, is a "bad thing"???

:rofllol

"Go sell crazy someplace else..We're all full up here." -- Jack Nicholson

LadyJazzer wrote: Time to trot out the "bankrupt us" parrot again?... Better keep that Kool-Aid coming... Wouldn't want you to run out.

So what percent of US GDP to debt ratio do you think is reasonable?
Twice the amount of debt compared to yearly US GDP?
Five times the amount of debt compared to yearly US GDP?

Remember the baby boomers, the largest sector of US population are retiring right now and going on both SS and a massively expensive taxpayer funded healthcare system. Plus these retirees are living 10 years longer than the system planned for.

Right now the US is approaching 2 times the amount of debt compared to yearly GDP. Think we can handle five? Some people get home mortgages that are five times the value of their yearly take home pay so maybe it is doable.

But remember, less people will be paying Social Security taxes with all the new retirees and fewer people are finding good paying jobs after getting out of high school and college so less money is going into the system.

More people pulling out of the system and fewer people paying into.

So that home mortgage that is five times your yearly salary? Suddenly you find your yearly salary is cut in half and now it takes you ten years to repay it. And your payments increases in size as more people retire and a record number of people are on disability.
And also a record number of your Social Security taxpayers are themselves on Food Stamps or some other aid program.

But spend all you want rebuilding millionaire homes on Long Island, the Fed will just print more money, right?

While I do give Coburn some credit for his position, his fellow Oklahoma Senator, (the senator from Exxon) Inhofe does not want to place any conditions on Oklahoma getting federal money, while he voted against aid for victims in other states, saying they were greedy. This from the state that receives the second highest totals of federal disaster aid. I do note that the last time Coburn held his hand out for federal aid money, he used accounting tricks to "offset" the amount, rather than actual cuts.

"Go sell crazy someplace else..We're all full up here." -- Jack Nicholson

I couldn't agree more and you have no idea how close YOU are to the truth you quoted.