GOP leader: Disaster aid must be covered by other budget cuts

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor now says that if Congress appropriates funds to help communities across the country like La Crosse and Joplin, Missouri, rebuild in the aftermath of man-made or natural disasters, the spending must be offset by cuts elsewhere in the federal budget. The Virginia Republican said (and without much articulation): “If there is support for a supplemental [budget appropriation for recovery operations], it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”

So, just to sum up: If the federal government is waging war on another country or cutting taxes for the rich, there's no need to offset resulting trillions in lost revenue with other cuts, or otherwise deal with that debt on-budget. Because, hey, we're in a crisis! But if a super-cell tornado wipes out your city and kills a hundred or more, or floods destroy your city, or hurricanes or earthquakes or tsunamis wipe out coast lines, or faulty equipment results in an oil rig disaster that wrecks an entire sea gulf, why, you'll have to cut some other federal program in order to pay for rescue and recovery operations. Because: Hey, we're broke, because, hey, we were in a crisis!

Do Republicans really want to take this position, now, when natural disasters have affected many hundreds of thousands of their own constituents, including some in Wisconsin? In Cantor's case, apparently so. Tough love, and tough luck, America!

Of course, Cantor's pronouncement could be seen as simple Republican consistency. After all, in the wake of 9/11, it was George W. Bush himself who promised billions in aid to the families of the many first responders who sufffered death or permanent injury -- and whose party then spent years stiffing those families of most of the promised support because, hey, the country was tight for cash and the Republican Party said it was wary of any effort that would create a new "entitlement" program. Horrors! Injured firefighters "entitled" to some help? Then, when Democrats proposed to fund the 9/11 victims compensation fund by closing a tax loophole on foreign companies with U.S. subsidiaries, the GOP resisted, saying that would kill jobs. And it has been the same routine with our war veterans, with underfunded VA operations. So why should civilians expect anything different from compassionate conservatism?

Yes, that was then and this is then. Rep. Cantor (R-Social Darwinism) understands that in America, everyone who needs a hand should just buck up and help themselves, while the wealthy help themselves to more of our money.