1. We know our national economy is in disarray. No one is disbuting that.
2. We also know hundreds of thousands of people have sustained substantial loses and lose of life due to the tornados that have swept across the country.
3. We know from experience that with natural disasters as with the tonados in Joplin and Tuscaloosa and now the tornado that hit in the upper north-east w/their destructive power and the scale of damage they create, as well as the recent floods, these such storms cost millions, if not billions, in damages not to mention lost wages and loss of life.
4. Cities and towns no matter how large or small, their residents nor businesses that have been affected by such storms can't recover from such large scale devastation on their own. They need the financial support from the community, from local charities, from businesses and business leaders, but most of all they need help from their local, state and federal governments.
Now, although Eric Cantor did say "Congress will find the money," he also made it very clear that "disaster relief funds for the tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri must be paid for with cuts to other programs," and that such funding "will be offset" by those cuts. As such, based on the difficult budgeting negotiations in Congress and the GOP's insistance on large trillion dollar spending cuts before they do anything else as far as financial appropriations or raising the debt ceiling, it's clear that Cantor is putting politics before compassion and humanitarism. And in the face of still more natural disasters that have occurred within the last 24-hours and the very real likelihood that more such disaster are either still to come or remain in effect (i.e., the flooding along the Mississippi River along several states from as far north as Minnesota to as far south as New Orleans, LA), Cantor is playing a very dangerous game with people's lives, if not their very survival.
That's why I have a problem with what he said. If he had said perhaps in a different way, "I understand the tragic losses people in Joplin and across the country have suffered due to these tornados and floods, but the federal government is running out of money to provide financial disaster relief support. As such, we're going to have to pull funds from other programs in order to try to make sure that emergency funds remain available to those who need it," I'd have totally agreed with him. But he didn't phrase his argument that way. As such, not only did he NOT come across as a compassionate public figure, he also came across as someone who has politicized a tragic event. IMHO, that is wrong!
