Tuesday, August 28, 2012

When Small Government Conservatives Want Big Government

It takes a hurricane to make small government conservatives into big government devotees.

[Image of probabilities of tropical storm force winds]

National hurricane center forecasters and airborne storm chasers were working overtime to plot Hurricane Isaac's course, and FEMA began to position relief assets in the region.


When Tea Party Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott told southern county residents to evacuate, they did so on Interstate highways built mostly with federal funding.

As Isaac turned west towards Louisiana, small government Tea Party Republican cheerleader Gov. Bobby Jindal complained to President Barack Obama that the feds shorted his state in emergency planning money.

And when the storm passes, it will be the federal government - - spending tax money - - that leads the cleanup and reconstruction.

As it should.

Pity that Republican governors along the Gulf Coast and GOP obstructionist tightwads in the House of Representatives do not understand that the plight of the long-term unemployed, or drought-ravaged farmers - - fellow Americans trying to return to productivity - - is no less desperate.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you. I suspect you and I may be the only souls who know of Jindal's blatant hypocrisy. He had the call to complain that the president had only signed a partial state of emergency that did not cover the state's expenditure for this storm. This from a guy who screams 10th amendment, refuses to set up exchanges for health care and has given away state money to charter schools that where it appears there were no standards for their selection, no standards for educational content or course requirements and many are religious schools which from their description sound more like far right religious madrassas. He lives in a coastal town known for flooding, tropical storms and hurricanes. Maybe, they should have a rainy day disaster fund instead of expecting reimbursement from the a federal government he doesn't believe in.