Hurricane Sandy Quotes
Congress at that time had about a 12 percent public approval rating. Other emergency disaster appropriations had been made in previous years in days or weeks, but the aid for New Jersey, New York and Connecticut had been voted by the Democratic-controlled Senate but not in the Republican controlled House. The Republican House leadership had planned a vote after the Fiscal Cliff vote the previous evening before the end of the Congressional term. Then the speaker cancelled the vote infuriating Christie and many of the members of Congress. His reason was that there was opposition from the Tea Party Conservative wing of his own party who had just been badly beaten on the fiscal cliff legislation, and the Speaker was up for reelection by his own party caucus the following day. If the vote had proceeded, it would have passed with Democratic and some Republican support but with the opposition of the conservative wing some of whom noted that the states seeking the emergency aid had just recently voted for President Obama and they were opposed to more federal spending despite the fact that emergency aid had never before been subjected to such partisan criteria. After much pressure, the Speaker then committed to an up or down vote in the following Congress to the chagrin of some of the Tea Party members. Governor Christie, much admired for his commitment to his state and not politicking was his candid self but he did not even go as far as Republican Congressman Peter King {630995}.
Normally, Molinaro was opposed to State, Federal and Local Government involved with Citizens. Staten Island was a Blue Collar community that prided itself in its rugged individualism. But when there was a problem, Molinaro asked for help and defined government responsibility in terms that would usually be used by left wing democrats. There is nothing like an emergency to motivate politicians to abandon their ideology.
He was chastising his own party’s House leadership for not allowing a promised vote on the emergency relief for Hurricane Sandy. Other emergency disaster appropriations had been made in previous years in days or weeks, but the aid for New Jersey, New York and Connecticut had been voted by the Democratic-controlled Senate but not in the Republican controlled House. The Republican House leadership had planned a vote after the Fiscal Cliff vote the previous evening before the end of the Congressional term. Then the speaker cancelled the vote infuriating Christie and many of the members of Congress. His reason was that there was opposition from the Tea Party Conservative wing of his own party who had just been badly beaten on the fiscal cliff legislation, and the Speaker was up for reelection by his own party caucus the following day. If the vote had proceeded, it would have passed with Democratic and some Republican support but with the opposition of the conservative wing some of whom noted that the states seeking the emergency aid had just recently voted for President Obama and they were opposed to more federal spending despite the fact that emergency aid had never before been subjected to such partisan criteria. After much pressure, the Speaker then committed to an up or down vote in the following Congress to the chagrin of some of the Tea Party members. But much self-inflicted damage had been done to the Republican Party. See {630994}.
The governor had been without sleep for over 24 hours and was doing a magnificent job dealing with the worst storm that had ever hit the East Coast. He had been reporting the status to the people through the media and giving instructions to guide them. Yet there was one reporter who actually tried to bring politics into the crises and asked him about Election Day.
This was the worst storm that hit the East Coast that anyone could remember. The East Coast Governors together with the Federal and local governments performed magnificently keeping the fatalities very low considering the ferocity of the storm and the tens of millions of people affected, With all the destruction, there were no storm caused fatalities in Atlantic City.
Florida had been hit by severe hurricanes over the years, and each time Congress has voted disaster aid. After Hurricane Sandy struck New York and New Jersey, Southern and Western members of Congress were reluctant to vote funds to New York and New Jersey for their natural disaster even though King and the New York Congressman had always voted for disaster aid in other parts of the country. Rubio, in particular, had voted against funds to New York and New Jersey. He was targeting the wealthy who he assumed would not be offended by his vote against disaster aid to New York but King was able to retaliate and block much New York money for Rubio.
