Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Passing the Buck but not Passing the Bill

All we can legally do is kick them out of office, but if I had my way I'd be kicking them some other way. Use your imagination.

Who? Well, let's just say the House of Representatives and more precisely, Speaker of the House John Boehner. What a piece of crap. Instead of putting the $60 Billion Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill up for a vote before the end of the current session of Congress, Boehner decided it "wasn't a good time" for a vote.

As New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, took his party to task for allowing this vote to pass by the wayside, and require a new bill to be drawn up, further delaying desperately needed Federal Aid, I could not have been more proud of the Governor of my state. Calling it neither a Republican nor Democratic issue, Christie raked those responsible for the lack of action, over the coals. It was a passionate and spot-on speech.

In previous hurricane disasters, Congress voted for Federal Aid within a very short amount of time:
Hurricane Andrew: 31 Days
Hurricane Gustav/Ike: 17 Days
Hurricane Katrina: 10 Days
Hurricane Sandy: 66 Days and counting

As the day went on, the outrage for the apparent "could care less" attitude by the Speaker, had reached even his previously deaf ears. He finally agreed to a meeting with angry members of his party, including NY Rep. Peter King, a man you really don't want to piss off. As of now, they will vote on a small part of the Aid package on Friday, with the rest to be taken up when the new Congress begins their session later this month.

This is a disgrace of major proportions. While thousands of families in New York and New Jersey spent the holidays displaced, with no relief in sight, these members of Congress were warm and happy with their families. Work on rebuilding the Jersey Shore, where tourism is the main commerce, cannot get any traction without the much needed package. And still, they let the Bill flounder.

At this point, all we can do is to remember that once again, politicians put the desperate needs of the American people on the back burner and did nothing.
I for one, will not forget.

Please watch Governor Christie's speech and see what an elected official of the people should be...an official willing to do the business of the people without regard to party or whose toes he might be stepping on.

(Speech begins at the 1 minute mark. If it doesn't auto load, double click)



Watch live streaming video from governorchrischristie at livestream.com


3 comments:



  1. Balls to the wall Jersey style !

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  2. could go on a serious rant.the northeast gets screwed every time we need help from feds.per capita we send a lot more tax $ than any other region in usa.disgraceful,go raise campaign funds in alaska.

    ReplyDelete