As Hurricane Helene careened toward Florida’s Panhandle, numerous Republicans voted against extending funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Last week, Congress approved $20 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund as part of a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through December 20. But the measure left out billions of dollars in requested supplemental disaster funding.
The Senate approved the measure by a 78-18 vote on September 25 after it passed the House in a 341-82 vote. Republicans supplied the no votes in both chambers.
Some of the Republicans who voted against the bill represent states that have been hard hit by Helene, including Florida Representative Matt Gaetz.
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I’d imagine they’ve proven otherwise many times. People aren’t one-dimensional pain-inflicting villainous caricatures. But nothing I say would convince you of that.
If you can give me a single solid event, I might be willing to believe it. But when people ask for proof and you respond “it’s happened, many people are saying it, but you wouldn’t believe me” that’s not a very convincing argument. Nor are the actions of local Republicans a convincing argument in favor of them not being mustache-twirling comic book villains. I believe this about them because this is all that they have given me reason to believe about them. If your every action is in service to evil then I label you evil. I will change my labels if and when they choose to act outside of them. I have seen precious little acting outside of that label since I’ve been old enough to pay attention to politics.
Ok, if you say “show me one single act where a Republican acted with any singular other interest besides the explicit directive of making people suffer” I’ll spend my time finding an instance. Or you can just admit that you didn’t mean what you said, and no matter what I say you won’t change your mind, and we can go about our days.