Our government is close to shutting down, though you wouldn’t believe it based on watching the 24-hour news networks.
They’re currently enraptured with pizza man Herman Cain’s Florida straw poll win over off-duty cowboy and republican favorite Rick Perry. Meanwhile, the Senate, in an unprecedented move, is working through its vacation. Democrats and republicans are at an impasse over a short-term budget proposal after the vote on our country’s long-term budget failed. Now, to stop the government from shutting down, Congress must pass a stopgap budget proposal, on which the two sides also can’t agree.
Very conservative republicans refuse to sign on to the democrats’ plan. Their issue with the budget: disaster relief money, $4 trillion to be exact. The money is supposed to go towards relief for victims of the recent floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters that have ravaged the country over the past few months. Hurricane Irene and her aftermath affected many Geneseo students and their families, yet as we speak, those without homes, those who lost everything, are getting absolutely no money from the government.
The tea party and conservative republicans’ qualms are that this spending on disaster relief is not being offset with cuts to the rest of the budget. Some, like republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, even claim that getting money to these people is really not as important as we’re being told.
“[Harry Reid] manufactured a crisis all week about disaster when there’s no crisis,” Alexander said, from his still-standing home. “[Democrats are] chest-pounding and game-playing.”
Maybe Alexander missed seeing Michelle and Mike Hare who, after weeks of searching in Joplin, Mo. found that their 16-year-old son had been killed by one such tornado. Mike had earlier told CNN, “[His phone] rang for the first day and a half, and now it goes straight to voice mail. But just in case he gets it, I want him to know his dad loves him.” Maybe Alexander didn’t notice the over 1,000 killed in natural disasters across the United States. The destruction has totaled several billion dollars, leaving thousands homeless. Is this really a “manufactured crisis?”
I understand that we are in a budget crisis. I understand that our economy is not doing so well right now. But there are some things that are too important not to spend on. Disaster relief is one of them. Even if you were to strip government down to a bare minimum, its job is to keep its people safe and take care of them when disaster strikes. There are people all over the country who fled these storms and lost everything. Are you really going to tell these people to figure it out themselves, just because you want more cuts to Medicaid and Social Security?
Even looking at the issue from a purely economic standpoint, removing the tenant of basic human decency, the republican argument doesn’t make sense. With such a stagnant economy, we need people working, buying goods and contributing to the economy: all things that cannot be done if you lost everything in a natural disaster. You need to spend a little money to help them get back to the point where they can contribute to the economy. It’s economics 101.
These people deserve our help. It’s terrifying that our political sphere has become so callous as to ignore the cries of victims of natural disasters. Just as terrifying, if they can’t agree to provide help to disaster victims, when it comes time to pass a budget and keep our government from shutting down, what can they agree on?