House Passes $50 Billion In Sandy Relief (Mostly Unrelated Pork) With Democrats Providing Majority Of The Yes Votes
UPDATE: Less Than Half The Money Is Sandy Related

I'm sympathetic to the idea that controlling the House means you can't make big positive changes in thinks like entitlements but you can at least stop bad things from happening.

Of course you have to want to do that and John Boehner doesn't seem to want to.

The House approved a $50 billion Sandy relief bill Tuesday evening, after several hours of contentious debate in which scores of Republicans tried unsuccessfully to cut the size of the bill and offset a portion of it with spending cuts.

Members approved the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, H.R. 152, in a 241-180 vote. Among Republicans, 179 voted against it, and just 49 voted for it, a protest against a bill that many conservatives say is too big and provides funding for things other than immediate relief for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

...

"According to the Congressional Budget Office, more than 90 percent of this money won't even be spent this year," Rep. Tom McClintock said. "That's not emergency relief."

Just like the fiscal cliff deal, Boehner brought to the floor a bill he knew a majority of the Republicans opposed. I'll cut him some slack on the fiscal cliff deal but to do it over pork spending?

Either Boehner is now the Democrats' leader or Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House. No matter which it is, Boehner and the House GOP is absolutely useless.

GOP delenda est.

Two things:

-Obama's big tax hike? Yeah, that's going to bring in about $60 billion this year, so...gone.

-Here's Gabe's post on the Sandy pork.

Even more outrageous: The total Sandy relief is $59 billion: $9 billion in flood insurance relief already passed and the $50 billion today. But of that $50 billion today only $17 billion is for Sandy related matters.

The base bill, H.R. 152, provides $17 billion for Sandy relief, and the rule makes in order an amendment from Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) providing another $33.7 billion.

So less than half of the $59 in "Sandy relief" ($26 billion) is actually related to Sandy.

Being a fiscal conservative and a Republican is simply no longer possible. Pick one.

posted by DrewM. at 07:44 PM

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