Matt Stoller found this shameful tidbit in the Congressional Record
from last Friday. The speaker is Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who is
mad that some senators want to find budget cuts to offset disaster aid
for Iowa: "So I don't want anybody telling me that we have to offset a
disaster relief package for the Midwest where people are hurting, when
we didn't do it for New Orleans. Why the double standard? Is it
because people aren't on rooftops complaining for helicopters to
rescue them, and you see it on television too much? We aren't doing
that in Iowa. We are trying to help ourselves in Iowa. We have a
can-do attitude. It doesn't show up on television like it did in New
Orleans for 2 months." Open Left commenter SpitBall raises an
excellent point--a better question is "why federal aid to the flood
victims in Iowa should require a budgetary offset, when the invasion
[and] occupation of Iraq does not."

Labels: Charles_Grassley