Cantor and the people he could take down with him.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is in an increasingly uncomfortable political position as he continues to insist that any disaster relief responding first to the record-setting tornadoes of early summer and now Hurricane Irene have to be offset by spending cuts. It's Cantor's own past record that is making defending his position that much harder.
First, there's the request he made in 2004 for relief after Tropical Storm Gaston hit his district.
Cantor was on the front lines of efforts to secure millions of dollars in federal assistance to clean the wreckage and repair damaged infrastructure. Although the funding was not offset, Cantor cheered its arrival.
"The magnitude of the damage suffered by the Richmond area is beyond what the Commonwealth can handle," Cantor said in a press release at the time, "and that is why I asked the President to make federal funds available for the citizens affected by Gaston."
Making matters even worse for Cantor is his actual voting record. See, 2004 Eric Cantor thought having to offset disaster relief was a really bad idea.
[A] bemused Democratic source notes that in October 2004, Cantor voted against an amendment to an emergency supplemental bill for disaster aid that would have "fully offset" the cost of that supplemental with "a proportional reduction of FY05 discretionary funding" elsewhere. Funding for defense, homeland security, and veterans was exempted from the proposed cuts. But the amendment, introduced by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), would do precisely what Republican leadership is proposing to do now.
The difference between 2004 Eric Cantor and 2011 Eric Cantor, his spokesman Brad Dayspring says, is the size of the national debt.
[T]he national debt at the time was under $8 trillion and was $8.67 trillion when Nancy Pelosi became Speaker, Today the debt stands at $14.625, meaning that while Democrats controlled the purse string, the national debt literally exploded. We are living in different times. Majority Leader Cantor, Whip [Kevin] McCarthy and Chairman [Paul] Ryan wrote an entire book last year about how the previous Republican majority lost its way, particularly on spending issues. That was one of the major reasons the Republican majority became the Republican minority from 2006-2010. House Republicans then ran, and won, an election pledging to be responsible stewards of federal tax dollars.
Just for the record, I've included that graphic from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, again, showing the sources of our public debt. Cantor, of course, never objected to or voted against the emergency supplementals that paid for Bush's wars. It goes without saying he supported the Bush tax cuts that contributed the largest chunk to our debt.
Meanwhile, FEMA administrator Craig Fugate "has said that the agency's Federal Disaster Relief Fund has fallen to less than $800 million. The fund faces a potential $5 billion shortfall for the upcoming budget year, before accounting for Irene, which is estimated to have caused billions more in damage." And hurricane season isn't over yet.
