GOP MAJORITY WHIP TO HOME STATE: FUCK YOU

From Think Progress courtesy of Eschaton:

This week, Virginia experienced a magnitude 5.8 earthquake, one of the most powerful tremors on the east coast since 1897. As Virginians scramble to assess the damage, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) quickly returned from his trip in Israel to survey the damage done to his congressional district.

“There is an appropriate federal role in incidents like this,” Cantor said. That role? The bare minimum. According to Cantor, Congress’s traditional practice of providing disaster relief without strings attached — a policy its followed for years — is going way beyond the call of duty. If Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) asks for federal aid, Cantor insists that the relief be offset elsewhere in the federal budget

And

While touring the damage in his district, Cantor surmised, “Obviously, the problem is that people in Virginia don’t have earthquake insurance.”

More here.

What an asshole. But that's what we're dealing with here: the GOP has been seized by a weird ideology that really does insist that government is the wellspring of all evil, and can only make problems worse, never better. So when an earthquake comes along, you're on your own--better go get some of that earthquake insurance, buddy; one comes along every couple centuries or so! And if you don't have any of that earthquake insurance, too fucking bad.

I don't think I even need to offer any serious argument in rebuttal to such a selfish and immoral attitude. This is just psychotic. Leaving everything to the private sector means nothing will ever get done. Suffice it to say, the market-driven utopia in which these guys believe is an impossibility. Massive disasters are far beyond the capabilities of private business. In Market America, when an earthquake or hurricane comes along, everything gets obliterated, and then lies in ruins forever.

This is what you want if you vote Republican, whether you understand it or not. Same thing with the Libertarians. All these "small government" cretins. There is an infinite number of activities and services that all modern nations absolutely need in order to exist and function, and many of these can only be performed by the government. You go after government the way these people are, and you destroy your country.

I hope a few of these Tea Partiers had their homes destroyed in the earthquake. I hope they have to go through the process of reaching out for government aid. I hope they get to see their homes rebuilt with taxpayer money. Even then, I wonder if they would get it, if they would take off their stupid fucking tricorn hats and reevaluate everything.

On the other hand, the Democrats, who still believe the government has a vital role to play in the nation's affairs, thank god, would prefer to give the majority of government aid to corporations and the wealthy. Some choice: support the party of "fuck you, victim" or support the party that will rebuild your community, but have no problem at all with your inability to pay your rent or health care bills. I mean, I guess I'm thankful that the Dems are still into the concept of disaster relief, but with friends like these...

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