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Friday, September 25, 2009

I wonder how many people in these Georgia counties are teabaggers and birthers?
Posted by Jill | 5:05 AM
I don't want to hear a peep from these people about "big government" ever again:
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Tuesday asked President Barack Obama for an emergency declaration to assist the 17 Georgia counties with recovery efforts due to recent flooding and severe weather.

The declaration would unlock federal funds for emergency response measures and aid for losses. The request estimates about $16.4 million in required federal aid, including $8 million for debris clean up and $5 million fro individuals and households.

Several Georgia creeks and rivers, swollen by continuous rainfall have overtopped their banks, and at least seven people have lost their lives to the flood waters. More than 30,000 residences in metro Atlanta are without power and more than 1,000 residences are estimated to be seriously flooded as indicated by aerial surveillance and 911 calls for help.

"I am confident President Obama will recognize the extensive damage these floods have caused on such a large metro area," Perdue said. "This request for disaster funding is essential for the recovery and rebuilding process to begin for these Georgians, local governments and businesses."

In fairness to the state's Republican governor, he has at least had the decency to recognize the limitations of supply-side economics, at least for his state. In May he responded to Republican lawmakers in Georgia who were pushing for a capital gains tax cut for businesses:
Georgia’s a balanced budget state. And it’s very difficult to do the stimulus-type bills in a state that’s starved for revenue and cash at the same time. So that kind of destroys a supply-side theory within a state government.

But the district is represented by Tom Price, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Here's Tom Price addressing a teabagger rally in April:



By Tom Price's logic, the residents who have lost everything in his flood-ravaged counties should not rely on the government for help but instead pull themselves up by their bootstraps. I hope that those who benefit from the fact that we have a president who is a human being instead of a cold-blooded monster like the Republicans who relentlessly attack him think for a few minutes the next time they rail against "government handouts."

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9 Comments:
Anonymous jb said...
One might expect a teabagger's head to explode from the cognitive dissonance of ranting against government one day and then asking for its help the next, but it's clear that teabaggers' heads don't work the way other people's heads do.

It would be an interesting research project to figure out how many of the people, politicians and otherwise, who have spent the last 30 years raging against various manifestations of the New Deal came from families that would have starved to death during the Depression were it not for the TVA, WPA, etc.
9/25/09, 7:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I suspect a lot of these people are simply viewing this as the return of the taxes illegally stolen from them over the years.
9/25/09, 8:56 AM  
Blogger Interrobang said...
Possibly, but simply because they believe that doesn't make it true. And believing that taxation is theft (while stupid) also completely sidesteps the question of when (not whether) they have benefitted from tax-funded programmes, and how.
9/25/09, 9:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I can't believe that this flooding has been going on for days and the victims are still waiting for help from their government.

Is the President not aware that tens of thousands of his citizens are clinging for their lives with flood waters rising around them?

What will it take to get the government to step in and help where help is deperately needed?
9/25/09, 9:57 AM  
Anonymous Ted said...
Anonymous #2:
I thought the Governor had to request Federal assistance first. If that's not true, I'm sure I'll be corrected here.

Interrobang:
That's true! But we already know they're stupid. But I suspect they don't view government programs of which they approve -- ie TVA, etc offered by jb -- as being "government" or tax assisted. eg, "Keep government's hands off my Medicare!"
9/25/09, 10:43 AM  
Blogger missy said...
Anon #1: So how will those victims of government theft account for the fact that Georgia's been on the government teat since Reconstruction?

Of the 32 states that receive more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes, 76% are Red States that voted for George Bush in 2000. Seventeen of the 20 (85%) states receiving the most federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Red States.

Kind of puts the lie to all that bootstrap bullshit, don't it?
9/25/09, 1:52 PM  
Blogger Nan said...
Actually, it isn't slowing the tea baggers down a bit. I make the mistake of reading the discussions on the Atlanta Journal Constitution blogs, and people are literally demanding FEMA help in the same paragraphs where they're ranting about "dimocrats" and calling Obama a racist socialist who won't lift a finger to help white people.
9/25/09, 2:05 PM  
Anonymous Ted said...
missy,

Can't speak for anon, but as I offered in the comment above yours, Georgians likely don't consider things they _approve_ of, such as the TVA [which they doubtless see as simply a very efficiently run electric power utility which has some really cool lakes to play in], Forts Gordon and Stewart, the port of Savannah, Hartsfield Airport, the Savannah River DOE facility, and on and on ..., as being "government" or as being subsidized.

But if they do view them as governmental, I'm sure they simply view it as their inalienable RIGHT -- or perhaps a Yankee penance -- for suffering through the "War Between the States" -- never ever the "Civil War". That's what us Yankees call it!
9/26/09, 8:32 AM  
Anonymous Comrade PhysioProf said...
Right-wing Republican shitheels reveal themselves as greedy selfish hypocritical pigs. In other news, dog bites man.
9/26/09, 12:56 PM  
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