Consequences

As the huge effects of Sandy are assessed, damages repaired and the long work of recovery begins (even as some places--like Chicago-- are still feeling direct effects of the storm), Jonathan Chiat has a devastating piece at New York called Why Democrats Are Right to Politicize Sandy:

"What you are going to see over the next week is an overt effort by Democrats to politicize the issue of disaster response. They’re right to do it. Conservatives are already complaining about this, but the attempt to wall disaster response off from politics in the aftermath of a disaster is an attempt to insulate Republicans from the consequences of their policies.

The Republican proposal to eviscerate this wide array of public functions is one of the underdiscussed questions of the election. Republicans have defended it using a very clever trick. They don’t explain how they would allocate the massive cuts to all these programs. When President Obama explains what would happen if those cuts were allocated in an across-the-board fashion, Republicans scream bloody murder. And when any single one of those programs enters the political debate, they can deny plans to make any specific cuts..."

He cites Romney stating during the primaries that FEMA should be abolished.  The federal budget Romneyryan propose has no room even for NOAA weather forecasting.  No wonder that in today's campaign event masquerading as a food collection for flood relief, Romney could say nothing even intelligible about how government should respond to the effects of this storm.  Chiat concludes:

"The GOP is the party arguing for splurging on a long vacation at the beach rather than repairing the roof. Naturally, they want to have this argument only when it’s sunny and never when it’s raining. There’s no reason to accommodate them."

Meanwhile President Obama is on the job coordinating the federal response, which the states sorely need, earning the praise of NJ Governor and Romney surrogate Chris Christie.  For Independents looking for a bipartisan President, they should look to the President's trip to New Jersey tomorrow.

President Obama also visited Red Cross headquarters today, and is fully supporting this non-government agency as the lead agency in disaster relief.  The Red Cross in turn is asking for financial contributions, and counseling against ad hoc food collections and distributions--precisely of the kind that Romney is lamely organizing in Ohio.