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New York Rep: GOP Made Us ‘Go Around Like Third World Beggars’ For Sandy Aid
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) did not hesitate to attack his fellow House Republicans after they refused to hold a vote on providing disaster relief funds to states affected by Hurricane Sandy. After public shaming, the House finally passed a bare-bones aid package on January 4.
But King has not forgotten his colleagues who tried to block funds for the devastated regions of New York and New Jersey. On Friday morning, King recalled in a WOR-AM interview with Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) how he and the rest of the New York delegation were made to feel like “third world beggars”:
[King] cited a New Jersey congressman who said on the floor that Congress now needs a “hypocrites conference” for those whose states received funding the past and now sought to deny the New York region what it was seeking.
“Quite frankly it’s going to be difficult going back and working with people you sit next to and whenever they were in need, we responded immediately,” he said. “Not one member of Congress ever voted against or said one word in opposition to aid going to other states when the money was needed. We were going around like third world beggars. At least they put us in that position.”
After House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) cancelled the Sandy vote at the last minute, King railed that Republicans had “put a knife in the back of New Yorkers.” Indeed, more than half of the 67 Republicans who voted against Sandy aid previously lobbied for disaster funding for their own states before turning on New York and New Jersey. In the interview, King raged against the injection of politics into a crisis that left his home state in shambles for over two months before Congressional action.
King went on to praise Cuomo’s passage of a tough gun regulation bill vehemently denounced by many Congressional Republicans.
But King has not forgotten his colleagues who tried to block funds for the devastated regions of New York and New Jersey. On Friday morning, King recalled in a WOR-AM interview with Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) how he and the rest of the New York delegation were made to feel like “third world beggars”:
[King] cited a New Jersey congressman who said on the floor that Congress now needs a “hypocrites conference” for those whose states received funding the past and now sought to deny the New York region what it was seeking.
“Quite frankly it’s going to be difficult going back and working with people you sit next to and whenever they were in need, we responded immediately,” he said. “Not one member of Congress ever voted against or said one word in opposition to aid going to other states when the money was needed. We were going around like third world beggars. At least they put us in that position.”
After House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) cancelled the Sandy vote at the last minute, King railed that Republicans had “put a knife in the back of New Yorkers.” Indeed, more than half of the 67 Republicans who voted against Sandy aid previously lobbied for disaster funding for their own states before turning on New York and New Jersey. In the interview, King raged against the injection of politics into a crisis that left his home state in shambles for over two months before Congressional action.
King went on to praise Cuomo’s passage of a tough gun regulation bill vehemently denounced by many Congressional Republicans.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/01/18/1470081/new-york-rep-gop-made-us-go-around-like-third-world-beggars-for-sandy-aid/
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