The president is set to arrive in Atlantic City, New Jersey at 1pm today. He is set to leave at 4:30pm. Hopefully, that will provide enough time for a helicopter trip up and down the coast so that he can survey the extent of the damage. Seaside Heights, where I grew up going to the shore, hardly exists anymore. Governor Chris Christie will accompany the president and they can discuss the many ways in which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can help the Garden State. Mitt Romney can’t really say anything since he spent the primaries bashing federal agencies like FEMA and taking the position that, in situations like this, Gov. Christie should be on his own with no assistance from the federal government because the Feds can’t help New Jersey without “jeopardizing the future for our kids.”
So, Romney can just plop himself down in a comfy chair and watch how the federal government is supposed to work. Because, remember, Romney said we should defund FEMA in the context of the utterly devastating tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri. Eric Cantor didn’t want to pay to help the people of Joplin unless he could take the money out of little children’s school nutrition programs or your unemployment insurance. That is because Republicans see every disaster as an opportunity to raze public housing and make the 47% of the people who can’t take responsibility for their lives eat a shit sandwich.
Predictably, the Romney campaign is trying to Etch a Sketch his history of opposing federal disaster relief out of existence, just like they’re trying to pretend he didn’t recommend the liquidation of the American automotive industry. Yesterday, Romney ignored more than a dozen questions from reporters about his prior comments about FEMA, and his campaign released a statement saying that he supports how FEMA works and won’t destroy the agency.
As Chris Christie would say, only a numb-nuts ignoramus idiot joker loser would respond to a natural disaster like the Joplin tornado by talking about eliminating FEMA. Romney won’t say the same thing again because this time around he correctly thinks it would cost him votes. So, he should say nothing. Just sit in your comfy chair and watch, Romney.