Obama Hugged Hurricane Sandy Victim and Then Sent Her a Form Letter (another sucka bo

[Wehrwolfen]

Obama Hugged Hurricane Sandy Victim and Then Sent Her a Form Letter (another sucka born)​

By Victor Fiorillo
President Obama comforted you and offered you “immediate” assistance. Since your encounter with him months ago, what has been your interaction with the White House?

After his visit, I sent an email to President Obama. Many days later, I got a response back. It was disturbing.

How so?

It had nothing to do with what I was asking him. It was a form letter. It thanked me for supporting the troops. He made a promise to rebuild on national television, and I can’t even get this money. It’s heartbreaking, really. I did reach out to Senator Whelan, and I got a response that they were forwarding my email to the person that Governor Christie put in charge of Sandy relief. But from President Obama, I got a form letter.


(Excerpt)

Read more:
Hurricane Sandy Victim Donna Vanzant Says Obama Broke Promise | The Philly Post

 

[waltky]

Obama's Katrina...

Storm-ravaged Staten Islanders angry over stalled Sandy aid
4 Jan.`13 - Congress isn't exactly winning popularity contests anywhere in America, but in New York's storm-ravaged borough of Staten Island, its name is mud.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner declined to bring a $60.4 billion aid package for people hit by Superstorm Sandy to a vote on Tuesday night, sparking a backlash from both Republican and Democratic politicians from New York and New Jersey, who called the delay callous and a "betrayal." Boehner quickly announced that on Friday, Congress will vote on one urgent portion of the bill, which sends more than $9 billion to the government's flood insurance program. That program was expected to run out of money early next week as the victims of Sandy have been filing claims in droves.

But the rest of the $51 billion in aid won't be voted on until Jan 15, more than two months after the storm hit, and a longer wait period than survivors of past catastrophes like Hurricanes Ike, Katrina, Gustav, Andrew and others have faced. In the meantime, some in Staten Island say they're tired of feeling like the government doesn't care. "What do I think? I think they're lucky we're not armed," yelled Rose Mazz, 68, out of the window of the small storm-damaged home where she's lived for 24 years.

A few minutes later, Mazz emerged from the front door--stamped with a green inspection sticker from the city that labels it inhabitable--in a puffy coat and apologized for not inviting me in. "You wouldn't be able to breathe in there," she explained, gesturing inside to a cloud of dust emanating from the construction. Her home was under four feet of water, and she's still repairing her roof, boiler, furnace and plumbing system at an estimated price tag of $100,000. "They're so busy spiting each other and playing games," she said of Congress. "It's sad."

Mazz is one of the hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by Sandy, which ripped through the region Oct. 29 and left more than 130 people dead, nearly half of them in New York City. Mazz counts herself as lucky, since she is better off than the three of her neighbors who drowned in the storm, and the many others who lost their homes entirely. Mazz has only received $5,000 from her insurance company so far. Mazz's contractor, who declined to be named, said many of his customers are scrambling to get funds from their insurance to help them pay. "I just had one customer crying," he said. "She has $130,000 in damage. The insurance gave her $12,000." In theory, the $60 billion relief bill could help defray the costs for Mazz and others in her situation.

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[waltky]

The GOP's Shameful Sandy Vote...

Callous Conservatives: Gulf State Republicans’ Sandy Shame
Jan 5, 2013 - The Republican congressmen who use New York as a campaign ATM, but turn a blind eye to suffering here must be held accountable, writes John Avlon.

Slap a scarlet “S” on these callous conservatives. Sixty-seven members of Congress–all Republicans—voted against even $9 billion of Hurricane Sandy relief yesterday. Remember their names, and hold them accountable. Twelve of the scarlet 67 voted for Hurricane Katrina relief—which passed ten days after that devastating Gulf Coast storm—but against Hurricane Sandy relief 69 days after its landfall in the Northeast. Their names: Trent Franks (AZ), Ed Royce (CA), Sam Graves (MO), Steve Pearce (NM), Steve Chabot (OH), Jimmy Duncan (TN), Kenny Marchant (TX), Randy Neugebauer (TX), Mac Thornberry (TX), Bob Goodlatte (VA), Tom Petri (WI), and Paul Ryan (WI).

These congressmen are content to use New York City and the tri-state area as an ATM when they are looking for campaign funds, yet they willfully turn a blind eye when hundreds of thousands of homes and small businesses are damaged or destroyed and more than 100 Americans are dead. Note the name of last year’s vice presidential nominee and potential 2016 presidential candidate Paul Ryan on this list. Donors would do well to ask him about this vote. The Texas delegation likewise asked for federal funds when hurricanes have devastated their state, yet are ignoring suffering in the Northeast. But then conservatives often become liberal when an issue affects them personally. Just two years ago, Missouri Congressman Sam Graves begged President Obama for an emergency declaration to deal with flooding in his district—now he is afflicted with convenient amnesia.

A laborer empties debris from a home damaged by Superstorm Sandy on January 4, 2013 in the Midland Beach area of the Staten Island borough of New York City. More than two months after the storm, Congress passed legislation that will provide $9.7 billion to cover insurance claims filed by people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Sandy.

The full list of the 67 “nos” is tilted toward the conservative Gulf Coast states and the congressmen—many elected after Katrina—whose constituents often feel the brunt of natural disasters. Congressman Paul Broun—who when Obama was elected in 2008 called the president-elect a “Marxist” and compared him to Hitler, who denounced evolution as a “lie from the pit of hell” despite serving on the Science Committee—had no trouble asking for FEMA funds when his district was flooded in 2009. And Alabama’s Mo Brooks was equally eager for federal funds when tornados devastated his district in 2011. The larger point, of course, is that massive disaster relief is a role for the federal government. There are times when we are 50 individual states and times when we need to unite and act as one country. Hurricane relief should be a no-brainer.

But Club for Growth and other conservative activist groups decided to make Hurricane Sandy relief a litmus test for their annual scorecards, and conservative congressmen started running scared. The presence of pork in the original Senate Hurricane Sandy relief bill was a predictable disgrace. For example, in an essay on CNN, I called out the presence of pork like $150 million for Alaskan Fisheries and $41 million to military bases including Guantanamo Bay. But that pork was rightfully stripped from the ultimate Senate and House bill. Angry conservative activists never bothered to update their talking points and so they argued from ignorance. Moreover, the bill that Congress passed on Friday was just $9 billion of the total $60 billion Sandy relief bill (an amount far less than the Governors’ estimate of $80 billion in damage). We’ll have to wait until at least January 15th for a vote on the remaining $51 billion.

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[boedicca]

To Obama, the Little People are just Props for Photo Ops.