Foxx raises a legitimate question
Virginia Foxx has a lot of guts.
Either that, or she's callous and heartless, like North Carolina Democrats say.
Foxx, the first-term Republican congresswoman from North Carolina's 5th District, was one of only 11 House members to vote against the $52 billion Hurricane Katrina relief package Thursday.
Her spokeswoman said Foxx wanted more accountability to ensure the money will be spent effectively.
Is anyone else concerned about that?
Normally, Congress would spend months putting together a $50 billiion appropriations bill. This one came together in -- what? -- a day or so?
The Associated Press reported yesterday about poor management of billions of dollars intended for 9/11 recovery. Does anyone doubt similar waste will occur this time?
Sure, it's critical to rush lots of help to the Gulf Coast.
Sure, it's politically foolish to vote no on any aid package right now. If you do, you look callous and heartless.
But isn't it still important to make sure that all this money gets the job done and doesn't end up in the wrong pockets?
I have one gripe with Foxx, though: She should have put a statement on her Web site today explaining her vote in more detail than the brief statement given by her spokeswoman.
Comments (5)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
It already has ended up in the wrong pockets, inasmuch as almost all the spending will be overseen by FEMA, which, even if it were supercompetent in relief efforts, has no expertise whatever in recovery/rebuilding.
I'm as compassionate as the next guy, but I'd've voted no for that reason alone.
Posted on September 9, 2005 2:16 PM
Why Lex, would you mind if FEMA managed it? Would you rather have the La machine run it?
Posted on September 9, 2005 4:20 PM
Ms. Foxx was on WSJS Radio this afternoon and explained her reason(s) for voting against the package. Simply, she said that there was no accountability defined in a package that was going to represent over $51B on top of another $11 passsed earlier. That's $62B, and no one has any idea how that money wil be spent and there will be no accountability for it.
She didn't say it, but I have also heard that many senators were trying to pack a load of pork onto that package for things that had nothing to do Katrina, and not even in the affected areas. Way to go Congress! You can't resist packing pork even in a time of disaster such as this.
Ms. Foxx says that she knows that she will take a political hit from Demoncrats in her next election, but she voted that way on principle. She even stated that some of her conservative associates in the House told her that they were voting for it because they didn't want to have to deal with the backlash. To those "politicians", I send rassberries for not having any courage or principles.
In the end, Ms. Foxx's constitutents will rememeber what she did and reward her for voting based upon her principles. And, if they don't then as Will Rogers once said "People generally get the government that they deserve".
Posted on September 9, 2005 5:15 PM
Christspeak, Lex can't stand the Republicans being in charge of anything, especially the government. Too bad he's in the minority.
Lex thinks that the Democrats should run everything for everybody, even though they represent only a smaller portion of the country.
Lex would not approve of anything Republican, just keep that in mind when you read his politcal rants.
Posted on September 10, 2005 4:50 PM
Ya'll weren't so worried when it was your freedoms on the line Post-9/11 via the Patriot Act that No Congressman or Senator even read. Now there was a piece of crap passed without so much as a peep from the "Watchdogs".
Posted on September 12, 2005 5:42 PM