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Subscribe to RSSThe Senate Monday night passed a $50.5 billion emergency spending bill to aid people in New York and New Jersey who are trying to rebuild their homes and businesses after last October’s devastation from super-storm Sandy.
The vote was 62 to 36, with 60 votes needed for passage.
Before approving the spending bill, the Senate defeated, 62 to 35, an amendment by Sen. Mike Lee, R- Utah, that would have offset the new Sandy outlays by reducing discretionary spending (including defense) by 0.5 percent over the next nine years.
The House had passed the Sandy spending bill two weeks ago. But the House action had come only after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and House members from the Northeast harshly criticized Speaker John Boehner for not allowing a vote on a Sandy relief bill on New Years’ Eve.
Congress has already passed $9.7 billion in additional borrowing authority for the National Flood Insurance Program to help pay Sandy claims from homeowners in New York and New Jersey.
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These people are out in the cold, take the money from all of these scumbag criminal politicians, they just gave themselves a raise. Or take some of the lobbyist money they use to pay off these criminal politicians. This system is a fu(king discrace.
fenderbluesjr.-right wing musician=ted nugent
Due to New Jerseys reputation for corruption do you have any idea how much of this money will go in the pockets of what is left of the Italian mob? As we speak there are lines forming in New Jersey for contractors licenses with people in them who have never done a days labor in their lives.
" Vinnies Roofing"
"Carmine Angelonis Gutter Business"
"Tony Cavalerris Insulation"
"Guidos Siding"
Who's ever in charge of handing out the money is already corrupt I can gaurentee you that and by summer the money will be gone and you won't see any progress done to rebuild this dump. Jersys a "pit" and should have been scraped back in the 70s and 80s and brought up to speed with the rest of the countries amausement parks. Most noteable The Boardwalk on The Jersy Shore. That place was frozen in time a time warp out of the 30s and 40s. The old people call it nastalgia, I call it a tomb.
It's the only place where kids and grandkids can take their grandparents to and not a thing has changed..
"Look Gand-Dad.. Tilt a World...Isn't that where you and Grandma met?...And look the same guy that took your ticket when you were a kid is still working the ride!.."
The guidos are small minority and 90% of the people are very nice. 90% of the state is nice - I've been in 26 states and I can't say the same about any. The people on the "Jersey Shore" aren't from here - we let them visit. You sound rude. Whenever I leave NJ I run into people like you - is "ignorant" the right word.
PLEASE STAY AWAY. Go to another state where there is no nostalgia. I don't expect you can appreciate it anyway.
On another note - Dear Obama came to this state ONCE IN HIS LIFE. 3 weeks before the last election. We had hurricane Irene the year before - where was the President then???
FEMA is run by the feds - the feds are corrupt - Where is FEMA now? Where are the news cameras? Why are we still hearing about Katrina but no outrage about Obama and FEMA regarding Sandy.
How do you feel about NYC and CT? Are they too corrupt? What about New Orleans?
I've come across some people from Jersey and for the most part I've found them rude. I was at the Visitor Center, Panther Junction, in Big Bend National Park getting gas and a guy in line started up with the horn honking. I walked back to the back of his car to see where he was from, yep, lol, NJ. I was at Everglades National Park in Florida, decided to drive to Key West and back on U.S. Hwy 1. What an experience, everybody in a big hurry to get where they should have been yesterday. Honking and passing, and a lot of them had Jersey plates. So, NJ, no problem at all to stay out of your state, good that you're way over on the coast so we can all stay out of your way.
Thanks, Obama. Just in time.
I doubt much of this goes to aid. Most to millionaire democrat union thugs raping the treasury...again.
Kota...You mean like the thugs of the House GOP majority who voted to hand Big Oil $12 billion last year? Or the rest of the $150 billion House Republicans magically found to fund Big Businesses that didn't need my tax dollars? Don't talk about raping federal funds until the Porker States start to rely on their state taxes before they help themselves to the federal tax revenues the rest of us pay for.
50 Billion dollars!!! Where's that coming from - oh yea people who pay taxes who cannot afford waterfront property. But the politicians look good :-0
Longhair...NJ gets 61 cents back in federal funding for every dollar we pay. Compare that to Big Rich Texas that Whole Other Country that gets $1.47 back for every dollar they pay...Where's that money coming from if not MY state, NY, CT and the rest of the eastern coastal states? Only Maine gets back more than $1 for their tax dollar.
ewent
Don't know where you get your numbers but we get back 23 cents of every dollar sent to Washington. . Just today Governor Perry was trying to pass a Bill for Texas to refund Tax Payers with surplus money that hasn't been spent. We are in the BLACK. Surplus Money. How many Blue States have a surplus? Watch & learn Lefurds.
1) Texas was one of the biggest recipients of stimulus money therefore the surplus.
2) Why is Teaxas considering a state income tax if they have that much money?
When the disaster is in some other part of the country the aid comes directly but when it's for the New York - New Jersey area they're gripping the check. People in Staten Island are still living in tents and 36 Senators vote no. What kind of people are these? What kind of country is this?
Dan...My heart goes out to the people in SINY. They got hit harder than some in central NJ near the Raritan Bay. I couldn't believe the devastation I saw in SI. There are still some businesses along the Jersey shore still without power.
I am especially pissed off at that SC "expert" who has the raisins to say that people shouldn't rebuild in a "flood zone." NJ, NY and CT weren't flood zones until Hurricane Sandy. Anything that comes out of the mouth of a SC expert is biased because they have always been in competition with the Jersey Shore on tourism.
What's amusing is that these "experts" who know so much don't realize if people can't live in coastal states, they'll be moving to interior landbound states.
Every ambulance chasing insurance agent selling flood insurance is hot to get the flood zone maps changed so they can amass a few extra billion in flood insurance.
Brian...I live in NJ. It is long past time for Big Insurance to be thoroughly investigated. I'm hearing from friends who live east of me who lost their homes that their insurance companies are looking for any loophole or excuse to deny claims. The reality is harsh. They've paid for homeowners insurance that now claims not to cover damages from storms, only liability like a mailman falling on your front step or similar injuries.
Most of those in the counties south of me in Monmouth and Ocean had flood insurance and these flood insurance agents are now pulling that "specialty" routine in what flood insurance at $2400 a clip up to $10K a year will cover. This is nothing but total extortion. You pay for 2 or more decades to house insurance and then file a claim and they do their corporate surgery on every detail of your claim so they can reject it. More moolah stashed into their high risk investments using our premiums. This is the same BS the HMO have been getting away with for years.
Want to bet that HMOs will start the same kind of specialist BS with what they'll cover so you end up having to purchase quantum numbers of different policies to cover every possible risk to mankind?
This president and his flunkies are the sorriest humans to ever be voted (Questionable) into office. It took them a few weeks to bail out the UAW & the GM Scam. We're past 6 months... and people who have lost 'Everything"....well we'll get to you when we can...... Don't even think about blaming congress on this one....
Obama & Hillary...Responsible for everything....Accountable for nothing!"
Moral: did anyone tell you how Stupid you really are?
moral99compass...If you are vying for right wing hardliner of the year...don't bother. Ryan, Issa, Cantor, McConnell and Boehner beat you to it.
Now about that accountability...How accountable was Bush for the 4,000 plus dead in Iraq? How much accountability did he take for his lies about the WMDs? Or the 2008 Financial Meltdown? This, from a Harvard MBA president with 2 failures before he failed the US economy.
Don't talk about accountability...the righties in this country are still pissants who can't wipe their own bottoms without help.
with all the millions the casinos lost those few day..taxpayers will have to make up.....Most of the money wil go to the wealthy...With all the others it will be " Do you have flood Ins "..
maze1992...Actually, NJ has a Republican governor and his plan for disbursement of federal funds is very organized and concise. It's obvious some have never been to the NJ shore. Most of the people who own homes along the shore are people who have had these homes in their families for generations. They use these homes in some cases as a source of income. Rentals in NJ down the shore are a big source of state revenue.
As for the casinos, most are owned by out of state billionaires like Trump. Many people do have flood insurance who live near the beaches. Can you afford $2400 or more a year for flood insurance? How about we start to demand that states who have regular spates of wildfires take out wildfire insurance too? Or tornado and dust storm insurance?
If you lose you home to a tornado or wildfire, you do not get a government handout to rebuild. The best you can hope for is a low interest loan, and that is on top of whatever mortgage you may have. That is why people should have insurance.
16 days and that mean old Republick Bush 2 had money flowing to a Dumbocrat city of NO. And look how long it took the Dumbocrats to send money to states that vote 70% for them? But that is what Dumbocrats do, the people that vote them in and pay their salaries get nothing in return. Except for the peeps on the dole and of course the lack of public service worker unions members. So keep voting for them, and keep holding your breath and hand on your axx waitng for them to help you.
What an idiotic statement, the money went to New Orleans. Some did but it also went to the states of Louisiana and the entire gulf coast of Mississippi, and Alabama the most right wing section of the country-Trent Lott territory plus it was the GOP that held back these Sandy funds, not the democrats. You got it all backwards.
It amazes me how a lot of posters/trolls/non-trolls whoever think their opinion has any value here. It doesn't, this is just a place for hens to cackle. Myself included. :))
That is the purpose of a comment blog. On Fox, they had to close down their comments. Too many death threats against the President.
There are a lot of people on this threat that think the Sandy funds are some kind of substitute for private homeowners insurance. WRONG.
Get a Lawyer sad but true, its the only way 90% of the INS Company's will pay up to get the damage fully repaired...The other 10% are the lucky ones with a good company....
You know, a single county in New Jersey probably generates more revenue than most entire "red states" do, most of which gets spent on said "red states." Frankly, it's not exactly unfair to have to call in a favor once in a while. Get over it.
Oh yeah, and all flood insurance is ultimately subsidized by Uncle Sam; otherwise no one would be able to afford it. Even if you subscribe to a commercial policy, chances are that at least part of your claims are ultimately paid from a taxpayer-subsidized pool. The risk factors are much, much higher than any other perils you'd expect to encounter in your home, which is why it's sold separately from regular home insurance.
I too don't understand why the public should pay to rebuild private property. I know nobody would help me if my house burned down. That's what insurance is for and why you have to stay on top of it. I'm going to raise my coverage because the current coverage amount not enough to replace my home if it burned. You'd think my agent would have suggested this but the only thing I get is my annual bill.
Because it's why we have a country and a government, Westguy. Otherwise we would live in anarchy, and we are not too far from that now.... and I'm not saying that for you to arm your gun. If you went there and saw those without houses, who are working Americans, maybe you would understand their needs then, and it would help you to understand why it is important that we help them. The fact that we have not yet is a regretful disgrace that congress and the senate, apparently, can sleep quite well with. I don't. There is something wrong with America when we lose the capacity to help each other.
Charlie, if you'd take notice, THOUSANDS of these people literally refused to buy any flood insurance and are now demanding that the government step in and pay for everything for them.
For HUNDREDS of years Americans have helped other Americans in trouble WITHOUT the government stepping in. Now suddenly it's the government's responsibility to do it all.
The REAL disgrace is that Democrats TOOK ADVANTAGE, again, of a crisis and loaded up their original "relief" bill with hundreds of millions of dollars in PORK.
Oh and one other thing, it's not like people that live 10 feet above sea level didn't KNOW that any major storm would flood them out and destroy their property.
What did they do about it? Pay for sea walls? Nope. Actually BUY their own flood insurance? Nope. Pay to improve the foundations of their homes? Nope. Pay for better drainage systems? Nope.They did absolutely NOTHING for themselves and people like you actually think they are somehow "owed" something by the rest of the nation for doing that nothing.
So Harry Reid FINALLY passes a bill passed by the House two weeks ago and all MSDNC is point out that the House wouldn't pass it on New Year's Eve because of the hundreds of millions of dollars in PORK that the original Senate bill had in it?
Wow, what a "news" story by Curry. Now he can go back to licking Obama's shoes and kissing Democrat butts until he writes the next political ad for them and calls it "news".
This is the POS from my home state that voted against the Sandy bill. He makes me sick. Talk about a hog at the trough. Can't believe MO has become such a bunch of nut jobs.
The "Gross Odd People" (GOP), and the "Really Not Competent" (RNC) truely proved to all Americans that they are "Mentally Ill." To not help our fellow citizens in their time of need. Well that is just 'gross.' The GOP/Teabeggers to ignore a part of our nation in their time of need is just 'odd.' The Teabeggers are so 'incompetent' to not understand that our fellow citizens need to economically get back on their feet quickly. This part of our nation plays a huge economci role in the economic strength of our nation. The actions of the Teabegger Congress are UnAmerican, UnPatriotic, and borders on treason. That is fact!
WHY SHOULD EVERYONE pay for the ones that live along the shorelines?????? i mean the TAXPAYERS. Should it not be left in the hands of the OWNERS and their INSURANCE COMPANY.
Why is it that the ones who are living on the shorelines are not TAKING THEIR OWN RESPONSIBLILITY for living where at any time STORMS and it could be DANGEROUS PAY for the LUXURY of getting washed out ????? I do not see why the other citizens of this country have to PAY for their IRRESPONSIBLE LIVING STANDARDS.
Let them pay for their OWN rebuild or their PRIVATE INSURANCE pay for it. OTHERWISE YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN !!!!! You will learn your lesson period. IF you can AFFORD THE FLOOD AND DISASTER INSURANCE that is .
This money is not so much for homeowners as it is to help pay for the repairs to the infrastructure. We had a un-heard-of 14" storm surge. It flooded the subway system, damaged streets, tunnels and bridges. The Path stations and trains are just coming back. We lost train cars and train tracks. Sandy Hook National Park could be closed for a year due the damage in toilets and roads. The money is for small interest loans to help business, who in turn pay taxes. Towns lost all their infrastructure and need help due to small tax bases.
And where do you live that it does get storms? How irresponsible is it that people living miles in from the coast were affected? Get off your high horse
Over a billion dollars is a lot of money, so how many people were left homeless or otherwise affected? Lol, give'em a check for a million and send them on their way.