The latest example of fake news from the mainstream media comes from the coverage of Hurricane Harvey. The canard being pushed by the liberal that the GOP is being hypocritical (especially those from Texas) because they voted against the Hurricane Sandy Relief bill. What isn’t being mentioned is that the Hurricane Sandy relief package was laden with billions of dollars of non-Sandy related pork.
On Sunday evening The Hill tweeted out:
Texas senators who voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy ask for federal assistance ahead of Hurricane Harvey https://t.co/KPQstpG1ey pic.twitter.com/s6zUMeEKBn
— The Hill (@thehill) August 26, 2017
The Sandy Relief bill originated in the Democratically Controlled Senate. Without going through the committee process (gee I thought the Dems thought avoiding the committee process was a bad thing.
According to a December 2012 report in the NY Post (whose coverage area was hit by Sandy), the pork-laden relief bill included:
- $8+ million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments.
- $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska
- $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC
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$13 billion would go to “mitigation” projects to prepare for future storms.
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$207 million for the VA Manhattan Medical Center;.
- $4 million for repairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida;
- $3.3 million for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center
- $1.1 million to repair national cemeteries.
A Freedom Work’s Analysis added some pork the post missed:
- $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land.
- $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.”
- $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief.
- $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
Heritage Foundation found:
- $200 million for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to be used freely at the discretion of the Secretary
In other words, Harry Reid thought he could guilt the Republicans to pass a bill so full of pork they could have opened a pork sausage factory. It ended up passing, but primarily because of Democratic votes. After all, it’s no secret that Democrats only care about the budget when there is a Republican in the White House.
