
As American cities are battered by storms and lives are ruined, some Republicans still oppose sending federal money to help devastated communities.

2017 is shaping up to be one of the worst hurricane seasons in recorded history.

Hurricane Harvey, which dumped 35 inches of rain on Texas and 50 inches of rain on Houston specifically, shattered nearly every record for a multi-day storm and is poised to be the most expensive natural disaster in the history of America. Hurricane Irma, which is cutting a path over Puerto Rico and South Florida, is even worse, with winds of up to 185 mph.

FEMA is already on track to run out of money by Friday, even without the $1 billion in budget cuts proposed by Republicans.


That being said, many in the GOP have come to realize some form of relief is necessary.

The Senate just slipped Harvey relief into its comprehensive bill to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government, and most Republicans went along with it. Even Ted Cruz, who infamously voted against a relief bill after Superstorm Sandy, and has been lying about it ever since, backed the bill, since it gives significant funding to his state.

But there were 17 holdouts — all Republicans — who still decided they were not going to pay to help disaster victims.

17 NOs on Harvey Aid Deal:

Corker

Daines

Enzi

Ernst

Fischer

Flake

Graham

Grassley

Johnson

Lankford

Lee

McCain

Moran

Paul

Risch

Sasse

Toomey — Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 7, 2017

Among the "no" votes were Tennessee's Bob Corker, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, Nebraska's Ben Sasse, and Arizona's John McCain and Jeff Flake, all of whom have in various ways branded themselves as reasonable adults compared to Donald Trump; Montana's Steve Daines, whose state is currently experiencing a climate-change-related disaster of its own; and Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey, whose state needed help during Hurricane Sandy.

Furthermore, by voting against this bill, these Republicans were also voting against keeping the government open, or allowing the United States to pay its creditors. Failure to do so would cause economic devastation on a far worse scale.

These GOP senators should not even be able to face themselves in a mirror. Their vote against disaster victims was reprehensible. It was a vote against America.