Hurricane Harvey And The Potential Hypocrisy Of Texas Republicans

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hurricane-harvey-texas-republicans-sandy-hypocrisy_us_59a46fcce4b041393a1fc43a?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

WASHINGTON ― Texas Republicans, long accustomed to bashing the federal government, are already changing their tune now that Hurricane Harvey has devastated parts of their state.

An emergency aid package hasn’t surfaced yet, but Congress almost certainly will have to approve a spending bill to help those affected by the hurricane-force winds and widespread flooding in southeastern Texas. The question is whether that money will be offset by cuts to other government programs, whether extraneous spending will be attached to the package, and whether, under any circumstances, Texas Republicans will have a problem voting for it.

Money to help those in need from a lawmaker’s homestate isn’t a particularly tough vote. At this point, no Texas Republican has declared any sort of condition for their support of an emergency aid package. But when it was New York and New Jersey hit hard by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, all but one Texas Republican in Congress ― Rep. John Culberson ― voted against a $50.5 billion package to help people in those states.

That was no surprise. The Texas delegation tends to speak with one voice, and there’s little political repercussions for its members to vote against government largesse for another state.

Many Republicans at the time said they took issue with unrelated spending that was attached to the Sandy bill, though most of the funding was directed at helping the storm’s victims. And even some of the most derided provisions ― like $2 million to repair Smithsonian roofs in Washington ― were, in fact, related to that storm (it brought heavy wind and rain to that nation’s capital, as well.)