… plans to change name to Eric Luthor
As millions of Americans remember those who were lost on September 11, 2001 and celebrate those who emerged from 9/11 as heroes — those who died trying to save the lives of their colleagues and friends, and the first responders who rushed to Ground Zero without hesitation — Eric Cantor has other plans.
On Friday, President Obama requested for $5.1 billion to provide disaster relief to those affected by recent hurricanes and earthquakes — in Eric Cantor’s home state of Virginia no less — including $500 million for FEMA. Eric Cantor’s response? He plans to insist on offsets for the $500 million in emergency funds.
Problem is, those offsets are massive cuts to first responders:
The House bill slashes funding for grants to equip and train first responders by 40 percent. This is on top of the 19 percent cut in FY 2011. The House defense appropriations bill provides $12.8 billion to train and equip troops and police in Afghanistan — yet the House provides only $2 billion for first responders here at home.
Their proposal also slashes the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s operations by 6 percent at a time when the agency has never been busier. Does it really make sense to pay for response and reconstruction costs from past disasters by reducing our capacity to prepare for future disasters?
And, as Think Progress points out:
In December, Cantor opposed a bipartisan bill “to improve health services and provide financial compensation for 9/11 first responders who were exposed to dangerous toxins and are now sick as a result.” Now, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Cantor is pushing for further cuts to first responders in exchange for disaster relief.
Classy.
What more can be said about Eric Cantor? He just doesn’t give a fuuuuuuuck.
If you live in his district, you should be working to kick his ass out.
[via Think Progress]
[cross-posted at ABLC]
WereBear
Well, I’m a looney. I can’t see why anyone would vote for this very-definition-of-smarmy in the first place.
Chad N Freude
He just wants to emulate Rick Perry’s defunding of Texas fire departments, because that worked out so well.
Yutsano
Well his district is about as safe as it can get for him since McDonnell will ensure that. So we’re stuck with the smarmy weasel for awhile.
A Mom Anon
It’s like they’re just asking for someone to beat their asses I swear to god. Or more accurately,daring someone to stop them. What happy,normal,well adjusted person does this?
I’m torn. I am usually really not a violent person. But these assclowns remind me of abusive spouses(something I experienced many moons ago in my misspent youth-current husband is a keeper,my first choice,not so freaking much)In my personal experience,it didn’t stop until I picked up a hammer and hit the bastard several times with it.Oh he claimed he was going to press charges,but he knew that would have meant he’d be exposed for the woman and child beating sack of shit he was. But after that,he left me and my little girl alone.
These right wing lunatics simply are too insulated and not afraid of the people. Or maybe they’re more scared of their paymasters,I have no idea anymore what to think of these evil,twisted fuckers. That shit right there is evil,I don’t know how you could come to any other conclusion.
Arclite
What a douche. You know, hurricane and earthquake damage are the very definition of borrow and pay back later. You get those folks back on their feet again ASAP so they can be productive tax paying members of society.
But, hey, if Cantor wants to cut it all from defense, I’ll support that.
Scott
These right wing lunatics simply are too insulated and not afraid of the people. Or maybe they’re more scared of their paymasters
I can’t imagine what benefit their paymasters would get from having first responders who haven’t been trained and equipped. I don’t care how rich you are, you’ve got to know that you may someday need an ambulance or fire truck to get you out of a jam.
I think Eric Cantor just enjoys the suffering of others. I hear he likes to pleasure himself watching those old seat belt movies they made us watch in drivers ed.
Linda Featheringill
@A Mom Anon:
Good for you.
A Mom Anon
Eric Cantor’s Bitch Face
Just because.
ETA:Crap,the linky thing didn’t work. It’s ericcantorsbitchface.tumblr.com
Amir Khalid
Photo-shopping clown makeup on this man’s face doesn’t quite capture his malign intentions. It makes him seem merely silly, rather than hell-bent on sabotaging the public sector.
Mr Stagger Lee
He wasn’t hugged as a child? Was he bullied by jocks? God forbid he or one of his kin is in need of first aid but because of those 40% cuts the first responder will apply a band-aid.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
This. Horns and a pitchfork would be a little bit closer to accurate.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
So I get the first part of the brilliant statergery: Show his fiscally conservative cojones by insisting on shit like this. But what about the second part? I don’t see him campaigning on his desire to cut funding for emergency response. But then again, perhaps he really is that stupid.
A Mom Anon
@Amir Khalid: I prefer to think of him as an assclown,so it sorta works from that standpoint.
satby
My kid put this on Facebook, sums the Tea bag bunch up perfectly:
“How to explain the need for taxes to the tea party: its like when you have to make a ‘donation’ at the begining of every club meeting so that there’s a cross to burn next week.”
He and his friends get it.
Valdivia
that photoshop is genius. though purple is too good a colour for him.
The Dangerman
It has nothing to do with preparedness or fighting fires; First Responders are Union and must be fucked.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@satby: Awesome. Give your kid a terrorist fist bump for me.
Roger Moore
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
Braving danger that would make a more claustrophobic person run away, I’ll try to get into Eric Cantor’s mind. I think the idea is that he personally is in a safe district and hence at no risk of losing an election no matter how loathsome his politics. So the idea is to hamstring Obama by presenting him with unacceptable choice. He can either accept defaulting on the debt or big cuts to his favorite programs. He can accept either no help for disaster victims or big cuts to first responders. Etc. By the time the election rolls around, Obama should be so tarred with the nasty choices he’s had to make that he’ll be completely toxic and the Republican challenger will sail into the White House. Then all the Republicans who presented Obama with those choices will get returned to office on the Republican victor’s coattails.
satby
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen: thanks! Mom’s so proud… but then he’s now living in the hellhole known as Texas, so he sees it up close daily,
Villago Delenda Est
@The Dangerman:
I’m afraid it boils down to this.
It’s more of this take shit for granted nonsense that is at the heart of Randite/Libertarian stupidity.
Suffern ACE
IDK, I think the argument is that someone in need of first aid is something that should be paid for on the local level and probably is. Remembering that recent incident involving Steven Seagal, Joe Arpaio, an armored car, a swat team, and a massacre of fighting cocks, makes me wonder what some of our first responders are being trained to do. Infiltrate muslim groups? Protect us from the threat of an AQ attack in Muncie?
Scuffletuffle
Maybe we can find the offsets in Congress…I wonder what pay and bennies add up to per Congresscritter and if enough could be raised by slashing Repubs and blue dogs.
Roger Moore
@Suffern ACE:
Keep the wrong kind of people from coming into our fair (wink! wink!) city.
cat48
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
Usually, it’s for Campaign ads against the prez. “The president cut 1st responders funding by a gazillion dollars.” They have to find some way to make it look like we’re not safe with this prez. McConnell is doing the same thing.
It’s all about the next election now for those two. Usually Reid fixes them if the bill gets to the Senate.
danimal
@Amir Khalid: @Roger Moore: Michele Bachmann is insulted that Obama said the political circus must end. Apparently she felt that he insulted Congress.
Then she climbed out of the VW, along with 156 members of the Republican caucus and wiped her red, bulbous nose. Cantor isn’t the only clown, just the one with the purple face.
Dennis SGMM
Cantor’s District, and the state of Virginia are being taken care of already, aren’t they? And, what’s the Prime Directive for Republicans? All together now:
“I got mine so…”
When first responders get defunded to the point where they can’t possibly meet the needs of their communities, motherfuckers like Cantor will then bellow that we must, must, must subscribe to privately run services or else.
The Dangerman
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m not sure I had it quite right, though; First Responders are not only Union, they are Public Sector Union.
Yes, the Randians are cutting off their (clown) nose to spite their face (they may need FR some day), but it’s all about kneecapping your political opponents.
Svensker
@Suffern ACE:
You laugh but if I were AQ I would so totes attack Muncie. Um, where IS Muncie?
4tehlulz
So in short, Cantor’s position can be summed up as “Fuck the Police.”
Dennis SGMM
Funny, I don’t remember Cantor calling for offsetting cuts after 9/11 (He entered Congress in January of that year). Nor did he call for offsetting cuts for subsequent disasters from then until just recently. He’s such a watchful little steward of U.S. spending that he didn’t bother to insist that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq be paid for by cuts elsewhere or even that they be put on the budget.
If the voters in Cantor’s district don’t start sharpening up a two-by-four-by-twelve at both ends then they’re pretty much the dumb fucking crackers that we suppose them to be.
Suffern ACE
RE: 9/11 First Responders – look, I lived in NY on that fateful day, and whatnot… and lord knows, who am I to question using that event to shield the fee fees and budgets of fire and police departments in Minnesota or Tennessee from scrutiny…who are on the front lines every day, and on this day, first responders everywhere have been harmed and we must stand proud with their bravery because policemen somewhere else were brave…whatever. Quit running 9-11 up to the emotional hoo hoo.
And no, being a Keynesian and this being a recession and all doesn’t mean I have to love every government expenditure that ever got put in the budget to begin with, just because somewhere, someone connected the “9-11, first responders, sacred cow” concepts together for the last ten years.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@cat48: And that’s the thing. I’d be surprised if this gets past the dick waving stage and I know it won’t make it past Senate. In fact, Cantor is RELYING on people to stop his crazy shit from becoming policy.
Unless he really is that fucking stupid.
As for his district being safe from disasters, isn’t he out near Shenandoah? Weather gets gnarly out there.
Edited to add: Virginia suffered on the ground casualties on 9/11. F.R. came from all the fuck over. Does he REALLY want to go there?
rikyrah
Cantor is nothing but a punk ass biyotch of the highest order.
Dennis SGMM
@Suffern ACE:
With respect, I suggest that there’s a difference between funding local first responders at a level that will meet historical needs and funding security at lakeside marinas in Kansas to meet a waterborne assault by Al Qaeda.
SiubhanDuinne
@A Mom Anon:
That is an excellent site. Thanks!
Brian
@4tehlulz: Comin’ straight from the under
groundworld.MazeDancer
People like Eric Cantor who are second-generation, Republican, Conservative Jews from Virginia with a JD from William and Mary and a Masters in Real Estate Development from Columbia would form a very small support group.
But add in sadistically evil with that lightweight, irritating, nasal voice, and I will, at least, give him if not uniqueness, then impossibility to pin down demographically. There are 100,000 great Jewish guys in NYC who look just like him. None of them Republican or evil. And few of them straight.
But he’s repulsive. On every level. Viscerally. It’s impossible to hear him speak without wanting to abandon decades of pacifism and physically wring his neck.
I’m from the South. Other than cruel, he fits zero of the explainable, recognizable genres that usually appeal to white Southerners. (Can’t imagine Southerners of non-Caucasian derivations would do anything other than laugh in Cantor’s face. Or have similar pacifist-abandoning, want-to-shoot-him reactions.) But Rick Perry is classic Southern-appealling cruel. It’s usually mean and macho. Cantor is a monogrammed stilleto-weilding, second-rung courtier. Nothing macho about his sadism.
Why the people of Virginia vote for him, I have no clue.
But hope Mr. Obama sees fit to mention this slicing the first responders attempt. Often.
Comrade Kevin
Eric Cantor probably has a lot of people who will vote for him, but not let him into their country club.
PurpleGirl
@Valdivia: Agreed. The purple is way too good for him. He’s more a bright, florescent yellow-green. Something chemical and toxic.
Matt
Oh, we should all be so lucky. He’s gone way beyond “not giving a fuck” into a much more active “directly sabotaging everything” mode.
Suffern ACE
@Dennis SGMM: With respect, I’m not the one who decided to tie outrage over the issue of proposed cuts to transfer payments to “first responders” to “ON THIS DAY OF ALL DAYS!!” Would it have been less outrageous if Cantor decided to take the money from food stamps on this day?
MariedeGournay
Don’t insult Mr. Luthor in that way.
clayton
I think first responders include more than just cops or swat or the FBI. I also think their training is for more than just terrorist attacks, though this particular post makes that argument, like the quake and other national disasters.
The more important point is Cantor’s new-found religion on balancing expenses with cuts. The time he should have made this stand has passed and this is the worst time economically for him to do such things. Which leads one to conclude that his stance has everything to do with who is president.
That he can take such a stance from a supposedly safe seat just goes to show that he’s an opportunist and isn’t worried about getting voted out. It seems to me that President Obama had a good crowd right in Cantor’s district yesterday. Perhaps they need to get out and get someone better to represent them.
dnfree
For many years, as a fiscal conservative, every time a local disaster is declared and federal funds are sent that way, I have said (sarcastically), “Good thing we put that extra money away for just this sort of thing!”
In other words, if we think disasters are a federal responsibility, then we should raise taxes to pay for the funding. It’s not like “Hey, disaster, who could have predicted?”
soonergrunt
@Scott:
Well, if you don’t see the bad stuff ever happening to you, because you can afford the best of everything, including safe haven from disaster then what you get out of it is another 9/11 to whip up the worst impulses in the populace to do your bidding.
What you get out of it is an excuse to make another Iraq.
Or you get another Katrina, which you can blame on your political enemies.
dexwood
Fuck that fuckin’ Cantor fucker.
MacKenna
Will “complete coverage of 9/11” in the media mention Congress screwing first responders out of medical treatment/coverage?
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-26-2011/friends-without-benefits—9-11-responders?xrs=share_copy
MacKenna
Don’t know why the above link isn’t working.
Hope this works. Friends without benefits.
Dismal in virginia
Sorry, but we are totally screwed here in VA. I’m in Goodlatte’s district. He runs unopposed, and Cantor probably does too.
G
would you rather die in a fire or be rescued by a union thug?
I mean according to right wing radio I heard yesterday we live in a union thugocracy. can the first lady please please do a PSA on using seatbelts??? please? before november 2012?
John Weiss
Here’s the long and the short of it.
The way I see it.
Eric Cantor is a thug.
Haven’t you dealt with with thugs? Give ’em an inch…
Mister Papercut
@MazeDancer:
The R designation is good enough for about 90% of these knuckledraggers.
And like all R politicians here he’s also got the Richmond Times-Dispatch squarely in his corner/camped up his ass, with the nifty bonus that his wife is on the parent company’s board. (On the other hand, the RTD is a massive, embodiment-of-Fail joke that no one takes seriously anyway — like attracts like, I suppose.)
Jess Sane
Protect us from the threat of an AQ attack in Muncie?
Yeah, there hasn’t been any major terrorist attacks in the midwest since…umm…the last time a Democrat was in the White House.
harlana
oops wrong thread
Captain C
I would love to hear someone ask this of Eric Cantor at his next presser:
“Mr. Cantor, you have proposed corresponding cuts for any disaster emergency spending. What specific cuts are you proposing from your own district, and if you aren’t, why should we take you seriously?”