You and Scott would both lose that argument on precedent. It has been done for decades and no one felt it was unconstitutional. This was a slap at the Northeast and Governor Christie, IMHO. It paints the GOP in a very bad light.
John
Both parties suck, what’s your point?
It was believed unconstitutional by the authors of the constitutions and previous presidents - most notably Grover Cleveland.
Just because people no longer believe in the rule of law doesn’t make it right.
If it was believed to be unconstitutional…why didn’t they put something to that effect in the document? Grover Cleveland? Come on…
John
Barack Obama? Come on…
We’ll have to wait 100 plus years to have a fair comparison, won’t we? But, one thing is certain… President Obama won two consecutive terms.
Actually Obama has already destroyed his credibility - Cleveland’s lives on.
IYHO
I’m seeing Virginia, MA, PA and “none” listed as locations on this thread, I’m curious: Are there any other New Yorkers here? We’re not a bunch of New Orleanites who go looting and shooting every time the wind blows hard. It’s already been months, and we don’t really expect to see the money go to the city, just to pork projects that don’t need them. So time really doesn’t matter. If we can’t get our insurance to pay up (all state has been reported for giving a condemned home $168.28 to rebuild for a fully insured house), we certainly don’t expect the feds to pay for it.
We’re New Yorkers. We’re strong. We can make it without the Fed.
The preamble is not legally binding. A better response would have been Article I Section VIII, the enumerated powers of congress. They are explicitly given the power to lay taxes and to spend (and borrow money) to promote the general welfare. The 16th amendment allows an income tax. And of course, historically the SCOTUS has ruled on the side of congress when determining what is necessary and proper.
It really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks is constitutional. If its written in the constitution and the SCOTUS interprets it so as to say that _________ is constitutional, then it is.
The “Sandy” bill wasn’t about helping people out with hurricane damage. It was a rush to spend money in a manner that was supposed to be unquestionable - sort of like saying “Its for the children”.
**Gov. Christie and President Obama Express Disappointment Over Delay in Sandy Aid **
Christie issued a joint statement with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo late Wednesday morning chastising the House for its seeming indifference when it comes to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
“With all that New York and New Jersey and our millions of residents and small businesses have suffered and endured, this continued inaction and indifference by the House of Representatives is inexcusable,” the release stated. “It has not been 66 days since Hurricane Sandy hit and 27 days since President Obama put forth a responsible aid proposal that passed with a bipartisan vote in the Senate while the House has failed to even bring it to the floor.”
The statement continued: “This failure to come to the aid of Americans following a severe and devastating natural disaster is unprecedented. The fact that days continue to go by while people suffer, families are out of their homes, and men and women remain jobless and struggling during these harsh winter months is a dereliction of duty. When American citizens are in need we come to their aid. That tradition was abandoned in the House last night.”
Finally: “The people of our states can no long afford to wait while politicians in Washington play games.”
lacey.patch.com/articles/christie-and-obama-express-disappointment-over-delay-in-sandy-aid
Christie issued a joint statement with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo late Wednesday morning chastising the House for its seeming indifference when it comes to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
“With all that New York and New Jersey and our millions of residents and small businesses have suffered and endured, this continued inaction and indifference by the House of Representatives is inexcusable,” the release stated. “It has not been 66 days since Hurricane Sandy hit and 27 days since President Obama put forth a responsible aid proposal that passed with a bipartisan vote in the Senate while the House has failed to even bring it to the floor.”
The statement continued: “This failure to come to the aid of Americans following a severe and devastating natural disaster is unprecedented. The fact that days continue to go by while people suffer, families are out of their homes, and men and women remain jobless and struggling during these harsh winter months is a dereliction of duty. When American citizens are in need we come to their aid. That tradition was abandoned in the House last night.”
Finally: “The people of our states can no long afford to wait while politicians in Washington play games.”
He forgot to add “It’s for the children”.
FEMA has $5 billion that is thought to last until March so why does a bill have to be passed now? I think the House did not pass the Sandy bill because it is laden with pork
[LIST=1]
*]More to the Army Corps of Engineers that their yearly budget, $5.8 billion
*]$41 million to Gitmo and 7 other military bases
*]$56.8 million for charting debris from the Japanese tsunami
*]$188 million for new Amtrak train lines which is not for repairs
*]$4 million for Kennedy Space Center
*]$20 million for a Water Resources Priorities Study
If the Democrats have really filled the relief bill with extra spending projects unrelated to Sandy then they are as responsible for this failure as the Republicans. I do wonder if the Republicans would have passed the bill anyway if the damage had been in the South rather than the Northeast. I suspect they would have.
In any case this is an absurd failure by Congress as a whole.
Ummm, why should I, as a Virginia resident, have to pay for the damage of stuff in New Jersey?
Because we are all human beings and all Americans.
What’s your point? Charity is only legitimate when it comes by force of government?
:shrug: Christie said the bill is not filled with pork and then later pointed out pork in the bill
He said, ‘last night my party was responsible for this.’ Bill is full of expenditures for non sandy related groups. He should be annoyed at how senate democrats filled a bill with money going to fisheries in Alaska and other groups and not going to the victims of the storm
Christie criticised Boehner and democrats and credited both Bush presidents for their response to disasters and Cantor and Obama for support
Christie did not say was there was so much pork in the bill that it would wipe out this years cuts. House republicans should release a press release saying why they did not pass the bill
The sandy pork storm
nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/the_sandy_pork_storm_MXnWh0F8ptUJzDff69z1dP
And they only found out that was all in the bill last night? Seriously, now I can see Romney’s point about liking the ability to fire people! This is the height of incompetence and irresponsibility.
Is there no remedy that would have allowed the ‘pork’ to be stripped and the bill passed? Of course that might still have angered some part of the electorate - and since the only real purpose of getting elected to Congress is to get re-elected the next time around…