GOP wants to speed relief to Gulf Coast. But Trump's budget cuts would hurt recovery in the long run

Well, Hallefriggin’lujah. Our nation’s usually austerity-minded Republicans—except when it’s a pet project, subsidies for some favored commercial enterprise, or the Pentagon—are saying they plan to take action as early as next week in passing a $5.9 billion spending bill to cover the immediate costs of the devastation that Hurricane Harvey’s deluge delivered to the Gulf Coast the past few days. 

Most, probably all, Democrats will be on board with this because, unlike the 179 Republicans—23 of them from Texas—who gave the thumbs-down to aid after Hurricane Sandy five years ago, they actually care about people harmed by the giant storm, even people who don’t vote to elect them.

But while this immediate aid is unlikely to face more than a few no votes in Congress, additional aid in the months to come may be a harder sell. 

Pr*sident Donald Trump has vowed to make the recovery from Harvey “better-than-ever” compared with previous efforts, and his support for a fellow with actual experience at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, William Brock Long, may indeed make the federal assistance smoother than it has sometimes been in the past. But the circumstances of his hiring didn’t happen by accident. Long was selected under the new rules passed after the disastrous FEMA handling of the Katrina aftermath by Michael D. “Heckuva job” Brown in 2005. Now the agency’s top post is required to go to someone who has relevant emergency management skills. How well Long does, however, Trump’s hiring and budgetary plans may transform his better-than-ever promise, like so many of his others, into crapola. Politico reports:

No plans have been finalized but Republican leaders and the White House are weighing a package of nearly $6 billion to get FEMA through the end of the month. That's likely to include $5.5 billion in disaster relief funds, plus funding flexibility for FEMA to spend more money if needed, as well as $450 million in small business loans, according to sources familiar with the matter. [...]

News of a pending package comes after Republicans from Texas and Louisiana pushed GOP leaders and the White House to act soon. Some in leadership had hoped to tie the emergency Harvey funding to a combined debt ceiling-government funding bill at the end of September.

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