Flood Insurance Bill Passes-- Boehner And His Cronies Vote NO

And neither does the Republican leadership

Yesterday the House passed-- with wide bipartisan support, 329-90-- Maxine Waters' H.R.5114, the Flood Insurance Reform Priorities Act. 85 Republicans crossed the aisle, abandoning their hysterical and obstructionist leaders-- who are obsessed with making America fail and causing misery everywhere. Aside from the crackpot extremists like Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Steve King (R-IA), Paul Broun (R-GA), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), John Campbell (R-CA), and Patrick McHenry (R-NC), all the Party leaders-- Boehner, Cantor, Issa, Pence, Dreier, Ryan, Sessions, and McCotter-- voted against it. So it was 85 Republicans joining with the Democrats to make sure their constituents were covered in flooding catastrophes and 89 Republicans voting to chip away at the security and well-being of American families once again. (And for those wondering how candidates for higher office Pete Hoekstra, Mark Kirk and Zach Wamp voted... forget it. Although they have all flatly refused to resign from the House, all are full time candidates now and don't bother coming in for work-- although they get $174,000/year + fantastic benefits-- not even when an issue as important to everyday citizens as flood insurance is being debated.

The flood program, an arm of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has for more than four decades offered affordable insurance to more than 20,000 communities that participate in flood damage reduction efforts and to residents in federally designated flood zones. It was created in 1968 because of the reluctance of private insurers to cover flood damage.

Congress has not updated the program since 1994. In the ensuing years the once-solvent program had to pay out some $17 billion in Katrina-related claims and had to deal with FEMA flood zone remapping that has thrust thousands of homes and businesses into areas where they are required to buy flood insurance.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the chief sponsor of the bill, said it helps reduce the sticker shock of FEMA remapping by delaying the mandatory buying of insurance for five years and then phasing in full premiums over another five years.

The legislation now goes to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Without congressional action on a long-term bill, the flood program has lapsed three times this year, and Waters said that during those lapses some 1,200 people a day were unable to close on home purchases in flood plains because FEMA could neither write new insurance policies nor renew old ones. The flood program is now running on a short-term extension that expires at the end of September.

Wednesay one branch of the Republican Party, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, put forth what amounts to the GOP platform for the midterm elections:

• Privatize Social Security

• Cut taxes for the rich

• Log the national forests

• Expand offshore gas and oil drilling

• Privatize highways and waterways

Flood insurance? Go drown. Unemployment insurance? Go starve. Wall Street regulations? Caveat emptor. Health Insurance? As Alan Grayson put it so eloquently, "Don't get sick-- and if you do, die fast."

The Democrats, and especially Obama, may be huge disappointments-- they sure are for me, albeit not unexpected ones-- but the Republicans? Been there, done that. Instead of crying in your beer, how about kicking some right-wing Democrats who enable the Republicans, conservative shitheads like John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Lori Edwards (Blue Dog-FL) and Katrina Swett (Liebermanoids-NH), all of whom have progressive opponents on this Act Blue page?