If word that President Obama would ask Congress for $50 billion in Sandy recovery funding was a trial balloon, the White House should take note of how quickly it crashed and burned.
Almost as soon as the large-sounding figure floated into view, the administration said officials were still doing calculations, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said they knew nothing about it and Gov. Cuomo added that he had gotten no official word.
Well, it came from somewhere.
While Schumer and Cuomo deferentially shrank from knocking it as premature, Gillibrand said an appropriation at that level would be “inadequate.” Right she was.
After careful evaluation, the battered states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut asked for a total of $82 billion to repair the storm’s damage and prevent recurrences. Slicing that by $32 billion would take 39% off the top even before the House and the Senate went to work on it while slashing spending to avert the fiscal cliff.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, an old New York hand who is Obama’s point person, told New York’s representatives the Obama team has not settled on $50 billion. Good, because the number is not at all in keeping with what Sandy’s victims have been led to expect.
Consider these words from a fellow named Barack Obama on storm-ravaged Cedar Grove Ave. on a Nov. 15 visit to Staten Island: “I was speaking on behalf of the country when I said we are going to be here until the rebuilding is complete, and I meant it. So I’m going to come back today, but I’m also going to be coming back in the future to make sure that we have followed through on that commitment.”
And these: “During difficult times like this, we’re reminded that we’re bound together and we have to look out for each other. And a lot of the things that seem important, the petty differences, melt away, and we focus on what binds us together and that we as Americans are going to stand with each other in their hour of need.”
And these: “It’s going to require everybody focused on getting the job done.”
And this is what Obama said about Donovan:
“He’s going to be working with the mayor, the governor, the borough presidents, the county officials to make sure that we come up with a strong, effective plan. And then, I’ll be working with the members of Congress to do everything we can to get the resources needed to rebuild.”
Full resources. Nothing less.
Comment
