TCR Brief: Hurricane Creates A Whole New Set Of Political Challenges For President Trump

Eric J Scholl
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Trump’s Tweeted a lot about the hurricane. Example: “Spirit of the people is incredible. Thanks!” As Politico points out: “[Trump] knows what a president is supposed to look like during something like this.” He said he intends to visit the hurricane area tomorrow. (And then go to Missouri the day after to bash its Democratic Senator over tax cuts.)

If only being President was that easy

The storm is likely to force a huge shift in the agenda when congress returns after Labor Day. And as the Washington Post points out, a budget shutdown right now — which the President has threatened if he doesn’t get his “wall” — could prove disastrous because it would cut off many of the agencies and services that are needed by the hardest hit areas the most. (Perhaps Trump will try to persuade congress to put wall funding into a hurricane recovery bill?)

What we already know: FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund is going to come up way short. That’d be especially true if Trump’s proposed 11% cut to the agency goes through, (but congress was never likely to go along with that anyway). It has about $2.2-billion free to spend right now. Compare that to the total cost of Hurricane Sandy, at about $70-billion, or Hurricane Katrina, about $160-billion. Also at issue: Government Flood Insurance needs to be reauthorized by the end of September, and the program is still deeply in debt due to Hurricane Katrina. Few are yet discussing how the severity of the rainfall might be related to climate change for fear of being accused of politicizing the disaster. But that’ll come by-and-by, and flood insurance is one example of a very real cost that’ll need to be reckoned with.

As many have mentioned since the beginning of the storm, many Texas Republicans voted against Hurricane Sandy relief. (But we think it’s fair to assume New York and New Jersey’s delegations will not take a similarly un-neighborly stance.) The Post points out something we didn’t know: now- Vice President Mike Pence led the (ultimately unsuccessful) fight to balance Katrina relief with dollar-to-dollar budget cuts that would’ve completely offset it, and current Budget Director Mick Mulvaney made a similar attempt when the relief bill for Sandy came around.

The Houston area contributes upwards of $500-billion dollars to America’s total Gross Domestic Product, or about 3% overall.

(This story originally appeared in “The Chaos Report” Newsletter. Please subscribe at https://thechaosreport.com/subscribe/?scr=Medium)

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Eric J Scholl

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Peabody award winning journalist. Streaming media pioneer. Played @ CBGB back in the day. Editor-In-Chief "The Chaos Report" www.thechaosreport.com

The Chaos Report

(@TheChaosReport) — All Your Daily Politics News in One Short, Sharp Shock.

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