Barry Ritholtz: Apology Due from Inhof and Coburn

Econintersect:  Blogger, investment analyst and Washington Post columnist Barry Ritholtz has posted a piece at his blog The Big Picture.  The title:  “NY/NJ/CT Congressional Delegation Should Demand Apology from Oklahoma Senators Inhofe and Coburn“.  Both Inhofe and Colburn were among 31 senators who voted against  the relief effort for Hurricane Sandy.  Now both are backing emergency aid for their own state.  Inhoffe told MSNBC that the tornado recovery funding will be a “totally different” situation from Sandy. (See The Washington Post.)

Inhoffe says that the reason he voted “No” for the Sandy appropriation was that it was loaded with pork.  He cited “things in the Virgin Islands. They were fixing roads there and putting roofs on houses in Washington, D.C.”

Rick Unger, writing at Forbes in January,  identified the pork as predominantly going to Republican states.  Unger wrote:

A review of the mark-up of the Senate bill reveals that all that extra, non-Sandy related cash is actually set to provide billions for

“storm events that occurred in 2012 along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast within the boundaries of the North Atlantic and Mississippi Valley divisions of the Corps that were affected by Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac.”

Unger said the billions directed to the red states Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana were to obtain the abstention of seven Republican senators from supporting filibuster of the bill.

Inhoffe didn’t mention the states identified by Unger.

John Lounsbury

Sources:

• Inhofe: Tornado aid ‘totally different’ from Hurricane Sandy aid (Rachel Weiner and Matt DeLong, The Washington Post, 21 May 2013)
  

• Pork Holding Up Senate Sandy Relief Bill Funneled Into The Troughs Of GOP Deficit Hawks? You Betcha. (Rick Unger, Forbes, 01 January 2013)

• NY/NJ/CT Congressional Delegation Should Demand Apology from Oklahoma Senators Inhofe and Coburn (Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture, 21 May 2013)