In Texas, Distrust of Washington Collides with Need for Federal Aid

[spanone]

Specialist Keith Meza of the Texas Army National Guard looked for people who needed to be evacuated as a truck convoy moved through floodwaters in Vidor, Tex.

Few places need the federal government right now more than Texas does, as it begins to recover from Hurricane Harvey. Yet there are few states where the federal government is viewed with more resentment, suspicion and scorn.

For Republicans, who dominate Texas government, anti-Washington sentiment is more than just a red-meat rhetorical flourish — it is a guiding principle. Gov. Greg Abbott, the Republican former state attorney general, once described a typical day in his old job as, “I go into the office, I sue the federal government and I go home.” His predecessor as governor, Rick Perry, wrote a book titled “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington.”

The sentiment is not limited to politicians. In June, the legislature of Texas Boys State — the mock-government exercise for high schoolers, run by the American Legion — voted overwhelmingly to secede from the union.

Now, though, it is Texas Republicans who will be crucial in securing, and helping to administer, what is likely to be one of the most ambitious and costly federal disaster-relief packages in American history, one that will almost certainly run to tens of billions of dollars.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/04/us/texas-storm-federal-aid-abbott-cruz.html?mcubz=0

[Thomas Hurt]

1. there is no collision.....there is rank hypocrisy but no collision.

[guillaumeb]

2. All rhetoric, and the rhetoric is abandoned in the quest for taxpayer aid.

Texas should immediately institute an income tax and dedicate that tax to flood preparation and relief.

[jpak]

8. Ding Ding Ding - and FL too

yup

[greymattermom]

3. Just make sure that they know

that living in a flood prone area is a preexisting condition.

[Skittles]

4. in other words, they are fucking hypocrites

[shenmue]

5. Yep

[Best_man23]

6. Repubs don't like government until they need government

[jpak]

7. If we're going to spend $150 billion to rebuild Houston - there needs to be some strings

They can't rebuild where flooding is expected.

Sorry

not

[msongs]

9. persons with integrity would reject aid if such aid violates their beliefs. sure they will nt

[DFW]

10. The Texas Reupiblican message to Washington is concise

"Fuck off unless/until I need you."

To which Washington should reply: "We are helping those Texans you can't/won't/wouldn't help, and couldn't care less about, so fuck off."