Fox News Helps Rehab Eric Cantor’s Demands For Spending Cuts In Exchange For FEMA Funding
Reported by Ellen - August 29, 2011 -
Republican Congressman Eric Cantor has come under fire recently for putting his Tea Party ideology over disaster relief. In the wake of Hurricane Irene’s devastation, Cantor essentially reiterated his stance that no further funds should be provided without cutting elsewhere but he and Fox News tried to repackage them by assuring viewers, “We’re going to find the money.”
In a video FoxNews.com called Cantor: We’ll Find the Money To Deal With Irene, host Martha MacCallum asked whether Cantor still believed that any increased disaster funding should be met “dollar for dollar with spending cuts.”
Cantor said:
We will find the money if there is a need for additional monies… but those monies are not unlimited… We’ll find other places to save so that we can fund this kind of role.…Yes, there’s a federal role. Yes, we’re going to find the money. We’re just going to need to make sure that there are savings elsewhere to continue to do so
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Cantor referenced a bill for disaster relief the House had already sent to the Senate. But neither he nor MacCallum pointed out that that bill offset those funds by cutting a loan program to encourage the production of energy-efficient vehicles. Also, as Think Progress notes, the funds in that bill will not likely be sufficient to cover the costs of Hurricane Irene's damage.
MacCallum asked, “What would you do?” given that the Senate might not act and that chances are adding more money to FEMA would add to the debt.
Cantor said the President and Senate need “to act” and “go ahead and fund these disaster relief monies if they’re needed.”
So Fox News hyped, along with Cantor, that the money will be found to help with disaster relief and then glossed over, along with Cantor, the demand that other spending cuts be made in return.
