MSNBC / Alex Wagner: With L.A. wildfires, Republicans suddenly want to play politics with disaster aid

[Dennis Donovan]

MSNBC / Alex Wagner - With L.A. wildfires, Republicans suddenly want to play politics with disaster aid

Because California is a blue state, Republicans want it to bend to the will of the GOP in order to get disaster relief.

Jan. 16, 2025, 2:50 PM EST
By Alex Wagner

This is an adapted excerpt from the Jan. 14 episode of “Alex Wagner Tonight.”

Los Angeles is in its second week of fighting the largest fires the city has ever seen. The fires have already collectively burned an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, displaced more than 100,000 people and killed at least 27.

While those fires are still actively burning — and authorities are still searching burned-out houses for the dead — how is the Republican leader of the House, Mike Johnson, responding?

Well, he’s threatening to hold hostage federal disaster aid. “I think there should probably be conditions on that aid,” Johnson told reporters Monday. “That’s my personal view. We’ll see what the consensus is. I haven’t had a chance to socialize that with any of the members over the weekend because we’ve all been very busy, but it’ll be part of the discussion.”

Mind you, Johnson represents the disaster-prone state of Louisiana. In 2022, the last year for which we have data, Louisiana received $34 billion more from the federal government than the state paid the federal government, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

In that same year, the report found California paid $83 billion more to the federal government than the state got in return. And 2022 isn’t an anomaly. California is the fifth-biggest economy in the world, on its own. The state literally subsidizes the rest of the country, year after year.

/snip

[Blue_Tires]

1. Don't look at me

This is what assholes voted for 😒

[lapfog_1]

2. I'm typically not vindictive

but I hope they understand that we ( Democrats ) will return to power, perhaps very soon.

If they put conditions on aid to California... I will do all that I can to prevent any aid money going to a red state EVER, no matter what the disaster is. Not one thin dime. In addition I will lobby Congress for the "equity in federal contributions act" which will make it a law that the federal government MUST spend in each state exactly the same amount as that state and it's citizens contribute in the form of taxes and fees to the federal government.

Screw these vindictive assholes. They want to play politics with the lives of citizens... ok, lets play.

[GoCubsGo]

3. Suddenly???

They have been playing politics with disasters going back to at least the 1980s, when they were blaming them on gay people. And, was Ms. Wagner in a coma when they were trying to claim that Biden and FEMA were ignoring Hurricane Helene victims? You're part of the problem, Alex. Dipshit.

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

4. I think we have to forgive Alex Wagner for her lack of historic awareness.

She's a nitwit.