Program break for political rant

I'm in a bit of a pother. Actually, I'm pretty outraged.

Money for hurricane relief was allocated to the Texas Gulf Coast--this is for relief of Hurricane Ike from TWO YEARS AGO. But the Feds fooled around and didn't send the money for months and months, and when it finally arrived, the agencies helping the people who got Iked only had about 6 months to spend the money, while following all the red tape and guidelines of the Feds. The deadline could have been extended--and routinely has been for Hurricane Katrina victims and other disaster relief.

But ONE representative--a Republican from Kansas--somehow blocked the bill that would have extended it. With no comment as to why.

Once again, Ike is the Hurricane America Forgot. Just because Lehman Bros. went bankrupt two days later... Yes, Galveston is a smaller city than New Orleans. No, the flooding did not stay for week. BUT, 80 percent of the houses on the island flooded. (Mine was not one of them.) A lot of people are STILL out of their homes.

Don't Americans deserve as much consideration as Haitians? Don't Texans deserve as much help as Louisianans? Galveston's pretty purple, as much Democrat as Republican. It's about as bi-partisan as a city can get. Is that why this Republican cut off the grants? That's $40 million my neighbors aren't getting. Money they deserve and ought to have.

I don't have a dog in this hunt. My house wasn't damaged. We're doing fine. But so many are not. Still. Cutting off the grant isn't the way to fix bureaucratic problems...