GOP Trying to Weather Trump’s Diversion of Resources as Storm Puts Americans in Harm’s Way
Hurricane Dorian poses a real threat to American communities, but according to our President the biggest threat facing America are families and children seeking asylum at our Southern Border. Therefore, President Trump has diverted funds away from FEMA, the Coast Guard and military construction budgets to fund his vanity project and campaign symbol, the border wall, and spend extravagantly on arresting and detaining migrant families and children fleeing violence. The following is a statement by Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication at America’s Voice:
All eight Republican U.S. Senators from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina will have to explain to their constituents why they stand with President Trump as he robs disaster preparedness, rescue resources and military budgets to fund his border obsession just as a devastating hurricane is bearing down on their states. In recent days, the President used his executive power to alter budget allocations made by Congress to defund $3.6 billion in military construction projects and divert some $155 million in funds away from FEMA.
In North Carolina, $80 million in military construction projects are now on hold, $17 million in Florida, and $10.75 million in South Carolina. Even Trump’s imagined hurricane target, Alabama, faces $5.2 million in cuts to approved projects in order to fund the President’s border wall.
Funds should be invested in Coast Guard rescue operations, FEMA disaster relief and Army Corps of Engineers flood control projects, not the wall.
Hurricane preparedness is deadly serious business and our government personnel will no doubt act heroically with the resources they are given to combat Hurricane Dorian’s destruction. We should be supporting them with all of the resources Congress voted to provide for FEMA, the Coast Guard and other first responders. Instead, we have a President driven more by ideological fantasy than meteorological reality and only silence from Republicans in the House and Senate who could be sticking up for their states and putting their constituents first – ahead of their fealty to their party and its leader.
