Posted on 09/22/2011 2:01:39 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Pelosi: GOP using disaster aid as excuse to kill clean-vehicles program By Mike Lillis - 09/22/11 04:04 PM ET
House Republicans are using the disaster-relief debate as a guise for killing off an environmental program they oppose, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi charged Thursday.
The California Democrat said the GOP's proposal to cut $1.5 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program (ATVM) is as much an effort to end that initiative as it is a deficit-reduction strategy.
"There's a billion and a half dollars left in the [ATVM] till," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. "They take a billion of it to pay for the disaster, and they take a … half a billion of it and rescind it. So it was clear to us that this wasn't about paying for the disaster. This was about destroying an initiative that is job creating.
"Why would you take a half a billion dollars out of an initiative with the excuse that you need it for a disaster and just rescind it, just erase it?" she added. "We shouldn't even be having this conversation."
The House on Wednesday shot down the Republicans' continuing resolution to fund the government through Nov. 18. The proposal included almost $3.7 billion in emergency relief for states and victims of recent natural disasters, including hurricanes on the east coast, flooding in the Midwest and wildfires in Texas. One-billion dollars from the ATVM cut would go to cover the most immediate disaster-relief costs.
Citing the ATVM cut, all but six Democrats opposed the measure. Forty-eight Republicans also voted no, objecting to the level of 2012 discretionary spending, which they say is too high.
Wednesday's surprise vote has sent GOP leaders scrambling back to the drawing board in search of a compromise that could thread the needle between Democratic and Republican critics.
Pelosi on Thursday that any offset to the disaster-relief provision – not only the ATVM provision – would be opposed by Democrats.
"There has never been an offset for disaster assistance," Pelosi said.
"There are many emergencies [that have been offset]," she noted. "A natural disaster is something else."
Democratic leaders had tried unsuccessfully Wednesday to replace the GOP's $3.7 billion provision with a $6.9 billion Senate-passed proposal that doesn't include cuts elsewhere in the budget.
Pelosi said she's hopeful GOP leaders will offer a compromise that would keep the House levels of funding but drop the offset provision.
"It would be my hope that they would split the difference," she said.
"It has to be resolved by next week," she added. "The burden is on the majority."
Blah, blah, blah
Was your private luxury jet a hybrid?
So there’s already $1.5 billion appropriated and sitting in a “till” for some green vehicle boondoggle and the Republicans have suggesting spending it first on disaster aid, if the Dems are crying about the immediate need for more disaster aid? Wow - sounds like some Repubs grew a pair. Makes complete sense and provides less opportunity for wasteful spending. No wonder Pelosi is so angry.
Whe the Botox queen flies in an electric plane, I will listen. NOt before.
Hey Nancy, works for me.
put another way...Democrats are attempting to foist another “do nothing but spend lots of taxpayer dollars” program on the backs of disaster victims.
Take your broom and shove it, you witch!
One day that woman will be irrelevent.
Dontcha know, people are in the streets demanding electric carts from the gubmint.
Clean vehicles, alternative energy, global warming.
All crocks designed to move moeny from Americans to Socialists.
The Democrat party is nothing more than Chicago thugs using Communism to further their criminal agenda.
Who feels the need to post this bile ?
it would help if they took out a few ads on TV adn RADIO to tell the story - diaster relief or money for electirc cars - which do you think is the best use of 1.5 billion...call your congressman.
“There has never been an offset for disaster assistance,” Pelosi said.
If I have a budget, and a financial emergency occurs, I have to adjust my budget.
Congress has not done that — they just add to the budget (if they have one) and steal the money from our children and grandchildren.
But just because that is how it has been done in the past is not an arguement for continuing to do so.
Nanzi does not need to defund clean-vehicle program, she can defund cancer research.
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