Republican "Tough Love" For Health Clinics In NOLA

From the Times-Picayune:

Confronting a panel of health professionals seeking continued federal support for a fragile network of New Orleans health clinics that emerged in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked Thursday whether the city is becoming a ward of the federal government.

"Is everyone so poor in Louisiana that the state cannot do more for you?" Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked the panel. "Are you going to be a permanent ward of the federal government?"

Issa's question, which he said was born out of "tough love," drew a wrathful response from Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.

Of course, that the overflow of water into New Orleans after Katrina was a FEDERAL FLOOD due to faulty levees, constructed by the US Corps of Engineers, should not be in the equation as Louisiana goes a-begging for help to provide health care for the poor. And nevermind that a better description for Republican "tough love" would be Republican "shriveled hearts". (H/T to Michael Gerson. See sidebar.)

Rep. Dennis Kucinich said:

"You're trying to keep alive a health infrastructure to assist people, and we are getting ready to spend $160 billion next year on a stupid war in Afghanistan," Kucinich said.

"If we can't see that New Orleans is still suffering, if we can't see that New Orleans has a health-care infrastructure that is not adequate to meet the needs of people who are still recovering from the hurricane, if New Orleans has to come with a tin cup to beg for money for clinics "," Kucinich said. "Our country is falling apart, and what's happening in New Orleans is a signal condition of where America's priorities are totally fouled up."

Do you see why I wanted Dennis to be my president? He has the priorities right. All right, perhaps he could not have governed, but a girl can dream, can't she?

And then Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, R-New Orleans, spoke up to:

thank Kucinich "for his passion and his understanding of the situation in New Orleans," and he agreed with Kucinich's characterization that "FEMA was still nickel-and-diming the city," especially in its haggling over what Louisiana is owed for the damaged Charity Hospital, a dispute that is now in arbitration.

If you recall, Cao was the lone Republican to vote to move the health reform bill out of the House of Representatives. He knows well that his people need help.