Sen. Tom Coburn's
premature insistence that any disaster relief funding for his home state after this week's devastating tornadoes be offset has
kicked off a big fight in the GOP.
Most other Republicans have said they don’t need offsets. A number of Republican senators, from Missouri’s Roy Blunt to Arizona’s John McCain, told reporters they won’t require offsets to vote for aid to help tornado victims in Moore.
But few of these senators were singing the same tune when New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut residents asked for financial assistance to help rebuild from the impact of superstorm Sandy. Two of the 36 votes against the major Sandy relief bill came from Oklahoma’s Senators Coburn and Inhofe. [...]
That has some prominent Northeast Republicans fired up. Congressman Peter King of New York, who fought passionately for aid for his home state after the storm, lashed out at Inhofe and Coburn, calling them hypocrites on Wednesday.
New Jersey Chris Christie, who also chastised his fellow Republicans for opposing Sandy recovery aid, supports sending aid to Oklahoma, insisting now is “not a time for political retribution” against Oklahomans. Christie urged his colleagues in Washington to provide” swift and immediate” aid to Moore on Wednesday.
The good news for Moore, and for FEMA, is that the relief fund has about $11 billion right now, plenty to cover the Oklahoma disaster. But there's still several months left in tornado season, and hurricane season hasn't even begun. That $11 billion may or may not suffice for the remainder of the year. Which means this Republican-on-Republican fight will likely be a prolonged one.