Republican vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. speaks during a campaign event at Joseph A. Craig High School, Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, in Janesville, Wis. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)ANDREW TAYLOR
WASHINGTON (AP) – As tropical storm Isaac bears down on the Gulf Coast, there should be plenty of money – some $1.5 billion – in federal disaster aid coffers, thanks, in part, to a new system that budgets help for victims of hurricanes, tornadoes and floods before they occur.
It’s a system that Paul Ryan, the Republican nominee-to-be for vice president, had hoped to scrap as a way to make his House GOP budget look smaller by about $10 billion a year. Politely, party elders told him no way, at least for now.
The Obama administration was the driving force behind the new disaster funding scheme and made it part of last summer’s hard-fought budget pact, even though President Barack Obama himself had given short shrift to budgeting for disasters prior to a spate of them early last year, including tornadoes that ripped through Missouri and Alabama.
Congresses and administrations, after all, always had been fairly forthcoming with whatever disaster aid was needed after the fact.