The federal government’s alleged unequal treatment of disaster victims, vis-a-vis the Stafford Act, was one of the central themes of then Senator Obama’s poisonous race-baiting speech to black pastors in 2007; his insinuation being, the black victims of Katrina were treated differently from the victims of September 11th and Hurricane Andrew because they’re not considered “part of the American family.”

From the transcript:

“Down in New Orleans, where they still have not rebuilt twenty months later, there’s a law, federal law -- when you get reconstruction money from the federal government -- called the Stafford Act. And basically it says, when you get federal money, you gotta give a ten percent match. The local government’s gotta come up with ten percent. Every ten dollars the federal government comes up with, local government’s gotta give a dollar.”

“Now here’s the thing, when 9/11 happened in New York City, they waived the Stafford Act -- said, ‘This is too serious a problem. We can’t expect New York City to rebuild on its own. Forget that dollar you gotta put in. Well, here’s ten dollars.’ And that was the right thing to do. When Hurricane Andrew struck in Florida, people said, ‘Look at this devastation. We don’t expect you to come up with y’own money, here. Here’s the money to rebuild. We’re not gonna wait for you to scratch it together -- because you’re part of the American family.’”

“What’s happening down in New Orleans? Where’s your dollar? Where’s your Stafford Act money? Makes no sense! Tells me that somehow, the people down in New Orleans they don’t care about as much!”

As it turns out, that just 10 days prior to Sen. Obama’s speech there was a vote in the US Senate on HR2206 -- The U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery & Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007. That House Resolution amounted to a $6.9 billion appropriation to the Gulf Coast which would waive the Stafford Act.

Sen. Obama voted against the legislation. He was one of just 14 Senators to vote against appropriating $7 billion to Katrina relief with no strings attached.

And then he went to Hampton and said the federal government doesn’t care about black people...

A clearly agitated Mark Levin covered the story on his show (listen here).

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Editor's Note: This is a perfect example of "say-anything-to-win" Chicago Progressive politics. Independents and undecideds allowed this genie to escape the bottle...now they have to do the right thing and put it back in and cork it. If Chicago Progressive politics is allowed to further infect the federal government, all will be lost...


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