Rep. Steve King: Hurricane Aid Should Be Conditional So Money Isn’t Spent On ‘Gucci Bags And Massage Parlors’
Congressman Steve King has made it clear that while he supports providing aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy, he wants to make sure the money is spent well and not wasted on extravagances like “Gucci bags and massage parlors.” King made these comments during his final congressional debate against Democrat Christie Vilsack, and last week defended a vote he made against providing aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
King argued that any federal spending on disaster relief needs to be paid for, saying that there are often “wasted funds” in these situations and called his vote against aid for Hurricane Katrina victims a “principled vote.”
King said during the debate he wants hurricane victims to get the aid they so desperately need, but he wants to make sure the money goes where it is needed.
“I want to get them the resources that are necessary to lift them out of this water and the sand and the ashes and the death that’s over there in the East Coast and especially in the Northeast… But not one big shot to just open up the checkbook, because [following Hurricane Katrina] they spent it on Gucci bags and massage parlors and everything you can think of in addition to what was necessary.”
After King made his remark during the debate, Vilsack immediately responded, calling King’s positions “extreme” and expressed hope that “he will show the kind of kindness that Iowans do when we take care of people and when we have a disaster here as we have in past years with flooding.”
h/t HuffPo
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