Maryland Sens. Barb Mikulski and Ben Cardin pressed for President Obama and FEMA to reverse their decision to deny federal aid to Marylanders left without habitable homes in the wake of superstorm Sandy. Mikulski called those affected “the 2 percent that go to war and fight for America;” Cardin pointed out that a whopping 32 percent of residents of the hard-hit Crisfield live below the poverty line and simply cannot get back on their feet without help.
All told, the damage from Sandy was enormous. The storm is responsible for 120 deaths, the destruction of 340,000 homes and 200,000 businesses. 8.5 million families lost utilities for weeks. In the aggregate, Maryland got off easy — 11 deaths, a mere 300 homes “badly damaged.” But if one of those homes is yours, it’s got to be hard to swallow that if the New Jersey border were redrawn to absorb your address you might be eligible for individual aid from the federal government, whereas now you are not.
For now, it seems like FEMA won’t be changing their recommendation to the president — which is interesting when you consider all the mud-slinging and issue-spinning Gov. Martin O’Malley (who also has vowed to fight for more federal funds for storm victims) perpetrated on behalf of the president recently. Remember all the “red-tape” Obama cut through for one of his greatest detractors — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie?
Why can’t O’Malley call up Obama and just be like, “Little help?”
