Hurricane Irene is continuing to gain steam in the Atlantic and is now predicted to reach Cat-4 status late Thursday, right before it hits the eastern seaboard of Florida. It will continue up the coast and weaken to a still strong Cat 3 as it hits Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. Here is the current path projection from the NHC:

This storm has the very real possibility of causing serious damage. Given the struggling economies of the states, it’s a safe bet that they will request federal aide to recover. That makes me wonder about a representative from one of the targeted states, Eric Cantor.

Remember back in May when Joplin, Mo. was flattened by an EF-5 tornado? An entire U.S. town was devastated, but when it came time to help we saw Eric Cantor use the disaster to push a poetical agenda. 

The No. 2 House Republican said that if Congress doles out additional money to assist in the aftermath of natural disasters across the country, the spending may need to be offset.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said “if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”

Finding ways to offset disaster relief funds could be a significant challenge for House Republicans and would put their promise to cut spending to a true test.

I wonder if Cantor will impose the same mandate should our eastern seaboard get devastated by Irene? I highly doubt it. And could you imagine the outrage from the right if Pelosi would go out there and say “no support for the states devastated by Irene unless we raise taxes”? It would be deafening!

Disasters should not be a time for political games. Instead disastrous times are the perfect opportunity for country unity, but our country is so divided that we can’t get beyond our petty differences. People like Eric Cantor sees that weakness in our country and tries to exploit it for political gain. 

If one of these states start asking for aid, then Eric Cantor better make the same demands that he did for Joplin. If he doesn’t, then someone in the media sure as hell better ask him why not. They also better follow that up with asking him how he can claim to be a man of God when it’s obvious he either hasn’t read the Bible or just flat out chooses to ignore it. Of course with the buddy-buddy mentality our media has with our leaders, you can bet the farm that this won’t occur.