Maness: I would have opposed Katrina relief
The conservative hopeful’s opposition to the relief bill puts him in a similar camp as another Gulf Coast candidate. Last week, Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who’s looking to knock off Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) in the GOP primary, came under fire after hedging on whether he would have voted for the bill.
But while McDaniel said he didn’t know how he would have voted, calling the massive bill not an “easy vote to cast,” Maness says he would have voted no. The aid package was passed with little opposition after the storm but has since drawn scrutiny because of reports of waste and fraud in the program.
“Just like I wouldn’t have voted for the [Hurricane] Sandy [aid] bill that had $60 billion dollars, I believe, in bloated special interest spending in it, I wouldn’t have voted for that bill either because you’ve gotta start holding on principle and stop spending so much money,” he said. “Our country’s got a spending problem, it doesn’t have a revenue problem.”
Maness also said he wouldn’t vote for a flood insurance bill currently making its way through Congress, which both Landrieu and Cassidy have worked on in their respective chambers. The bill would provide relief to coastal residents who are facing skyrocketing flood insurance prices due to an earlier bill that was meant to make the federal flood insurance program solvent.
The Hill
3/7/14
Magnolia Tribune
