Right Wing Jerk Of The Month

I would like to thank Rep Candice Miller for inspiring me to bring back this section of the blog... ahem magazine. It took just that one stupid Ayn Rand teat suckling quote (below in red) to fire me up for the week. Thank You.

May 15, 2006
Politics Stalls Plan to Bolster Flood Insurance
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and JOSEPH B. TREASTER

If ever there was a moment for the obscure federal flood insurance program to ride to the rescue, it would seem to have been in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Its premiums were supposed to insure homeowners in flood-prone areas and also protect taxpayers from spending billions to bail out flood victims. But with Hurricane Katrina, the program failed on both counts.

Nearly half the victims did not even have flood insurance. Claims from homeowners who were insured, $25 billion worth, bankrupted the program. And the government has had to commit $15 billion in additional taxpayer money for rebuilding in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Now, an effort to rescue the insurance program that grew in Hurricane Katrina's wake is faltering, too. Though experts foresee a generation of fiercer and more frequent storms, Congress seems unlikely to make more than modest changes when it takes up the program in the coming weeks.

The drive to restructure the perennially underfinanced program has been blocked by real estate interests, who worry that requiring millions more people to buy flood insurance would stifle development, and by lawmakers from areas that rarely flood who see their constituents as supporting those who are frequently flooded, particularly in the South.

"You've got people living in dry areas paying for people who want to keep living in wet ones," said Representative Candice S. Miller, Republican of Michigan. "They're sticking it to us, and I don't like to be stuck."

The inability over decades to work out who pays the bill for flooding is at the heart of the weaknesses in the insurance program so blatantly laid bare by Hurricane Katrina.

Interesting choice of words Madam Miller, however one might think you are being a bit disingenuous considering that your district is bordered by water in the North, Lake Huron and to the South by Lake Erie. It seems that your opposition is influenced more by your ties to the real estate industry than by geography.

In 2004 Ms. Miller's top contributor by industry was, you guesses it, real estate. They contributed $67,630 which constituted 50.9% of the Real Estate, Insurance, and Securities sector contributions of 132,780. That sector being the largest contributor overall, accounting for 13.88 % of her total campaign contributions of $956,350.

This fawning to the Real Estate industry is nothin g new for Rep Miller. In 2002 the industry gave a whopping $239,250 to her campaign once again constituting the largest sector contribution. The previous information can be found at Open Secrets (link).

Representing a district that is over 90% white, Rep Miller is seemingly the ideological love child of Pat Robertson and Ayn Rand. According to On The Issues, Rep Miller:

Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)
Voted YES on making the PATRIOT Act permanent. (Dec 2005)
Rated 97% by the US COC, indicating a pro-business voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 17% by the NEA, indicating anti-public education votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 5% by the LCV, indicating anti-environment votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 90% by the Christian Coalition: a pro-family voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated A by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun rights voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 22% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 11% by SANE, indicating a pro-military voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 13% by the AFL-CIO, indicating an anti-union voting record. (Dec 2003)