Tsunami response warnings: another thing Republicans think we don’t need
by David Atkins
By the time you read this Sunday morning, Hawaii and other mid-Pacific islands will have endured a tsunami as a result of the 7.7 earthquake in British Columbia. It may or may not be large. Hopefully there will be no injuries, and little damage to property.
Whatever the waves may bring, however, now would be a good time to remember this from March 2011:
The GOP budget plan that passed through the House last month aimed to cut funding for a tsunami warning center that issued a slew of warnings around Japan’s devastating earthquake.
The budget, which proposed about $60 billion in budget cuts, would slash funding for the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That would potentially cripple the effectiveness of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, which issued a series of warnings over the past several days regarding the situation in Japan, where an 8.9 magnitude earthquake triggered a massive tsunami along the nation’s east coast. (The PTWC is a part of the National Weather Service, which falls under the umbrella of NOAA – the organization responsible for providing tsunami warnings in the U.S.)
The Republican’s proposed “continuing resolution” to fund the government, which was defeated in the Senate this week, aimed to cut $1.2 billion – or 21 percent – of President Obama’s proposed budget for NOAA, ClimateProgress.org reports.
Cuts to Sesame Street and tsunami warnings as cents-on-the-dollar offsets for tax cuts for Mitt Romney and his friends. Makes sense–if you’re a plutocrat. A country that wasn’t in denial about reality would have tossed these people out of power a long, long time ago.
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