Hurricane Irene, that caused 43 deaths in the United States, created a new political dispute over the budget deficit, Republicans calling for aid to flood victims to be accompanied by equivalent savings among expenditures.
Hurricane Irene caused on the East Coast, over the weekend, damage of over ten billion dollars, announced on Wednesday the specialized company Eqecat.
But without waiting for the final bill, the House Republican majority leader, Eric Cantor, asked for the budgetary savings in order to balance the costs caused by Hurricane Irene.
“In such cases, the federal state has a role to play and it is obvious that we will find the money. But we have to do it in such a way to make savings elsewhere in this sense”, said Cantor for the Fox News TV channel.
White House countered Tuesday emphasizing the that priority of political power should be “disaster response and help the affected areas to recover”.
Presidency spokesman, Jay Carney, accused the former Republican administration of President George W. Bush for accumulating “unprecedented bills without ever paying them”.
He however gave assurances that President Barack Obama is “determined to respect the budget discipline”.
After the weeks of controversy about the budget deficit have resulted in downgrading the rating of the United States by S & P, Democrats and Republicans have come, in summer, to an agreement to achieve savings amounting to 1,000 billion dollars over the next ten years to reduce the indebtedness in excess of 14,300 billion.