Scott Tibbs
Published in the Evansville Courier & Press
September 17^th, 2005

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Once again, Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) has proven that he is a profile in courage. Congress voted to spend over $50 billion responding to the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina, but Hostettler was one of only 11 members of Congress who voted "no".

As the Evansville Courier points out in a staff editorial, money earmarked by the federal government to aid victims of September 11 wound up going to businesses unaffected by the terrorist attack. Clearly, the federal government is not the best entity to administer financial relief. Will this extravagant spending by Congress help Katrina victims? I am sure it will, but this aid package is like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer. Sure, you are rid of the annoyance, but you also have a hole in your wall.

Instead of a hole in the wall, we now have a $51 billion hole in the budget that will need to be paid for somewhere. This country cannot afford a tax increase right now due to the economic impact of Katrina and the fact that the economy is just starting to recover from a recession, so future spending cuts must be made to balance out this aid package.

A tremendous amount of money is pouring in from private donations to help those hurt by this natural disaster. Those donations will be handled with much more accountability than aid from the federal government. The Katrina aid package was a fiscally irresponsible gesture by politicians who wanted to score some points with voters.

Thank you, John Hostettler, for once again showing that you are willing to put principles ahead of politics. You have shown that you value your principles and that you are willing to take heat for what you believe is right.