This is an adapted excerpt from the Jan. 14 episode of “Alex Wagner Tonight.”
Los Angeles is in its second week of fighting the largest fires the city has ever seen. The fires have already collectively burned an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, displaced more than 100,000 people and killed at least 27.
While those fires are still actively burning — and authorities are still searching burned-out houses for the dead — how is the Republican leader of the House, Mike Johnson, responding?
Well, he’s threatening to hold hostage federal disaster aid. “I think there should probably be conditions on that aid,” Johnson told reporters Monday. “That’s my personal view. We’ll see what the consensus is. I haven’t had a chance to socialize that with any of the members over the weekend because we’ve all been very busy, but it’ll be part of the discussion.”
Mind you, Johnson represents the disaster-prone state of Louisiana. In 2022, the last year for which we have data, Louisiana received $34 billion more from the federal government than the state paid the federal government, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.
All of those lawmakers are representatives of red states that receive far more money from the federal government than they give the federal government.
In that same year, the report found California paid $83 billion more to the federal government than the state got in return. And 2022 isn’t an anomaly. California is the fifth-biggest economy in the world, on its own. The state literally subsidizes the rest of the country, year after year.
But because California is a blue state, Republicans want it to bend to the will of the GOP in order to get disaster relief.
It’s not just Johnson. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming said that he expects “there will be strings attached to money that is ultimately approved.” Rep. Zach Nunn of Iowa said that in order for the federal government to help the thousands who have lost their homes, they expect the state to “change bad behavior.” Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said California doesn’t “deserve anything … unless they show us they’re gonna make some changes.”
Not to belabor the point, but all of those lawmakers are representatives of red states that receive far more money from the federal government than they give the federal government. Just last month, Congress allocated $100 billion in disaster relief to help the six states impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton. All but one of those states is led by a Republican governor. That aid didn’t have conditions. Apparently, the moral calculus was very clear. But now that the blue state of California needs help, Republicans seem to think disaster relief should be a bargaining chip. Allison Detzel contributed.
Alex Wagner
Alex Wagner is the host of "Alex Wagner Tonight," which airs Tuesday through Friday at 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
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