Now, even The Birmingham News is struggling to cover up Spencer Bachus' ineptitude. The paper reported last week that Bachus is asking the Department of Defense to help shore up the gap in satellite coverage. Here is how Orndorff reported it:
Federal budget cuts have blown a hole in the satellite program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Anticipated delays replacing a satellite mean the agency starting in 2017 will not have the kind of detailed atmospheric data that forecasters used to give Alabama several days' notice of the April 27 tornado outbreak. Without the extra warning time--which made people more alert of the potential for tornadoes and prompted school officials to close early--Bachus said the number of deaths in Alabama would have been much higher.
So Spencer Bachus admits that accurate weather forecasting saved huge numbers of lives in Alabama. But he still does not own up to his vote. Near the end of the article, Orndorff tells us this:
When Congress in April slashed $38 billion from the remainder of the current 2011 fiscal year budget, the NOAA satellite program took a big hit. President Barack Obama has requested slightly more than $1 billion for the satellite program in 2012, but even if it is fully funded, Lubchenco said the coverage gap is still likely when a temporary satellite ends its mission in 2016 or 2017.
The spending cuts were part of a compromise agreement reached to avoid a government shutdown, and all seven members of the Alabama House delegation, Republican and Democrat, voted for them, including Bachus.
"When you do across-the-board cuts, you throw out the good with the bad, the baby with the bathwater," Bachus said. "We need to fix this problem now."Â
In a roundabout way, near the end of the article, Orndorff tells us that Bachus voted for the spending cuts. (And oh, by the way, Democrats voted for them, too.) Notice that Orndorff never presses Bachus to explain his vote. She let's him say "we need to fix this problem now," without asking why he helped cause the problem in the first place.
If Spencer Bachus had any political courage, he would say something like this: "The most important issue for me in Congress is to toe the conservative party line and continue George W. Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. If that means we have to cut funding for weather satellites that help save thousands of lives, so be it. You've elected me to Congress 10 times to be a doctrinaire Republican, and that's what I'm going to be. If you want a representative who cares about protecting lives, you'll need to vote for someone else. Given that Democrats haven't run anyone against me since 1998, good luck with that."
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