2 Answers

There is a long presindance for the Govt. helping after natural disasters.  helping with disaster relief after Sandy poses a difficult situation because the damage was extensive in very populated and expensive real estate areas- primarily NJ Shore and NY- making the monetary amount of aid much higher than other disaster relief efforts (example: Katrina).  The difficulty here lies more in the ultimate question: Should the Federal Govt. provide disaster relief at all now or in the future.  I believe it is basically an "all" or "nothing" debate as it would cause an unbelievable uproar for the Govt. to support some Nat. disaster efforts and not others.  Perhaps after giving aid to Sandy victims the Govt. can create boundaries for the aid they will supply (eg- the top level of monetary aid the Govt can give to a State after a natural disaster).  In the meantime, we help out the many many people who lost their homes and businesses to Sandy.  (and yes, those victims are to use their private insurance monies too).

I believe that the Sandy Bill was not passed earlier, because they had to consider first what pork to add. I believe that it was the Republicans and Democrats combined to that added the pork and both parties got what they wanted.
All polititians are beholden to theire lobbyists. That is why we need to vote them out of office.Our biggest expence is our addiction to war and it will be the end of our country as we know it.