The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee refused to rule out increasing taxes yesterday as he and many of his GOP colleagues called for offsets to temper the effect of the next round of federal spending for disaster relief in the Gulf Coast.

"We've got two sides to the ledger," said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). "I'm willing to look at a revenue solution ... as part of a package."

Meanwhile, DeLay called for continued underfunding of disaster response agencies because, um, the underfunded agencies staffed by political hacks stunk it up after Katrina. (At least I think that's his argument.)

"The so-called Katrina tax hikes are not about Katrina; they're about tax hikes and will only serve to balloon the oversized, under-responsive emergency-management system that broke down three weeks ago in the wake of the hurricane," DeLay said in a House floor speech, according to prepared remarks provided by his office.

Despite the debate over funding reconstruction on our home soil (which threatens to split the GOP, interestingly enough), fact is they would rather spend hundreds of billions of dollars rebuilding Iraq than rebuilding America.

It's clear the new GOP slogan is "America Second!"

from daily kos