We Don't Want Your Business

There were a lot of black jack dealers, hookers, and liquor store owners put out of business by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but Congress doesn't care about them. House Republicans voted yesterday to prohibit casinos, massage parlors and liquor stores from cashing in on tax breaks for businesses in Gulf Coast communities ravaged by hurricanes. Don't they realize that people will only go to New Orleans if they can drink, gamble, and get quality hand-jobs?

House Republicans also blocked country clubs, hot tub facilities, private and commercial golf courses, racetracks and tanning parlors from receiving tax incentives to re-open their businesses and provide people with jobs.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., lead the movement to carve those businesses out of any special tax incentives intended to lure jobs and commerce back to the region.

"Federal tax dollars need to be focused on those who truly need the government's help, like the poor, vulnerable and elderly," Wolf said in a statement on the House floor.

It's a sign of how far the Republican Party has fallen that their go-to man on appropriations considers people's income to be property of the federal government. Letting people keep their money is apparently the same thing as giving them a hand-out.

And what about those poor hookers struggling to put their businesses back together. Won't someone think about the hookers for once?