Obama voted against Katrina waiver

It comes as no surprise to learn that Obama was one of a small minority in the Senate who voted against the bill that sought to waive the Stafford Act in order to make assistance funds available to the New Orleans Katrina victims without their having to match them with a 10% contribution.

See this for a list of those who voted for and against the bill. You’ll note that Obama’s “nay” vote was one of only 14 cast against the act, almost all of them liberal Democrats. No doubt he would say he knew the act would pass and so he felt okay voting against it in order to protest the Iraq war funds that were also part of the bill. But there’s something profoundly distasteful and almost grotesque about him voting against the waiver, knowing the bill had passed despite his vote, and then misleading the audience to make them angry that the waiver hadn’t happened.