Worth remembering how much of this is ultimately a kind of kabuki. The federal bureaucracy is massive and the President has enormous unilateral authority, particularly during emergencies, to mobilize the national guard and start spending money without Congressional approval. And, to his credit, it appears Biden is doing a lot of this.

But the headlines fixate on the cost of relief rather than the actions of the emergency responders. Consequently, you get a bunch of noise about how Mike Johnson is haranguing people about the deficit and the debt ceiling and whatever other phony baloney excuse we’re using not to pay the people doing the relief work.

This keeps people fixated on the budgeting/spending and ignorant of the real social need, whether or not it is being met.