Austerity bomb deal must include FEMA aid for Sandy

President Obama has comforted Sandy victims. Now he must ensure they receive the aid they need. Touring superstorm Sandy-stricken areas, President Barack Obama said:

I'll be working with the members of Congress to do everything we can to get the resources needed to rebuild[.]

That work must begin with the negotiations regarding the austerity bomb (a/k/a the "fiscal cliff") that Republicans in Congress lit when they held the debt ceiling hostage last August. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has requested $30 billion in aid to rebuild after Sandy. Estimates of just insured losses in New Jersey top $20 billion. And Sandy wreaked havoc in other states as well.

Avoiding the austerity bomb and tossing the economy back into recession requires federal aid that will address the recovery and rebuilding needs of affected areas. As Queens Congressman Joe Crowley said:

If New York ' the region around New York in the tri-state region ' turns into an economic downturn because of the effects of the storm, it will certainly affect the entire nation's economy[...] And so I think it's in all of our interests to get the region back up and running at full throttle so that it doesn't become a drag on the rest of the country.

Appropriate levels of federal aid for recovery and rebuilding in Sandy-ravaged areas must be a central part of negotiations and deal-making on the austerity bomb. A few ideas on that on the other side: