Morning Examiner: The not-so-emergency Sandy spending bill

Last night, a star-studded cast of musicians and comedians including Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Kanye West, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Alicia Keys, and Jon Stewart performed for six hours at Madison Square Garden to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy. It is still to early to tell how much the benefit raised in total, but ticket sales alone brought in over $30 million.

Americans clearly want to do all they can to help Sandy victims. Any politician standing in the way of ‘emergency’ relief is sure to be pilloried by the media. But shouldn’t there be some limit to how much money is devoted to the region? And shouldn’t that money be limited to addressing true ‘emergency’ needs?