In what alternative universe

does this make any sense?

House Republican leaders have moved from balking at big cuts in Medicaid and other programs to embracing them, driven by pent-up anger from fiscal conservatives concerned about runaway spending and the leadership's own weakening hold on power.

Beginning this week, the House GOP lawmakers will take steps to cut as much as $50 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget for health care for the poor, food stamps and farm supports, as well as considering across-the-board cuts in other programs. Only last month, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) and other GOP leaders quashed demands within their party for budget cuts to pay for the soaring cost of hurricane relief.

Hurricanes Rita and Katrina hurt the poor disproportionately, and exposed the third-world standard of living of people in one of America's oldest and most important cities. And so the federal government's response to the hurricanes is: make the life of the poor in America even harder?