The Federal government is in a no win situation when it comes to providing federal aid. If it chose to forego giving Texas money to assist with the fires, it would be blamed for not supporting the State - as it was when it failed to quickly respond to the disaster after Katrina. If it does give money, Texans will refuse to give it credit and continue to believe, falsely, that they are self sufficient and don't need federal assistance. What the federal government needs to do is get a better PR group on it's side, so it gets credit for the things it assists with and people can start appreciating what their tax dollars are spent on. This might get people to start voting based upon the reality of where their benefits are coming from opposed to the false belief that they get nothing from their federal taxes.

For instance after the stimulus bill was passed, the government put signs up on highways which were being built due to federal money financing it. This gave the government credit for it's spending on a local level. Similarly, it needs to find a way to reinforce with Texans that they are not going it alone; rather federal employees have been on the ground since March ready to assist with the fires and have worked along side state and local employees to quell the fires. Yet, the elected representatives from that state seek to kill all federal aid.

Maybe if the voters start to realize what they will be without if their elected representatives were to prevail in their endeavors to kill all federal aid, then people will stop voting for people that want to take away the benefits they get.