By the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over,” - Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), in an interview on MSNBC, on why as a small business owner he can’t afford a tax increase.

(Michele) Bachmann, of course, always strongly pro-choice — as long as that choice is cervical cancer.

In the summer of 2004, after Tropical Storm Gaston slammed into Richmond, (Republican Eric) Cantor was on the front lines of efforts to secure millions of dollars in federal assistance to clean the wreckage and repair damaged infrastructure. Although the funding was not offset, Cantor cheered its arrival.

“The magnitude of the damage suffered by the Richmond area is beyond what the Commonwealth can handle,” Cantor said in a news release at the time, “and that is why I asked the president to make federal funds available for the citizens affected by Gaston.”

That episode is raising eyebrows this week, after Cantor told Fox News that disaster aid in the wake of Hurricane Irene should not be funded with borrowed money. Instead, Cantor said Monday, all federal assistance should be offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget.

“Yes, we are going to find the money. We are just going to have to make sure there are savings elsewhere to continue to do so,” Cantor told Fox. “Just like any family would operate when it’s struck with disaster, it finds the money to take care of a sick loved one or what have you, and then goes without trying to buy a new car or [putting] an addition onto the house.”

Cantor is in an awkward position when it comes to disaster aid. Twice in the last week his district was struck by natural disasters — once by the hurricane and once by an earthquake — and his state’s Republican governor has said deficit concerns should not be a factor in the response to the disaster.

The total damages from Hurricane Irene have yet to be assessed, but already the White House and congressional Republicans are fighting over the bill.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor started the dialogue by insisting that federal disaster aid to affected states and communities be balanced with spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

That’s the same stance Cantor earlier in the week when it came to aid for his own Virginia House district, which was the epicenter of the East Coast’s unlikely earthquake.

Asked Tuesday about offsetting hurricane aid, White House press secretary Jay Carney went out of his way to note that Republicans, Cantor included, didn’t object when the Bush administration spent money it didn’t have on tax cuts, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Medicare prescription drug coverage.

“I guess I can’t help but say that I wish that commitment to looking for offsets had been held by the House majority leader and others, say, during the previous administration when they ran up unprecedented bills … and never paid for them,” Carney said.