Opinion

Boehner sees the light

House Speaker John Boehner yesterday backed sharply away from his ill-considered decision to block action on some $60 billion in Superstorm Sandy aid — scheduling votes on the measures starting tomorrow.

Boehner’s change of heart followed hours of rhetorical pummeling, with New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie denouncing the speaker, and House Republicans in general, as “selfish” and “toxic.”

The anger was understandable; it’ s been two months since the storm, and tangible signs of recovery in much of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are scarce.

So it was to the surprise of many that Boehner pulled a vote on the Sandy aid package, originally meant to have accompanied Tuesday’s late-night ballot on the fiscal-cliff bill.

Now the House will vote Friday on $9 billion for flood insurance, and on Jan. 15 for the remaining $51 billion approved last Friday by the Senate.

To be fair, Boehner has always said that an aid bill will be passed this month — which is why Mayor Bloomberg, though “disappointed” that Tuesday’s vote was canceled, refused to join yesterday’s pile-on.

And while Boehner was wrong to block the vote, the decision is not as inexplicable as Christie and others made it sound.

House Republicans, after all, voted for the fiscal-cliff bill despite the fact that it failed to include any meaningful spending cuts — delaying that issue by two months.

Frankly, it would have looked ridiculous for the House to complain about a lack of spending cuts and then proceed to approve $60 billion in new spending.

Especially a bill as pork-laden as this one.

Because there’s much in the package that has nothing to do with Sandy or that authorizes unconditional spending, including:

* $5.3 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers budget with no statement of priorities on how to spend it.

* $336 million for fiscally troubled Amtrak, again with no plan on how the money will be spent.

* $150 million for fisheries as far away as Alaska.

* $15 million for NASA, which admits its storm damage was “minimal.”

As Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) noted: “Sometimes, when you ask for too much, you don’t get anything.”

Still, the metro region’s need for expeditious federal storm relief is palpable.

Boehner, properly hauled up short, now needs to see that it’s delivered without further delay.