On Friday, while the House of Representatives was still struggling to pass a CR to avoid a government shutdown before midnight, U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) asked his colleagues to extend the national flood insurance program (NFIP), which was also scheduled to expire on Friday at midnight.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said he reserved the right to object to the bill and asked Kennedy to modify his bill to include reforms so only those Americans who need financial help for flood insurance are eligible — and not millionaires and celebrities who own expensive property in flood-prone areas.
Paul’s presentation included a photo of a mansion on the Louisiana coast owned by actor Nicolas Cage, who is (according to the current bill) eligible for the government flood insurance.
Paul said: “I love Nicolas Cage…I love his movies…but I don’t think we should buy insurance for his home.”
He also showed a photo of Cher’s $42 million home in Miami Beach, where she too is eligible for the flood insurance program. “This doesn’t mean that we don’t like rich people…I’m just not for giving them free stuff. Why would we give them subsidized insurance?”
Kennedy responded to Paul’s request for modification by saying: “Let me just say, I love Cher.”
He fondly recalled when Cher was on TV with her late former husband, Sonny Bono, who was a Republican Congressman representing California’s 44th district (South Los Angeles) from 1995 until his death in 1998.
Senator Kennedy on Nicolas Cage and Cher pic.twitter.com/mIZ4Mcakqi
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Kennedy said of Cher: “I think Cher is what cool looks like.” He added, “I don’t agree with much of her politics but Cher is equaled in her coolness only by Nic Cage.”
Kennedy added that he “loves” Nic Cage, too, and spoke about a recent movie that Cage starred in, in which he plays a farmer with a pig who hunts for truffles. Kennedy couldn’t remember the title of the film (Pig) but noted that Cage played yet again “another deeply weird character.”
Kennedy said: “The bad guys hurt his pig. Well, Nic hurt them. I think he ended up killing them.” Kennedy said he thought it was “a great movie,” and thanked Paul (R-KY) for reminding him of Nicolas Cage. “I’m going to go home tonight and watch a Nic Cage movie.”
In his response, Kennedy mentioned that the majority of Americans who benefit from the NFIP are not Cher and Nic Cage but “working men and women,” but the NFIP was not extended. While FEMA will continue to pay valid claims with available funds, the agency will no longer be allowed to sell or renew polices.