New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joined calls for immediate increases to the FEMA disaster aid budget in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, slamming Republican colleagues such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor who have called for additional funds to be offset by equivalent spending cuts.

“Our people are suffering now, and they need support now. And they [Congress] can all go down there and get back to work and figure out budget cuts later,” Christie said according to the Wall Street Journal…

“You’re going to turn it into a fiasco like that debt-limit thing where you’re fighting with each other for eight or nine weeks and you expect the citizens of my state to wait? They’re not gonna wait, and I’m going to fight to make sure that they don’t,” Christie said. “I don’t want to hear about the fact that offsetting budget cuts have to come first before New Jersey citizens are taken care of.”