"I can tell you in hindsight, watching what it takes to deal with a disaster like this, my vote would probably be different now," said Virdell
Posted by reinheitsgebot

This one sentence from him sums up the GOP pretty well. The party has spent decades demonizing learning and expertise.
Experts on the topic develop a plan. Republicans vote against because they think they know better than the people who designed the plan. Republicans later act shocked to learn that the experts actually knew what they were talking about.

We've seen this repeated time and again and it frequently costs American lives and livelihood.

Asimov's came very close to summing up the modern GOP when he said "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'"

In the case of the GOP, they believe their ignorance is superior to knowledge.