"It's one thing to sit in Washington and say we need offsets and can't spend more, and it's something very different to be seeing people's homes flooded and power out and the kind of desperation people feel in times of crisis," he said.
For Cantor, his timing wasn't so great, said John Feehery, a Republican strategist in Washington.
"It's better to have that debate when the nerves aren't so raw," he said.