Tell It Like It Is...
First, let me ask the questions that should have been asked the second day after Katrina moved on.
First: Why are the taxpayers paying for the damage caused by a hurricane?
Second: How can the President and others say they'll keep on paying until all damage is paid for? Up to 200 billion dollars, W says. Where the hell do they think the money will come from?
(And number three: How the hell can anyone justify blaming George Bush for anything that has to do with anything? According to the law, the President cannot do anything in a situation like this until the Governor asks for his help.)
Whoa!! Don't get your bowels in an uproar! The damage will probably get paid for but why should the taxpayers pay? I mean, the damage was done by an act of God; a hurricane. It wasn't a leak from an atomic power plant or something else that was a result of some man made anomaly; some government boo boo; It was a hurricane, for crying out loud!
What ever happened to flood insurance and wind insurance?
I gave money to the relief fund as did a million other people who were touched by the devastation of the hurricane. There's no telling how much money will be raised by donations and that is as it should be. It would be nice if everyone who was wiped out could rebuild and be just as they were before the hurricane.
Now think about this:
Which of you have ever had a house wiped out because of a flood or fire? I know someone out there has been a victim at one time or another. I was as was my sister some years later.
When I was a kid in Merced in 1941, the house we lived in caught fire and burned to the ground. It belonged to an Italian man and we (my family) were living there temporarily. In all, there were seven people living there and the owner was elderly and retired and he had never even heard of insurance. Everyone lost everything.
Guess what? Within a week enough people, both friends and family, showed up to help with money and man power so we could re-build the house. It took about four months to do it but it got done. And the government didn't pay for any of it.
My sisters' house burned down about 1950. It's still down. She didn't rebuild. She didn't have fire insurance or the money and no one else did either. She rented after that.
I want you to think about this objectively.
Suppose you lived near a river. Now suppose the water rose and washed your house away.(Just yours, not a thousand more)Now I ask you, where would you apply for federal money to rebuild your house? And if you did ask for money from the federal government to rebuild your house(the house that didn't have insurance on it)how long would it take the government clerk to stop laughing?
You know, the only difference in those examples I just gave you and what happened in the south is the number of people who lost their homes.
There is difference in making low interest loans available to people and just paying for everything. If those people get their 200,000 bucks apiece for losing their houses to the hurricane Katrina, I will consider blowing the Shasta Dam so I can get mine!
I feel sorry for those people and I hope things get a lot better very soon but I don't know how anyone can justify the taxpayers of America paying for it.
One more thing: After Ivan, Isabel, Dolly or Arlene passed over and left paths of destruction, did the federal government re-imburse all the people who lost their homes? I don't think so. So what would the difference be in those victims and the Katrina victims?. Think about it.
Later...
posted by J C at 9:32 PM
8 Comments:
These are crazy times. We live in a world where if somebody calls you a bad name or raises their voice at you, you will be surrounded and offered counselling.
How many times have you heard the idiot phrase: "Now the healing process can begin."?
The Western world is becoming a big bunch of goddam babies.
Hallelujah to that, brother!
I've been contemplating writing about just that. I remember once when I was 12 years old a friend come over to Modesto to visit and, while we were swimming in a fast running flume, he drowned. I felt bad about it and so did the rest of the boys but I don't remember seeing a 'counselor' around anywhere. We went to his funeral in Richmond and then went ahead on. After that, nothing changed; we went back to the flume and went swimming again.
I agree wholeheartedly with you Jimbo. Most of those people(under a Democratic Government) have never seen $200,000 dollars.
I bet 2/3rds of all that money will be wasted or stolen by the politicians and the people of New Orleans will be no better off.
I finally think I'll have to say Bush F--ked up.
Jimbo,
You may be right on principle. But, the federal government it required by statute to respond to this type of disaster with reconstruction.
I see a reason for great optimism. Hearing the evacuees in Houston tell the cameras that they believe the president and want to go home and rebuild, gives me hope.
The left has controlled New Orleans and that state for some time now. We see the fruits of that (a welfare state full of people too poor to leave). We can for a comparatively small price rebuild New Orleans our way. We have an opportunity to confront poverty differently that the war on poverty. This is a chance to show that conservatism works. We have no choice but to put a lot of money into New Orleans. Let’s make the best of this.
BWH, I just can't agree with you on the thing to do about this. You're describing socialism, at least. I don't know what you mean by, "We can for a comparatively small price rebuild New Orleans our way"...
I don't know what 'our way' is but I know it's not to pay for the folks houses to be rebuilt. As in other disasters of this type, fema can and should make available low interest loans for folks who want to rebuild but to just give the money away is not only foolish but I believe it would be illegal.
I know of no statute that requires the taxpayers to rebuild entire cities. There are a lot of towns right there in Texas that were levelled by tornadoes and are still levelled. Towns like that are all over tornado alley.
And, if you think building the folks new homes and giving them money will in any way sway them to the right (conservatism and capalitism) then you are dreaming. The left has been giving a lot of them welfare money for a hundred years and that will never change; or ever change them.
Let me ‘splain.
We disagree less than it seems. I think your right in principle but, far away from what is realistic. I also see this as a chance to put a coffin nail in Liberalism. New Orleans is the perfect example of how liberalism fails.
There are a number of relief statutes that fall under the general welfare umbrella. You mentioned low interest loans. We know there will be more give-aways. I’m saying lets attach caveats that require personal responsibility. I mean this for both public and charitable assistance.
If we are going to have give-aways (which we will), lets finance them by cutting pork from the stupid highway bill. Let’s cut some of our foreign aid and spend the cash in the gulf coast region. Let’s take this money that we won’t miss to finance a few things. First build the infrastructure that the local officials squandered the funding not building or fixing (Real levees and sea walls). Then move on to traditional relief.
Under traditional relief, we should do some non traditional things.
* 0% to very low interest loans. This should also apply to homes. Folks need to own property.
* Tax relief including strong incentives to corporations who will locate operations in New Orleans, Biloxi and Mobile. Let sub chapter S corporations go tax free for a couple of years.
* A strong federal influence on school and public works that receive federal funding. The locals have shown too much corruption to be in charge of federal funds. This would also be the perfect place to experiment with school vouchers.
* Increased assistance with law enforcement: all in immigration reform.
Limbaugh thinks we should cut the farm bill and sell ANWR energy bonds in addition to most of the stuff I just plagiarized. Those are good ideas too.
Yes there are places in Texas that are not rebuilt. Texas has a lot of real estate and sometimes it just better to move across the street. One sky scraper in Fort Worth is still torn up. Now the City and the State are funding some of the repairs in conjunction with private interest. I wonder how much federal money was squandered not fixing things there.
Face it the American people will rebuild the gulf coast region. We will pay through donations taxes and high insurance. I just think we should make the best of this.
I agree with you.
I'm not against helping out, but using my money to rebuild? Uhh not sure.
Looking back on a prior comment, I did not answer a direct question. The cheif statute in question is the Stafford act.
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