Quote:

---

Just as Hurricane Irene was slamming the East Coast, the political rhetoric was approaching category 5 strength in other parts of the country.

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann joked at a campaign event in Florida that the disaster was a sign from God that federal spending was out of control.

But there's a serious side to the congresswoman's comments. Budget-cutting fever could have a serious impact on how Washington responds to current and future disasters.

One of the tea party favorites, GOP contender Ron Paul, said Friday that he would eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Texas Republican congressman said FEMA's primary function is to bail out homeowners living in risky places such as earthquake or flood zones.

"This idea that the world comes to an end if you don't have somebody at the federal level taking care of you, I mean, it's a natural problem. It's wind. It's a storm," Paul said of Irene. He would have the states handle their own disaster relief.

After last week's earthquake near the nation's capital, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, repeated his long-stated position that any disaster relief for shaken residents be matched with spending cuts in the federal budget.

"Those monies will be offset with appropriate savings or cost-cutting elsewhere in order to meet the priority of the federal government's role in a situation like this," Cantor said.

FEMA is making its own adjustments. To make room in its budget for cleanup efforts after Irene, the agency is delaying some rebuilding projects in Joplin, Missouri, where devastating tornadoes struck this year.

"For any projects that have not come in for approval, we're not going to be able to fund those at this point. We're going to postpone those," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said at a White House briefing Monday, referring to some efforts in Joplin.

Missouri's two U.S. senators released statements blasting the bureaucratic move.

"If FEMA can't fulfill its promise to our state because we have other disasters, that's unacceptable," Republican Sen. Roy Blunt said in a statement.

The criticism from the state's Democratic senator was just as harsh.

"I warned FEMA and assured victims in Joplin that they would not be forgotten after the camera trucks lowered their antennas and rolled out of town. I will fight to make sure that promise is kept," Sen. Claire McCaskill said in a statement.

Mark Merritt, a former top FEMA official and president of Witt Associates, a disaster relief consulting firm, says deficit hysteria is becoming its own disaster in the making.

"I can't imagine being in a community that's just been devastated by Hurricane Irene and sitting back and wondering are you going to be able to repair your water treatment facility. How about your wastewater treatment facility? Is your school going to be repaired? Are individuals going to be able to get back into their homes?"

Merritt argues that no state could absorb the costs of a Hurricane Katrina without federal help.

As Texas Gov. Rick Perry was battling wildfires in his home state in May, he was appealing to Washington for disaster relief. After he was turned down by the Obama administration, Perry lashed out to reporters.

"We're having to pick up 100% of the cost. Historically, the federal government picked up 75% of the cost of disasters like we have here, so there is no consistency with this administration," Perry said.

In Perry's speech announcing his presidential campaign three months later, Washington was part of the problem.

"I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can," Perry said.

Six years ago this week, residents along the U.S. Gulf Coast found out firsthand how Washington matters in a disaster.

FEMA bungled the response to Hurricane Katrina, a lesson agency officials insist they have learned. To many Americans, President George W. Bush's image as commander in chief never recovered.

Over the weekend, the current man in the White House was careful to look hands on during Irene. In his remarks Sunday, President Barack Obama seemed to take aim at critics of federal disaster relief.

"This has been an exemplary effort of how good government at every level should be responsive to people's needs," he said.

Whether the response to Irene is an example of "good government" is still an open question for residents who are still reeling from the storm. http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/08/29/disaster.spending/index.html think it's a serious problem in the making (if not already HERE). What shall we "cut" to help disaster victims? Aid to states and localities (which are already reeling from cuts and are laying of police and fire fighters!)? The current cuts have left FEMA unable to fulfill its obligations in a timely manner; will further cuts mean they can't fulfill them at ALL? Bachmann obviously doesn't live in Vermont, and Paul's idea of destroying FEMA completely would leave us with exactly...what?

In my opinion, it is a disaster in the making. First they cut FEMA's funding, then when a disaster comes along, they blame Obama and demand FEMA's budget be enlarged...then when Perry (always against the federal government) asks for money and doesn't get enough, he screams bloody murder and promises to make the government "inconsequential". How inconsequential is fEMA to the East Coast?

This is partisan, but makes some valid points and I agree with it:

Quote:

---

Three months ago, Republicans in the House of Representatives tried to slash 2012 spending for the Federal Emergency Management Agency by 55% compared with 2011 spending levels, 70% compared with the 2010 budget. Thankfully, Senate Democrats avoided the most extreme cuts to FEMA. But since then, the United States has been pelted by several major disasters and FEMA is almost out of money.
.....
We shouldn't be surprised. Republicans also said they wouldn't do anything to help the economy and the middle class unless spending was cut from the very poor and elderly: proposing cuts to food stamps and Medicare. It's as if millions of Americans are drowning while Republicans stand on the shore, hoarding life preservers by the armfuls. You can have one in a natural disaster or get one later if you're old or unemployed -- but you can't have both.

Of course, many conservatives want to get rid of life preservers altogether. This weekend, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul made waves by saying FEMA should be destroyed. In its policy manifesto for members of Congress, the libertarian Cato Institute urged that FEMA "should be abolished," saying that "by using taxpayer dollars to provide disaster relief and subsidized insurance, FEMA itself encourages Americans to build in disaster-prone areas and makes the rest of us pick up the tab for those risky decisions." {!!!} Indeed, when the small town of Mineral, Virginia, built itself over a fault line in 1890, it should have foreseen last week's earthquake. And don't even get me started on New York City brazenly popping up in the path of a hurricane.

Conservatives hate FEMA precisely because it represents the ideals of government at its best. Not always the implementation -- the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina exposed the dire need for reforms in FEMA's chain of command. But the spirit -- that, as Thomas Jefferson put it, through our government, we "unite in common efforts for the common good."

Just as up and down the East Coast this weekend, good neighbors helped those who couldn't help themselves, in these crisis moments, good government helps entire neighborhoods, towns and even cities that can't help themselves.

Hurricane Irene tragically claimed at least 21 lives, but fortunately the damage overall was less than anticipated. Still, according to the Los Angeles Times, total uninsured losses could be as high as $4 billion. At a time when cities and states are already strapped and our fragile economy needs every small business and working family at full speed, it's the job of our federal government to help. Yes, even if that means taxing the very rich or borrowing more money to do so.

Funnily enough, now some Republicans in Congress are demanding FEMA's budget be increased. The very same party that tried to slash FEMA's budget by more than half is now accusing President Obama of "purposefully and irresponsibly underfunding" disaster relief and "putting families and communities who have suffered from terrible disasters on the back burner.":

Quote:

---

House Republican leaders are calling on the Obama administration to ensure that the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesn’t run out of money as it responds to Hurricane Irene.

The Republican lawmakers want the Democratic-controlled Senate to pass an annual spending measure for the Department of Homeland Security that provides a total of $3.65 billion to FEMA’s disaster relief fund -- $1 billion in emergency funding and $2.65 billion for the 2012 fiscal year. The GOP-led House approved the bill in early June.

“Time and time again, the administration has ignored the obvious funding needs of the Disaster Relief Fund, purposefully and irresponsibly underfunding the account and putting families and communities who have suffered from terrible disasters on the back burner,” said Rep. Hal Rogers, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. {That takes real balls, after THEY wanted to cut it by 70%!!}

“FEMA is running on fumes as they help those recovering from the devastating floods and tornadoes earlier this year,” said Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, chairwoman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee.

“The House has done its job to boost FEMA’s resources for ongoing recovery and future disasters, but the Senate is sitting on their hands instead of passing the Homeland Security Appropriations bill that will provide critical supplemental funding,” she said.

"Our focus has been safety and preparation," a senior House aide told Fox News. "We'll discuss that if and when needed."

Another senior aide said that the Obama administration will almost certainly have to ask Congress for emergency funds immediately after Irene passes because FEMA is operating on an "immediate needs" basis now.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has said that Republicans are willing to provide more money to FEMA so long as it was matched by requisite spending cuts.

---

The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee which earlier this year gouged FEMA's budget has issued a press release trying to blame Democrats and the president for cuts to disaster relief aid. Someone had better call the congressional doctor and check the Capitol building for chunks of falling debris.

This dramatic about-face perfectly captures conservative opportunism against government: Beat it to the ground and then, when government is obviously needed, blame liberals for not helping it get up. Coming from a political party that has vowed to shrink government to the size where it can be drowned in a bathtub, we should be skeptical when Republicans pretend they're the ones resuscitating our common good.

Governors from both sides of the aisle are praising FEMA in the wake of Irene. "FEMA has been very responsive," said New Jersey's Republican Gov. Chris Christie. Maryland's Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, also praised FEMA and drew contrasts with a few years ago when, under President George W. Bush, FEMA was undermined and ineffective.

The fact is, government works. FEMA, when it's adequately funded and staffed by competent professionals, is not an exception but the rule. It's one of millions of examples of how, through government, we unite in common efforts for the common good.

As Irene approached my neighborhood in New York, people were helping evacuees get safely to shelters, carrying gallons of water up each other's stairs and generally keeping each other entertained in the insanely long lines at grocery stores. In our national community, government was standing by to offer its helping hand if needed --- a hand conservatives are trying to sever, when they're not busy ceremoniously shaking it. http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/29/kohn.conservatives.fema/index.ht
ml

---

The hypocrisy of all this should blow everyone's mind...only it won't, will it?