Mitt’s disastrous emergency management plan
Romney says he'd ax FEMA and send disaster response back to the states. The consequences would be catastrophic
Typical of Mittens to say this on the very day that FEMA and all the states of the northeast are going to be hit with the biggest storm of the Century. Lots of places have been evacuated, flooding, loss of power, the storm surge with high tides and the full moon is causing a lot of angst, of concern for those low lying areas and people who have not evacuated. Are they stupid, are they deaf, not concerned, think this is a joke, I survived Andrew in Florida. And believe me that was no picnic, when your elected official says evacuate, you evacuate, no ands ifs or buts. Because if you don't it is your ass that will be in trouble, wanting someone to come and rescue you, and guess what, it may be too late. So suck it in and stay put and say a prayer, because you'll need it.Like I have said be4, Romney wants to send everything back to the states or privatize, and guess what states can not take care of what they need to do now, what makes Romney so sure they can handle everything he wants to send them if he is elected. Half of the states are so underwater they need the federal government to help them out, what would they do if Romney were elected. They would all go bankrupt.....
Monday, Oct 29, 2012 12:00 PM EDT
As 50 million East Coast residents brace for Hurricane Sandy’s impact, President Obama has already signed disaster declarations for at least a dozen states, making available the resources and unique coordinating capabilities of the federal government — specifically, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA – to assist in the response and recovery.
It’s worth noting that Mitt Romney has said he’d get rid of FEMA and leave states to fend for themselves.
At a CNN-sponsored GOP debate last June, moderator John King asked Romney what he would do to keep FEMA solvent. Romney replied that we need to cut government spending and should “send it back to the states … And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.” King looked a bit surprised and followed up to make sure Romney was saying what he appeared to be saying. “Including disaster relief, though?” King asked. Romney answered affirmatively: “We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all.”
A Romney spokesperson, in a vague statement to the Huffington Post last night, suggested that eliminating FEMA is still Romney’s position.
“Send it back to the states” is a typical conservative talking point, of course. But the states don’t inspire much confidence when it comes to emergency management. FEMA also has a budget of about $6 billion that would disappear from the total pool of money available for disaster relief if the agency were eliminated tomorrow, unless states raised their taxes to make up for the loss, something Romney and his party seem unlikely to support.
Romney, as a former governor, ought to know better.
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