Rob Moore has a pretty good bead on the situation. If a natural disaster wiped out the servers in the seven offices where I work, there's no way the IT staff could bring them back online in a reasonable amount of time. Money makes no difference. You're talking about a decades long infrastructure project maintained by a minimal and overworked staff. Without the servers, the office ceases to function indefinitely.
You can't just replace the old technology and call it good. People have spent careers developing and training staff to use and do things in a certain way. Health care providers will lose days over a Windows update. What do you think happens when the entire network gets wiped out by flood, fire, or earthquake? There's no way to step-in and suddenly re-train 30+ years of institutional knowledge. It's gone. You need to start over from scratch.
We need to begin thinking about climate disasters as a recurring and systemic phenomenon. That's the cost of climate change. That's why the IPCC has long stated climate change would result in a permanent reduction in global GDP: E.g. Productivity. If we can't begin to approach the new reality in this manner, we're all doomed.
1
Trump likely considers these recovery funds to be charity. As such, he is hesitant to distribute them to the needy. Charitable contributions are not something he does. It is one of the main reasons he refuses to release his tax returns.
The man has a cold, cold heart.
3
If Trump were a Democrat the Republican Senate would have impeached him long ago. But since the Senate is as corrupt as their leader they rather not.
2
The author captures many challenges of the disaster recovery process, though some more detail distinguishing the roles of HUD and FEMA would be helpful (FEMA does disaster response, HUD does disaster recovery, short-term vs. long-term). Also, it makes it sound as if the federal government is sitting on the funds, which is not the case. The money is fully allocated to the states, and the states draw it down as projects are paid for. Also, one huge challenge to spending HUD CDBG-DR money is that usually 70% must be spent in low-to-moderate income areas. That's easier when you're rebuilding housing, but when you're building infrastructure its much harder to locate that in an eligible area. More importantly, disaster's don't always strike the lowest income areas, though when they do those communities are more adversely impacted. Thanks for covering this issue in more detail. Hopefully The Times follows up with some more in depth reporting.
4
George P. Bush, Texas Land Commissioner, has written extensively too about the need for reforms in the process. Check his Op-Eds on this point.
Tromp does nothing without an angle for promoting or enriching himself. It may be that he is ordering those funds not to be spent now because he intends to use them for his border wall, or because he wants to squander that money next year on some more spectacular use to gain votes in the 2020 election.
2
i suspect this administration wants to spend the money on his promised wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. nice guy.
this administration is also stealing the money from the military to build his wall before the 2020 election. this is money that the military said they had to have to keep our country strong. i guess they lied to congress who gave them the money.
the swamp is getting deeper.
5
Too bad, most of the folks affected by hurricanes, storms and tornadoes won't be reading this article. If they did- they would learn why they will be left in dire straits after the wind ceases and the water recedes. But...then again, these folks hate government handouts.
4
Our government shouldn't be in the business of underwriting flood insurance. Leave that to private insurers. And if private insurers don't want to offer it on a property, that property should be standing where it is. It's stupid to build in a flood plain, and I have no interest in subsidizing stupid, or the wealthy with their million dollar plus beach houses.
5
I don't suppose any of this money could be passed on to the people of The Bahamas to help them deal with their disaster,
could they President Trump?
OK, I thought not.
7
More incompetence from the Trump administration. What a disaster this president has been. No doubt if they were in fact labeled a national disaster, they would free up the money quickly.
6
Let's see: Who is head of HUD? There's your answer why the money is just sitting...somewhere.
8
I really hate conspiracy theories, but the constant climate change hysteria is almost proving the NASA War Document True.
@JOSEPH
The carbon cycle for the last 2 million years was doing 180-280ppm atmospheric CO2 over 10,000 years and we’ve done more change than that in 100 years.
The last time CO2 went from 180-280ppm global temperature increased by around 5 degrees C and sea level rose 130 meters.
Here’s a graph of the last 400,000 years of global temperature, CO2 and sea level http://www.ces.fau.edu/nasa/images/impacts/slr-co2-temp-400000yrs.jpg
The change now is faster than anything we see in the paleoclimate record, likely a problem for species and even entire ecosystems.
15
The reason the funds are unspent is Trump is still trying to figure out how to siphon them into his own pocket.
12
So we divert the money to build a wall at the Southern border!
5
And when it gets sent to Haiti or Puerto Rico or The Dominican Republic, some Dictator or crooked Mayor or Prime Minister all of the sudden has a new Yacht, yet he only makes $35,000/year in his position, but has several billion dollars in a Swiss bank. Pretty much every time.
@BorisRoberts
So how about Pence staying at Trump's resort yesterday?
My how rife corruption is . . .
11
@BorisRoberts - care to explain what makes you think an article about spending federal disaster funds in our own states and cities would involve Haiti or the Dominican Republic?
Puerto Rico would, of course, be included in funding aid for Americans living in American locales, since Puerto Rico is part of our country and people there are American citizens.
4
But E, maybe $1000 or $2000 or $5000 per night, is not $14 billion missing. Yet. But I'm sure they're working on it.
3
And how they will multiply.
The cost to move the first village in the US due to global warming impacts will cost an estimated $180 million for around 600 people.
The US alone has 1,400 cities and towns threatened by accelerating sea level rise.
The world's superpower doesn't have the resources to deal with just that one impact.
4
@Erik Frederiksen
And the problem of sea level rise is starting to occur faster than recent models have indicated. From the most respected glaciologist in the US recently, Richard Alley:
"If we don’t change our ways we’re expecting something like 3 feet of sea level rise in the next century, and it could be 2 and it could be 4 and it could be 20.
The chance that we will cross thresholds that commit us to loss of big chunks of West Antarctica and huge sea level rise is real.
So when you start doing 'Well you’re not sure,' but there’s a chance of really bad things and the uncertainties are mostly on the bad side, could be a little better or a little worse or a lot worse, but we’ll be breaking things."
https://youtu.be/l2yclMcDroQ?t=47m4s
7
Yet other countries, like the Netherlands, have been dealing with flood threats for centuries, and have done so competently, and remain prosperous nations that take care of their people. It's just in Scamerica, where our tax dollars are used to subsidize billionaire tax evaders, where we can't "afford" to take care of our own people.
3
@Stephanie Wood
Do the math, doesn't matter how we allocate our money; we don't have the resources to move 1.400 cities and towns.
1
Are trump and his administration mistaking government money for their own? Do they think spending allocated funds will make them poorer somehow? Seeing how they’ve acted in the past, I woulnd’t put it passed them.
6
@Momo Trump is quick to spend our money golfing, and Pence is also quick to further line Trump's pockets by staying in a Trump owned hotel....
It's good to be the king.
10
FLOOD PLAIN, Barrier Island. Those words should mean something. And now of course a rising ocean adds to all that.
Build in place?
2
I don't have any expectations from Trump administration since the beginning.
Sharpie adjusted storm path just made things worse..........
5
Imagine how much work could get done with green card holders that work for next to nothing. You could build new resorts for Trump that act as flood control for trailer parks.
5
These people are just criminals. There comes a point when lying and negligence and self-dealing and the destruction of the planet and our future cross from incompetence to criminal intent. We're passed that point.
8
and our gov't gets lots of help from yuppies with multiple kids who drive SUVs, send their kids to school in school buses, and run their central air in their McMansions all summer long.
2
The picture of home on the beach summarizes in a very sublime way , what we are understanding from Climate change and natural disasters.
No words needed.
2
This story just speaks of bureaucratic rules as the problem. If that is so, how come the Obama administration managed to spend disaster money? Are there people in the administrative jobs necessary at the federal level to disburse the money? It seems other federal departments are also having problems spending money too. How much of this money may be diverted to building a wall? I am under the impression FEMA does not even have a permanent head—is that true?
There could be more to this than this story indicates and I hope some of your investigative reporters are looking into it.
9
This just in...
Bernie has announced a $37T plan to hire 37M FEMA workers to spend the $37B now just gathering dust...
It includes a continuation of California's high-speed rail system down to Venezuela, so immigrants can make the trip in hours and days instead of weeks and months...
And filling in the Panama Canal, using solar-powered bulldozers – to allow for an undisrupted rail right-of-way...
PS
Joe Biden says he once worked with Roosevelt...
Teddy, that is – and that the erstwhile Rough Rider would see today what a blight and scar that dig has been on our hemisphere...
@W in the Middle
Meanwhile We have 20 T debt, no roads, no hi-speed trains, no decent airports, no nothing ...
why we have debt anyway. because everybody has nice homes,
3
And a couple full size SUVs, a boat, a motorhome, 15 or 20 guns, dirt bikes, those 4 wheel things, an expensive dog, and gets $150 haircuts.
2
The main issue of 17million$ FEMA money will go to Mar-A-Lago right away without a hitch if not heads will roll as it is the King's palace. Common folks are just not important to this pack of grifters forcing govt officials and those with biz before the govt best patronize Trump owned properties including Trump's Roy Cohn aka AG BARR AND VP Sycophant Pence the Holy Roller.
6
Saving up money for his stupid wall maybe?
Just sheer incompetence?
Both?
The world may never know...
9
Before we get too far down the road of rebuilding after this latest cat 5 hurricane, we need to ask whether global warming, sea level rise, and worsening storm intensity will allow us to rebuild near previous shorelines and low lying areas. Even if we do rebuild, the standards and locations, as well as the costs, will need serious updating.
The situation for small or low lying islands is even worse. Who would want to spend tens of billions in the Bahamas if the new normal brings highly destructive storms every few years. The same might go for coastal communities all along the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts, particularly if melting accelerates in Greenland and Antarctica.
For reference, estimates are that full melting of all the earth’s ice would raise sea level by 218 feet. The melting of Greenland’s ice alone would raise level by 23 feet. As ice melts away, more sunlight is absorbed rather than reflected, setting up a positive feedback loop.
6
What about lifetime insurance disaster relief payout limits (scaled by threat zone) for individuals on their homes and other properties? Serial rebuilding in flood plains makes no sense.
Together with properly designed actuarial premiums for insurance that could properly "motivate" people to abandon currently developed regions that are too expensive to repair and rebuild in a world experiencing climate change and global weirding.
6
It's no wonder these Republican states have "no experience in spending money." They refuse to levy taxes for infrastructure repair or anything else. And yet the conservative dupes in those states continue to re-elect them time after time. And they get away with it because the "maker" blue states send a large portion of their tax money to bail out the "taker" red states. Yet the red state conservative voters and representatives are constantly screaming for states rights, that old Confederate battle cry. If they want their "independence" we should cut them off. So red states are dissatisfied with the Federal Government depriving them of their "liberty." How about we stop sending them our money and make them live with the parsimonious policies the ignorant tax scold conservative fools they re-elected continually? We shall see if your guns will save you from climate change, conservatives.
31
"The Trump administration is sitting on tens of billions of dollars in unspent recovery money meant to help Americans recover from disasters."
What a surprise. So they haven't figured out yet how to make sure most of it gets funneled to their rich pals? Or is it just incompetence? Or maybe it's because a functioning government fully staffed by civil service professionals at both state and federal levels is actually necessary to run a modern country?
A small government can't run a big country, much less a small-minded government.
140
@C Wolfe Well said. And just maybe a neurosurgeon should not be in charge of HUD, much less disaster response.
44
@C Wolfe I personally feel that this administration is just waiting for the opportunity to steal the funds. The phony funnel-corporations have been established and are in place, the donor lists have been prioritized, the promises have been made, and the kick-back schemes secured. “Sandbag, Inc.” has never seen a sandbag.
43
@Michael C @C Wolfe It's happening right before our eyes: Our tax payer dollars are being diverted from FEMA and the military to pay for Trump's thrice-cursed wall. 400 million dollars of disaster relief earmarked for Puerto Rico alone is going to Trump's Folly. God only knows what other real, actual programs problems are being ignored and de-funded to placate the baby.
22
There are no competent experienced people who know how to execute in this administration. Trump has filled the white house, cabinet and federal agencies with lobbyists and sycophants. It’s best they don’t spend it because they will waste it on unqualified trades like they did in Puerto Rico when a huge electrical contract was awarded to a one man company from a Trump friendly state
Never has so much corruption been so outwardly on display....believe me.
108
@Deirdre Let’s not get totally partisan when it comes to these national disasters , regardless of the executive branch these are difficult operations. Many emergency civil servants cross administrations. I don’t recall the Obama administration getting medals for its hurricane sandy response. It took years for the people of those areas to get funding.
2
Regarding Sandy, I recall several red state rep's voting against funding and delaying funding with pork addictions. By the way, the President could only ask the House for funding and ask (hope) for Senate approval. This is authorized money NOT spent on and allocated for previous disasters.
12
@Deirdre
There are competent civil servants who are, nowadays under Republicans (Bush and Trump), overruled or stymied by political minders.
6
and yet how much money is being diverted from FEMA this week to build a wall that's never going to be built? People are still homeless from the rash of storms and fires from the last few years. Yes, US citizens (including Puerto Rico). We're spending money slated to help them for a pet project that another country was supposed to pay for. Every day it is something just a little bit worse.
91
@Sarah Silvernail
Yes, who's watching the movement of all this money diverted from FEMA and the military for Trump's vanity project? How do we know where it's really going? Are the funds not being spent because Trump and his cronies hope to divert even more of it?
25
Well, at least some of this is good. I don't believe the government (and tax payers) should be giving money to communities or individuals to rebuild in hazardous areas. Give individuals relief money for immediate needs, and then spend the rest on long-term or permanent solutions to the problem of inundation due to storms or sea level rise. Let people pay for their own flood insurance. You wanna live by the sea in Florida? Deal with it. Don't expect me to.
45
Even in Bloomfield, NJ, there are areas considered flood zones, where you are compelled to buy expensive flood insurance. This isn't beachfront property, until the recent housing boom these houses were cheap and hard to sell.
2
China is sending a group of engineers to The Bahamas.
7
@New World And they will probably do a better job than the US has.
2
It's not "climate change" it's global warming.
2
All thanks to the current administration, mammering knotty-pated foot-lickers!
I have customers at my HD job south of Houston, TX who are still camping in the shell of their homes, or in RVs in their driveways-living with friends and family. Homes still without cabinets, appliances, living with black mold, TWO YEARS after Hurricane Harvey. Veterans who have spent their life savings to rebuild, what they could, living with holes in their ceilings because FEMA WOULD NOT help! Let's not forget about our compatriots in Puerto Rico, paper towels!!
While watching coverage of Dorian, deaths being reported in the The Bahamas, a conservative co-worker say at least it wasn't in the US. My God, is this who we are?? American citizens verbalizing deaths in other countries are ok, because it wasn't American citizens???
To all of you in the path of this storm, affected by this storm, my heart calls out to you and I will do what I can to help.
26
When asked to get H.U.D. to speed it’s response, Ben Carson was heard to say: Can someone find me a brain surgeon?
5
The republicans have dropped the ball. It is time to hold potus accountable for his repeated failures, lies and felonies.
Impeach, find something on Pence to oust him and make the Leader of the House President, Madam President.
15
Correction: Speaker of the House, Senator Nancy Pelosi. This takes a page out of another Republican, Richard Nixon whose VP Spiro Agnew was ousted and Speaker of the House, Gerald Ford became POTUS.
2
On today’s, “Malice or Incompetence?” our contestants try to guess which action or inaction of the Trump Administration comes out of sheer meanness, and which out of just plain good old stupid, for prizes as small as lawn furniture and as big as a new abandoned house on stilts!
Oh, and nice grammar, Secretary Carson. Keep up those lectures on book-learnin’.
8
And, now, billions are being diverted for “The Wall”!
8
If you live in a flood zone, you should be required to carry flood insurance. Can't afford it? Then move or if you are flooded, cover your own loss.
For states that do not require stronger, tougher building codes for new construction, they should suffer the same faith. States should bear the cost of damage due to their neglect in allowing weaker building codes. Or for allowing developments in flood areas, that they knew all too, well... would flood.
Here in Las Vegas we have a water crisis, but you would never know it. Billions of dollars worth of new homes and businesses are popping up across the valley. When there is no water, what will our city officials due? Cry foul and seek government intervention in saving our community.
The amazing part is that people are buying up homes like crazy. When you ask them why, they say every thing will be fine, because Nevada wouldn't approve the development if there wasn't enough water. No different than states that allow building in flood zones - people think it must be okay because the project was approved.
Yes, all this building and land development is approved. It's called greed for the almighty tax dollar. The states will worry about the repercussions later, after they line their pockets with gold.
11
I am compelled to pay $10,000 a year in school taxes, until I die, and I have no children, so I agree with you on flood insurance, which I found out is compulsory if I move into a flood zone in the next town. And flood insurance around here is a lot cheaper than the property taxes.
1
@Valerie I live right on the Potomac River and yes we do have floor insurance. Stupid me what did I know having lived here for 30 years now how this would go and end up costing.
Please forgive me for not having read the crystal ball correctly and predicting the future. We got killed by Isabel coming up the Chesapeake and the Potomac at high tide. And look at NYC flooded by Sandy. Whose fault was that? Signed under my mom de plume - Clair Voyant
1
The GOP long term project since Reagan to prove 'gubbmint don't work' has come to fruition under Trump.
This is why they will never never oppose or criticize him in any meaningful way.
5
The money should go to help Washington DC.
That is where the real American disaster is taking place.
It should be released after January 2021 to help with the rebuilding that is going to be needed.
16
"Housing and Urban Development, which received $37 billion — more than any other agency — had spent less than $75 million."
This, and other serious misfires by Ben Carson, means the man should be fired... post haste.
40
@Chuck
No, I would suggest arrested.
4
The bureaucracy that prevents the money going to needy people, towns and states is staggering.
I would be furious if I was a person waiting for aid and reading this, more upset than I am now, one who does not need it.
13
We should not rebuild or repair structures that sit where the ocean will be by the end of the century.
27
Tired of my ridiculously high taxes to live in a mediocre 'hood subsidizing someone else's cheaper beachfront property at the shore.
2
Representatives who vote funds don't really care about their immediate use. That's for the show.
3
The New York Times and its readers need one of those courtroom stipulations by which something is conceded/accepted and to keep relentlessly pressing it is recognized as superfluous:
"We the readers stipulate that Global Warming is making EVERYTHING, from recipes for Key Lime pie, to the blogs on this week's episode of Successions, worse. So you don't need to gratuitously say in every headline, as in; 'Global warming is making ----- worse.' It might make someone believe you are pushing an agenda rather than informing the public."
4
@Philboyd Point well-taken. But if our future existence is at stake, some people have to be pounded with the message.
6
They do have to try and shake some vague awareness of planetary reality into right-wing denier types, you know. This is not easy, and requires a great deal of repetition, given the level of scientific ignorance and pig-headed Hannity worship they’re dealing with.
Which is why I mention that as we keep warming the planet, we warm the oceans; that while hurricanes are complex, one simple aspect is that they’re really just big turbines that are fueled by warm water; that as you warm the oceans and feed in more fuel, the turbine spins up; that what we’ve been seeing is wetter hurricanes that spin faster, so more rain, faster winds.
And as we just saw in the Bermudas, therefore more damage, therefore more cost....
Hope this helps, but none so blind as those who will not see, eh?
8
There are left wing denier types here, they have big families, big gas guzzling cars, big houses, then they preach to the poor minority folks on the bus about "being green."
1
I'm surprised, a little anyway, that the Trump is not steering this big money to the building of his "wall of walls."
1
@Alan C Gregory He is trying to steer some FEMA money to the wall construction; that was announced literally just before Dorian appeared on the scene.
2
Well if he hears about this he just might. Never believe there's a bottom to his depravity.
3
Obviously Trump is a disaster but even with responsible leaders dealing with climate change will be extremely challenging. Along coasts it may make more sense many cases to retreat rather than rebuild. Unless somehow carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are reduced below 350 part per million scientists say sea level rise will continue for a long time. A more optimistic view at this point may be eventual sea level rise of 20 to 30 feet. Increased building in flood plains is just plain stupid. This stupidity was one reason that Hurricane Harvey was such a disaster in Houston. Trying to overcome human stupidity can be very expensive and frustrating. What we need is thoughtful planning incorporating what we can predict about climate change and efforts to follow the plans.
20
@Bob Re your last sentence: "What we need is thoughtful planning incorporating what we can predict about climate change and efforts to follow the plans." All the Democrat
candidates for President are proponents of thoughtful planning about climate change. All I hear from Republicans
is silence -- or worse.
13
@HRaven Yes programs that wil cost trillions and trillions, without any proof of success. At least the current administration is tougher with the current biggest polluter on this planet, China, unlike the previous administration or Obama Solyndra-like approaches. It is easy to propose programs for which there is no money ! Democrats live in lala-land.
@Marcel
I wasn't aware that the current administration is taking action to reduce China's greenhouse-gas emissions. Please tell us more about it.
As for proof of success, don't you agree that the lack of proof is a good reason to hold off on doing anything until the White House is under water?
4
The response to Dorian from East Coast Florida locals to aid the Abacos has been swift and direct - without government paperwork involvement or middlemen. Much, much more needs to be done but it’s a start.
4
Can't imagine where these funds are. Any ideas Donald?
14
Make America Great. Right. Where is leadership?
Trump. Get some easy Credit. And, as usual, you can plan on not paying it back!
2
I don’t donate to disasters...no one knows where the money goes...
Hard to believe that "only the best people" don't know anything about implementation.
3
How soon we forget. After Katrina destroyed New Orleans, it took FEMA 5 days simply to get water to people dying in the Superdome. I still have anger issues with the President (George W. Bush); who simply did a "flyby" over the city in his airplane. I remember this very precisely, simply because my daughter was born in New York the day the levees broke in New Orleans, after Katrina had made landfall. Also, my great aunt's home in Metairie (across Lake Pontchartrain) was completely demolished. Over 80 years old and living alone, FEMA put her in a trailer in Tennessee. She had lived in that home her entire life; now she was sharing a trailer in a completely foreign place with a family whom she had never seen before. Bush should have been crucified twice: Once for lying about WMD's in Iraq, and for what he didn't do in New Orleans. After 9/11, it only took him 3 days to run down to ground zero, pop on a Chief's hat and do a photo op. Al Capone could have been president and gotten a favorable "poll rating" after that occurred. I watched the entire thing from the roof of my office in Lower Manhattan. It smelled like burnt plastic for 3 weeks. I lost a dear friend I had known for over 10 years (he was an FDNY Captain). The best way I can explain it would be like (on a small scale) the difference between seeing a fatal car accident and being in one. It was so visceral and palpable. Apologies for digressing.
22
@Easy Goer I too was furious at the fly by. I wrote my Senator to at least put water and Pedialyte and drop them by air. On my credit card. Worked in PICU, you could easily see those floppy kids needed fluids STAT. No response.
4
@Easy Goer Americans can’t remember anything. Who in their right mind would want to deregulate the housing market again. Conservatives living in their Fox News bubble.
4
The money will go to Mar-a-Lago Golf Course groundskeeping... and improvements.
Maybe some money can be sent to Alabama for some new course.
The golf courses there suffered greatly from Dorian.
All those Trump voters on the lower east coast can get ready to vote Ben Trump Hogan another four years of practice on “the long game”.
Oh wait—- sorry- they dumped that shore property to the HGTV chump buyers.
12
Trump abuses his emergency powers to fund a Wall that even his own party wouldn't fund, but can't be bothered to spend accrual funds actually budgeted for actual emergencies.
When Trump wad told that 3,000 people died from his inaction in Puerto Rico, he told us there were "unsung successes" in Puerto Rico. I'll bet $100 that the message those deaths sent to his white supremacist base was the unsung successed he was talking about.
10
How about Mr. Executive Order take his Sharpie and sign a fast track assistance proclamation. And yes for Puerto Rico too. Oh and one more thing...forget that stupid wall! These things need your attention!!
25
Funds will be diverted to speed up the Wall construction.
2
This “unspent” money is going to end up in Donald’s pocket. He’s robbing the country blind, and his disillusioned and gullible supporters are buying everything this thief tells them.
32
I think it reprehensible that the US didn't go all out for Puerto Rico and the USVI. These are our own territories and rather than leave them struggling, no matter how badly their governments may have functioned they are US citizens. We throw away tons of money on the military, much of which is gross overpayment and wasteful spending. Bad government indeed!
Now our near neighbors, the Bahamas, need our help and we should be generous. Let the wall, so beloved of Trump, just wait.
America has the money and we should spend it for catastrophes like Dorian.
America should be embarrassed if it doesn't step up to the plate.
60
"The Trump administration is sitting on tens of billions of dollars in unspent recovery money meant to help Americans recover from disasters, leaving people less able to rebound from the effects of Hurricane Dorian and other storms."
Just as he filed bankruptcy to avoid debts, just like his under-payments or non-payment to vendors, his bankrupt character is bankrupting the people who need the money to recover.
Trump voters got the person we all knew he was. Hopefully FL, GA, NC and SC (and yes, maybe even AL) are paying attention.
11
It was the same under W - didn't want to spend on Katrina, wanted people to cover the costs of their overseas rescues ... didn't understand the legitimate role of government emergency assistance or the point that we pay taxes to cover such contingencies. Goes back at least to the 1920's when government left flood victims completely on their own, and thought government should be severely limited and hands off, and thus tanked the economy...
13
If it's military money, then it is Trump's Wall money, just ask Puerto Rico.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if his plurality-picked court decided that federal emergency monies can become his "emergency" wall money.
27
Either that or another tax break. Because the effective tax rate is sooo high on all those poor people who use their disposable income on tax attorneys.
3
Of course. The small government types don't care.
Now just imagine if 2008 happens again. Instead of Bush and Henry Paulson followed by Obama, we'll have Trump and Steve Bannon and Co. They'll do absolutely nothing, and we'll have Great Depression 3.0 (including the 2.0 we nearly didn't miss in 2009). You see, billionaires don't need to spend societal tax money on working class people they don't need anymore.
It could be the beginning of 50 more years of Democratic House majorities.
20
Dear Charles, regarding "50 more years of Democratic House majorities" - the mind reels. Imagine having leaders who actually care about solving people's problems and who take rational steps to accomplish that end!
2
In view of the obvious, time-is-of-the-essence need for emergency assistance, isn’t it time for a systematic assessment of how to remove the obstacles that prevent good intentions (funding) from being translated into useful actions? I see a role for journalism and independent investigation here, immediately.
23
It's funny how the all-volunteer Cajun Navy does more to rescue people than our trillion-dollar taxpayer overfunded military.
1
The first assertion, that funds go unspent, is no doubt true. The impact of climate change is debatable.
2
@Thomas Smith
Well, the roundness of the earth can be debated too. But I don't see what the benefit would be.
43
@Thomas Smith
The "impact" of climate change is NOT debatable. Virtually all of the models for a warming climate have come true. What you mean to say is that the "cause" of climate change is debatable, since some flat-earthers still think that humans have had nothing to do with it, but that too is NOT debated by any rational, reasonably informed person. But the fact that you confuse the two merely shows how fuzzy the thought process of deniers is.
44
@Thomas Smith
It's really not.
16