Boston – There’s nothing like a natural disaster to test the depth of politicians’ preference for small government.
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And so it turns out that after after superstorm Sandy battered the East Coast, Mitt Romney is far more supportive of the government agency in charge of coordinating disaster relief. Only last year, as Romney hewed to the right while battling for the GOP nomination, he appeared to suggest in a debate that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be shuttered and its responsibilities left to the states.
“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction,” Romney said at a debate last June. “And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.”
Asked by moderator John King of CNN whether that would include disaster relief, Romney said: “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.”
Now, a week before Election Day, after of a massive disaster, Romney’s campaign is reassuring voters that his administration wouldn’t leave disaster victims in the lurch. The public’s attention is locked on the devastation caused by Sandy at a time when Romney and President Barack Obama are locked in a close presidential campaign. With Obama heavily involved in getting federal funds to those in trouble, the Romney campaign moved quickly to reassure the public it supports a strong program of storm relief.
“I believe that FEMA plays a key role in working with states and localities to prepare for and respond to natural disasters,” Romney said in a statement supplied by his campaign Wednesday. “As president, I will ensure FEMA has the funding it needs to fulfill its mission, while directing maximum resources to the first responders who work tirelessly to help those in need, because states and localities are in the best position to get aid to the individuals and communities affected by natural disasters.”
Wednesday’s statement came after the candidate ducked a spate of opportunities Tuesday to personally clarify his position and the statement essentially endorsed the current disaster aid system.
But what the campaign wouldn’t do is say whether a President Romney would insist that help for disaster victims be funded by cutting other programs in the federal budget, as many conservative Republicans insist.
Running mate Paul Ryan is squarely on the side of cutting other spending to pay for disasters. Earlier this year, he tried but failed to scrap a new system, established in the 2011 debt ceiling-deficit cuts deal, that boosts disaster spending and budgets help for victims of hurricanes, tornadoes and floods before they occur. House leaders rebuffed him, siding with Appropriations Committee members of both parties who like the new system.
What Ryan proposed is that when disaster strikes, lawmakers first scour the rest of the budget for savings to pay for rebuilding homes, roads and schools and helping small businesses.
That’s easier said than done, especially since it can mean delays in getting aid out the door. Disasters like Hurricane Katrina – and perhaps Sandy – can prove so costly that it’s difficult to find cuts in other programs big enough to pay for the aid.
As has been shown time after time – especially as tornadoes and hurricanes rip through politically conservative states – even the sturdiest tea party supporters become fans of government when it’s doling out money to storm victims for motel rooms and other temporary housing or helping with house repairs.
That role fell Tuesday to New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie, who was effusive in his praise for Obama and the federal government’s initial response.
“The president has been outstanding in this and so have the folks at FEMA,” Christie said on NBC’s “Today.”
It’ll take several weeks to come up with damage cost estimates to determine whether FEMA’s main disaster account will need more money.
FEMA has enough cash available to deal with immediate disaster relief, almost $8 billion, thanks to a six-month government funding bill passed in September and the new disaster financing system.
Of course the Republicans can say anything this week about cutting FEMA spending or giving responsibility to the states. Can you imagine what the cost would be for the taxpayers of the hardest hit states!
Well, until now, the track record was the likes of Hurricane Katrina responses. Complete with FEMA distributed mobile homes that made people sick (lead poisoning or similar?) And other bureaucratic difficulties. Today President Obama announced “cut all the red tape” but I believe that’s just blabber. Time will tell.
What a dumb idea…driven by rigid ideology instead of common sense.
That’s like saying “why don’t we each save enough money to pay for our own healthcare, even for catasrophic events like cancer or a car accident”…the idea of insurance against such events is to POOL THE RISK.
That way we all share the burden equally as a nation and don’t dump impossible recoveries on individual states.
Duh.
If you shift this responsibility to the states, you will just duplicate and triplicate and even more much of the work and expenses. We do not need every state to prepare for its own emergencies at a higher pace than we need a national way of protecting our own states from a higher structure. So Romney has no figure head in the way of understanding and solving Today’s problems.
Romney, is partially correct. The funding should come from the Feds yet it should be run locally, They know the area better. The should support the local firehouses and volunter agencies. I’f this was not selection year Obummer wouldn’t have moved on this so fast. We wouldn’t have seen the national guard so fast.
We must stand together as a nation, during national tragedies! Period! We’re not supposed to look at a hurricane-ravaged State & tell it “You’re on You’re own!”, when they’re left totally devestated!
I live in Washington State- clear across the country! But I wouldn’t dream of advocating a system that left some states hurting & bankrupt after disasters, while others never have to suffer financial loss simply because they’re more inland! It’s probably one of the most devisive things Romney has proposed so far!
Even better than leaving the broke, cash-strapped States to deal w\tragedies when they happen… how about we REALLY rip them off, and demand they hire *private industry* companies to clean everything up instead of FEMA?! Romney thinks that’s the BEST model for these disaster situations! Because the private industry can fix ANYTHING! LOL
The man is so clueless…he turned a campaign stop into a canned-food drive, even when the Red Cross said NOT to “help” that way! What is this?! The 1950’s?! 😀
I have no doubt that people who are paying attention to how the President is handling this situation vs. how his predessesor handled Katrina & thinking to themselves, “Now THIS is what a President does when there’s a weather crisis in his country!”…
And watching the sore-losers & desparate jerks on the *other* side of the political aisle during all this, and thinking “Do I really wanna put THESE guys back into power again?!”
Glad Romney had the strength.of mind to reverse in this.
A good leader learns from experience and modifies his platform according to the good of the people.
Poll watchers like obama do what is good for them. Aka obama/biden abortion flip floo
Sure, you could shift the responsibility down to the states. They could pass the job to the counties. The counties could empower the towns. The towns could tell everyone to suck it up. This way nobody would have to pay for anyone else’s misfortune.
he should ask this burly secret service agent to help a little bit..
So we have our usual split of opinions here. Those who pay no federal taxes or pay insignificant amounts and are used to sponging off others, want the federal government to do even more. As usual. Why not? They don’t pay for anything, they just take, and take, and take… And those who pay for all this and enable this country to go on, we want some of our burden relieved.
Almost no state can operate an agency with resources, knowledge and equipment of FEMA. It’s too expensive to maintain such resources! FEMA is a small army with their own plane fleet, technical equipment and teams of highly trained personnel in many fields. Republicans would privatize expertise of FEMA to profit off calamities faced by communities. Obama had to revive FEMA because the Bush administration ravaged that agency to its core to waste money elsewhere.