Hurricane havoc: The costs to come

As the ravages of hurricanes Katrina and Rita add up, government is challenged to ensure that both natural disasters won't be followed by federal-funded fiascoes of historic proportions. With more than $62 billion in aid already committed and much more to follow, there is wide-open opportunity for unrelenting waste, gross mismanagement and wholesale fraud.

Consider the fiasco after last year's Hurricane Francis in Florida. Almost $30 million in aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency went to residents more than 100 miles away from the devastation. Let's not forget, either, the $1.3 million paid in funeral claims for Floridians, most of whom didn't die in last year's hurricanes. Among the beneficiaries: a Palm Beach Gardens millionaire who died after heart surgery -- two days before Hurricane Francis.

Before government pays to rebuild houses on nonexistent lots or sends out relief checks to dead people, there must be absolute transparency in where and how federal funding is allocated. That means public disclosure for everything -- contracts, requisitions and all spending authorizations. Of course, that's a lot of paperwork and related costs. But an unprecedented amount of government aid demands unprecedented openness and close public scrutiny.

I have given this FEMA money a lot of thought. Much of it is in the hands of gulf coast residents has stayed in the area. The importance of it lies not in how people are spending it so much as that they are putting back into the local economy. This keeps small business alive so the area economy doesn't die during this transition.

I don't care if a guy buys $100 tennis shoes with his because the guy who owns the shoe store can stay afloat till the crises passes. Either way, this money shores up victims.

I own a small business and half our customers were in New Orleans. I don't even know where they are now. Don't know what to do about quarterly billing or anything else at this point ( we haven't billed because we are trying to contact everyone personally in case they need assistance and can't pay). I do know if someone drops me their $45 to pay that bill, even from their FEMA check, I might not go under. I might not have to apply for ER unemployment and avail myself of further government assistance because my income was lost. A stip club may be an odious way to spend your FEMA money, but remember, it is still a small business that pays taxes and fees to the local government, as well as the federal government. Better to keep as much business alive as possible, not to mention they keep people employed.

Believe me, you understand this federal spending thing much better than most. Sadly, many who receive the money were democrats before Katrina and expected the help from the government. That it is coming from a republican administration will not matter and they will vote democrat the rest of their lives. But they ought to think about why a man like Bush is willing to spend to get most of them back on their feet.

The fallacy shown here is that the poster above does not understand the concept of the "lost money" -- a guy named Bastiatt in France came up with this 100 or more yrs ago.

Its not enough to say that the federal money is helping NO because its being spent there -- one has also to realize that the money was taken from someone else ( ie a taxpayer ) who does not now have the opportunity to spend it, and to support the economy in the fashion he would choose -- and which any economist would argue, would spend far more efficiently than the govt. The notion that the govt can somehow stimulate the local economy in New Orleans, without pernicious effects on the rest of the economy, is proven a fallacy if one just takes the strategy to its logical conclusion -- that is , imagine the outcome if the feds redirected all federal and private spending through draconian taxation and fiat to Louisiana and NO. Aside from the affront to liberty of this massive federal spending in LA and elsewhere, it makes very little economic sense.

Even if an inspector general is appointed, as President Bush has vowed, any improprieties would be revealed after the money has been squandered. Already there are published accounts of "victims" using their FEMA emergency funds in strip clubs.

Sorry, I am not going to say it is ok for money I and OTHER AMERICANS are donating should be spent on crap like this. All the whining and poor mouthing that was being done on TV about "we lost our houses" "we ain't gots no food" "we are lootin' cause we need to feed our family" and now to find out it is being squandered away by some.....Makes you want to think twice about donating the next time. I KNOW I will be thinking twice before I do again.

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