Posted on 05/04/2011 5:32:13 PM PDT by Kaslin
Politics: The month-long cold shoulder that the White House gave Texas' plea for a disaster declaration was bad enough. Now the wildfire-scorched state has been turned down flat. Don't think this isn't about punishment.
Through no fault of its own, Texas has now lost 2.3 million acres of land to a freak weather combination that has ignited 9,000 wildfires across the state well ahead of summer. At least two people have been killed, 400 homes incinerated, 1,200 miles of agricultural fencing destroyed and nearly 1,000 horses, cattle and sheep left to perish since November.
We would think at least some of its 200 counties would be in line for a routine federal disaster declaration to grant firefighting aid and access to low-interest loans that will help with the rebuilding.
That's what neighboring Oklahoma, with a similar fire situation got, and it's certainly what tornado-ravaged Alabama and other states in the region were deservingly given. Even California's coast, caught in the wake of Japan's March tsunami, got a swift disaster declaration to repair its yacht harbors.
But now we're supposed to believe the Federal Emergency Management Agency when it says Texas doesn't need this particular declaration, that it already has gotten "enough" from feds who dragged the process out for more than a month before making any response.
Coming from a president who once complained to an interviewer about his perception that the state hasn't shown him sufficient gratitude, this isn't surprising.
But statesmanship it is not. Until now, disaster aid has been the least-politicized of any government spending. The U.S. has shown generosity even to its worst enemies — Iran, North Korea and Cuba among them — at times of sudden need.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
What about farmland that is being flooded on purpose bu the Corps of Engineers?
Ping to the replied-to post.
New Jersey was just denied Federal Assistance for extensive flooding damage last week. I worked for FEMA several years ago and I can tell you that many, many more state requests for assistance come in than are approved. I am not saying that politics did or didn’t play a part in the Texas decision (because honestly I don’t know) but it is not unheard of for a request to be denied. It actually was a pretty common occurance at one time and even within FEMA there were some who felt that the Federal government shouldn’t have gotten involved in as many disasters as they did.
This is just the latest in a series of FEMA snubs. Texas was left largely unreimbursed/unassisted after Rita (and after the added burden of thousands of Katrina refugees it had taken in)...and, to a greater degree, after Ike. The Texas coast has been rebuilding and rebounding without the help or notice of the MSM or politicians, who still bemoan and befriend NOLA as if Katrina was six months ago. It’s galling, but Texas will be fine. And Texans will remember.
For the record, nobody was more vindictive than native SOB LBJ. After Potter County (Amarillo) went for Goldwater, the Air Force base there was shut down. The base was in the process of finishing new barracks and had a runway nearly 3mi long (to accomodate triple touch-and-go landings for C-5A training) as part of the military’s expanding roll in VietNam. There was no rational reason for its closure..
the military still uses that runway, it’s been an alternate landing site for the Concord and the Space Shuttle, and Bell-Boeing assembles the Osprey there...but the AFB there closed in 1968 to satisfy the grudge of another petty CiC.
...yep.
He can fund his brethren, the terrorists and terrorist nations under the auspices of muslim outreach, he can collude to consolidate the mideast, he can fight with alqaeda in Libya, scratch that, start a new war FOR islam with American cash..... but he cant shell out any for Americans?
In principle you are correct.
But you totally miss the point.
obummer sends money to some and not to others.
In another life, it would be called bribery.
The best thing that could come out of this is that very few Texans will vote for the dims and certainly not for obummer.
Obama’s constituents are who HE says they are, and it’s very obvious who they are NOT.
If you have finally had enough of the out of control Federal Government then for heavens sake stop simply preaching to the choir on these threads and start doing something about it.
As a first step, visit http://www.texasnationalist.com/
I agree. Mark Steyn did a piece on this issue a while back, pointing out that states and municipalities no longer budget for the costs of completely expected weather issues - such as snow storms in New England - because they are counting on Federal "disaster" funds.
It's part of the bigger problem of people's pushing the cost of their choices on the general public, which leads to people's making much more risky decisions than they would if they had to expect to bear the cost.
Having said that the whole FEMA disaster relief thing is another ridiculous program that needs to come to an end. Insurance is the conservative mechanism to rebuild after disasters. States are the agents that should provide emergency relief. FEMA is not among the enumerated powers of the US Constitution, Artile 1: Section 8.
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