Free Republic

Some television viewers may have shed a tear with Sen. Trent Lott as the Mississippi Republican surveyed the heap of timber where his Pascagoula shoreline house once stood. But they should have cried for other reasons when President Bush promised Senator Lott "a fantastic new house" in the same place. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, taxpayers are about to be milked again by one of the most foolish federal programs ever created. Federal flood insurance puts taxpayers on the hook for much of the flood damage to houses that have no business being built on flood plains. American taxpayers...

For several blocks, insurance adjuster Pete O'Connor dodged fallen power lines and climbed over downed trees in Gulfport, Miss., until he came across a car. Inside, there were four people he had been looking for -- a family whose home had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and now lived in their car. "When I met them, it was an overwhelming experience to provide them help and let them know everything was going to be OK," said O'Connor, an adjuster for MetLife Auto & Home who lives in Concord, N.C. He inspected the house, wrote them a check and moved on...