Sep ‘11
27
Hurricane Katrina and the Natural Disaster Year – 2011
Does anyone know what House Republicans believe is so critical to their jobs policy that they will shut down the FY2012 in advance of its 10-1-11 start over 3.7 billion in federal disaster aid to state and local government? Republican majority leader Cong. Eric Cantor (R-VA), who started this, wants to pay for the latest disaster aid by cutting other federal spending. He didn’t raise the issue earlier this year, nor did he raise it back when Republicans ran Washington and sent $60 billion to Louisiana within 10 days of Hurricane Katrina and God knows how much thereafter. Why now? Part of the GOP campaign against federal spending and taxes.
I am a good enough conservative to have proposed something similar from time to time. The damage done by natural disasters can be minimized by wise land use planning and development at the state/local level. So getting the feds out of the business has merit. While we think of how to do it, though, I proposed that, either in conjunction with each large disaster or in a once-a-year appropriation (like FEMA today), we raise taxes by an amount equivalent to the federal spending for state/local government disaster aid.
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