Disaster relief shakedown against blue and purple states looms

As someone with a lot of experience in this arena, I can tell you that this decision is absolutely moronic and shows that Trump has no idea how the government works. The expectation that every governor should be able to handle any and every disaster, regardless of its scale, without federal assistance is one of the most idiotic things I've heard Trump say, and that is saying a lot. It is akin to arguing that every single community hospital should be able to perform complex neurosurgeries 24/7, because "that's what a hospital is for."
 
OK, here's a plan. All the detainees that liberals are crying about not getting "due process," while we work through the "due process" charade, let's put those detainees out in the woods, hand them rakes, and let them rake the forests. You know, like they do in Europe.
 
I find this to be one of the most disgusting things he does. It’s hard to pick the worst, but this one is right up there.

Only someone rotten to the core will choose to inflict even more pain on people suffering through a disaster.

The next disaster in a blue area will be made exponentially worse so that trump can grind some political axe against a blue state governor.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
As someone with a lot of experience in this arena, I can tell you that this decision is absolutely moronic and shows that Trump has no idea how the government works. The expectation that every governor should be able to handle any and every disaster, regardless of its scale, without federal assistance is one of the most idiotic things I've heard Trump say, and that is saying a lot. It is akin to arguing that every single community hospital should be able to perform complex neurosurgeries 24/7, because "that's what a hospital is for."
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How were disasters handled prior to 1979? HUD?
My understanding is the feds will still send the monies in the form of block grants to the states.
 
waynecountywolf said:
How were disasters handled prior to 1979? HUD?
My understanding is the feds will still send the monies in the form of block grants to the states.
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They weren't handled very well, which is one of the reasons that FEMA was created. The states were essentially on their own in the response phase and money was delegated out after the fact by Congress if it felt like it. The system was inefficient and very inconsistent. Now we are going backwards again despite the fact that disasters are more prevalent and more costly than ever before.
 
ChileG said:
The scary thing is that almost 100% of Trump voters would be gleeful to stick it to blue states in this way.
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Indeed, I can already hear board Trumpers here justifying and defending it in every way possible. They'll eat this shit up - it will be owning the libs in one of the biggest ways possible. Natural disaster strikes your evil blue Trump-hating state? Then your people can rot amid the destruction while red state voters cheer.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
Indeed, I can already hear board Trumpers here justifying and defending it in every way possible. They'll eat this shit up - it will be owning the libs in one of the biggest ways possible. Natural disaster strikes your evil blue Trump-hating state? Then your people can rot amid the destruction while red state voters cheer.
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The thing is most of the states that take hits from hurricanes are red states. Tornadoes, too.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
They weren't handled very well, which is one of the reasons that FEMA was created. The states were essentially on their own in the response phase and money was delegated out after the fact by Congress if it felt like it. The system was inefficient and very inconsistent. Now we are going backwards again despite the fact that disasters are more prevalent and more costly than ever before.
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There were too may hands (agencies) grappling for a piece of that pie back then. FEMA was supposed to streamline the "system" and it did, then it didnt, as it aged. I dont believe FEMA should be abolished but it does need to be streamlined for Individual Assistance as well as Public Assistance. I realized why certain protocols were set in place to prevent fraud and abuse. Change is not easy but NC as well as other states better get prepared.
 
Molotov Mocktail said:
I find this to be one of the most disgusting things he does. It’s hard to pick the worst, but this one is right up there.

Only someone rotten to the core will choose to inflict even more pain on people suffering through a disaster.

The next disaster in a blue area will be made exponentially worse so that trump can grind some political axe against a blue state governor.
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It will also be devastating for red states as well, and as we've already seen with the Arkansas tornado damage Trump is unlikely to help them very much either. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 cost a total of around $200 billion in damages, according to the NOAA. The entire state budget for Louisiana in 2005 was less than $20 billion. There is no doubt that states will get far less money in direct federal block grants than they would from FEMA, and as it will be left to the states to manage there's also no doubt that more of the money will be misspent or stolen or diverted to non-disaster pet projects for state legislators and governors. It's going to be a nightmare for those who are affected, and many of them will be left with nothing. But at least Dear Leader will have more money to spend on parades for himself and to buy expensive foreign jets that will eventually become his personal property!
 
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waynecountywolf said:
There were too may hands (agencies) grappling for a piece of that pie back then. FEMA was supposed to streamline the "system" and it did, then it didnt, as it aged. I dont believe FEMA should be abolished but it does need to be streamlined for Individual Assistance as well as Public Assistance. I realized why certain protocols were set in place to prevent fraud and abuse. Change is not easy but NC as well as other states better get prepared.
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Part of the problem is that FEMA was put under the DHS and never really escaped it. After 9/11 everything had to have a nexus to terrorism to be funded. FEMA was ignored as the ugly stepchild because preparing for natural disasters wasn't as sexy as paying for high-tech weapons and men in black suits to go after terrorists. As an example, the New Orleans police and fire departments applied for federal grants for water rescue boats pre-Katrina but were denied because they couldn't show how those boats would combat terrorism.

Things got better after the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (?) and we were actually in a decent place until Trump 2.0 came along. Yes there was probably some waste and unnecessary red tape in FEMA that wasn't there before but I'd rather have that than have the alternative that we are facing now.
 
waynecountywolf said:
There were too may hands (agencies) grappling for a piece of that pie back then. FEMA was supposed to streamline the "system" and it did, then it didnt, as it aged. I dont believe FEMA should be abolished but it does need to be streamlined for Individual Assistance as well as Public Assistance. I realized why certain protocols were set in place to prevent fraud and abuse. Change is not easy but NC as well as other states better get prepared.
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FEMA actually got much, much better as it aged. There was nothing wrong with FEMA, except the right wing disinformation about FEMA.
 
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