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Loading...Morning Mix: Who Needs FEMA?
Irene is wreaking havoc way up the coast, so that makes it the perfect time to state that the country no longer needs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), right?
Well, so says Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul, who’s grabbing headlines by attacking the agency this weekend, calling it a type of “government dependency.”
According to The Hill, Paul told Fox News Sunday that he wants to, “transition us out of this dependency,” arguing that people needed to abandon the idea that “FEMA will take care of us and everything will be OK.”
He then stated it had the “one of the worst reputations for a bureaucracy ever,” and that we should go back to how it was in 1900 when states just took care of it all themselves.
Still, he won’t eliminate the agency all at once, just bit by bit. “No, you don’t get rid of something like that in one day. As a matter of fact, I’ve had this position for a long time, and the people kept re-electing me — and I have a coastal district. But I’ve also suggested that there’s different ways to finance this.”
Meanwhile, 4 million people are without power, 10 are confirmed dead, and we still have further to go.
Paul said he wanted more media coverage. My guess is now he’ll get it.
Read more: 2012 presidential election, fema, hurricane Irene, morning mix, Ron Paul
Photo by R. DeYoung
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98 comments
+ add your own@Carole D.
Your are probably correct, however, with Ron Paul as Pres. We have a much much less chance of that happening, at least under his watch!! & maybe some of what he does if we are lucky will rub off onto the one after him!!
I agree, Grace - allocate more military to defending us at home as part of their service....be it (appropriate and green) hazardous waste work, rescue work, reinforcing dams to prevent/minimize disasters like New Orleans, repairing dangerous bridges, improving border security via patrolling and construction and surveillance technology and enforcement, so that those who live near our borders can be safer. Put the smart-geek military guys to work improving alternative forms of energy, which also plays into our national security.
Yes we spend more on the military than on the rest of what Congress votes on in the budget each year. Maybe we could get our military to do some of what the civilian parts of government are lagging on: things like, disposing of hazardous wastes almost anything EPA is supposed to regulate but industry always screams about the expense. If the military could pick up the hazardous waste and deal with it.... Like evacuating those who need to be evacuated just before or early in a disaster and cleaning up after disasters
FEMA was set up to help states that were really hard hit, not do it all for them. It the state was hit so hard with a disaster that it was unable to take care of the problems on their own they could ask for help. Not like Louisiana legislators who bailed out of the state and left everything for FEMA to do. They don't do that, they help out after IF needed.
Ron Paul, who I will vote for, is wrong on this. Of course we need FEMA ! 52 cents of every dollar spent in America goes to a tax of some kind, look it up. If half our income goes to the government we should have free healthcare, education AND FEMA ! Why don't we? Two words: Military Overspending
We need FEMA just like we need the government agencies who are supposed to do their jobs to protect us. If they are filled with crooks and cronies as Bush and Cheney made them, then we need to oust those losers and put the real workers in there who will do their jobs the way they are supposed to do them. To simply eliminate these agencies is insanity. It opens the doors for bigger psychopaths to come in and take advantage of the situations----or haven't you noticed how human nature goes?
Anyone who supports this fool is a fool. Don't forget his beautiful son, Rand, the one who wants to return to segregation .
FEMA was dismantled by the Bush administration due to ideological reasons, seasoned professionals were dismissed, and the directorship given to an incompetent as a political favor. In addition, FEMA was placed under Homeland Security so that they were unable to act on their own. All of this led to the dismal job done post Katrina. Ron Paul is expressing typical extreme right wing ideas: leave the poor and middle classes to fend for themselves during a disaster. Of course, the big corporations and wealthy will continue to get their subsidies. Let's all go back to the Hoover administration when Granny would starve to death if she had no family able to help.
So Julian, the unions are crooks so we shouldn't have unions? The government are crooks so we shouldn't have government? How about just fixing the problems, we know what they are so how is just killing something going to improve things?
William G. You're wasting your words on Jeffrey W. he just comes here to post whatever crap that will just piss people off.
Steve R. comes here to hit and run comments that do nothing more than badmouth the Democrats. He is even ignorant to blame the current government for what Bush did to FEMA during hurricane Katrina.As if the mishandling of FEMA during Bush's administration had anything to do with funding....no, it had to do with incompetence.
Ron Paul gives me a headache
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