Dana Milbank writes on the myopic vision of Tea Party budget cuts and the effect on "Big Government", especially with regard to our ability to respond effectively to natural disasters.
I recently finished reading the Constitution and all the related Amendments to the Constitution. I understand the founding fathers didn't express a desire for the Federal Government to establish a department of emergency management. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, government should do for the people that which the people can not do for themselves. Is a department like FEMA really big government run amuk?
Hardly, I say.
This isn't someone's earmark for the bridge to nowhere back home. This is a fairly benign assistance agency charged with minimizing the impact of a natural disaster. Its not preaching a doctrine, unless safety and planning qualifies. I know the Tea Party types always want less Government, and maybe if FEMA went away tomorrow, States would understand what's at stake, band together and plan for all outcomes, but that's how it use to be, way back when. It wasn't efficient, practical or effective. By enjoying the economies of scale from the Federal Government, plus trying to have national guidelines for how things would flow during a crisis, lives were saved.
Congressman Ron Paul was heard this weekend citing the many issues with FEMA and that it just isn't really necessary. Most of us have heard about the terrible calamity that hit Galveston, Texas decades ago, where thousands lost their lives. There sure hell wasn't any federal program around then, either. Was that really preferable to what we have in place now. Did those who drowned years ago feel like their liberty was being served as they went under for the last time?
Like every Federal department, agency, etc. there are problems to be addressed within FEMA. Rather than demonize this most benign agency, I say a rational, serious discussion on how to prune the waste is in order. This blind cut, cut, cut approach from the far right seems loony.
It is loony.
And short sighted, to say the least...
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