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Happy Anniversary, Katrina Victims! You Could Celebrate With Cash if You Weren't So Unscrupulous
Today Reason magazine ran the exploration of its first "Myth of Hurricane Katrina," an article refuting that there's not enough money to deal with the disaster's aftermath. There's plenty of money, it explains. The problem is the systems in place for doling it out. To wit:
So it's not a lack of funding that's the problem. It's spending the money. Under existing laws, FEMA can't simply write checks to Katrina victims. Some recipients would undoubtedly squander their funds, and there would be widespread fraud. This isn't idle speculation. According to the Government Accountability Office, immediately after Katrina hit, about a billion dollars of emergency aid—16 percent of the total—was lost to fraudulent claims. Even legitimately obtained pre-paid debit cards given to aid Katrina's victims were used to buy champagne, guns, tattoos, and porn.
FEMA, or somebody—anybody—should indeed be able to simply (that's the best way, isn't it?) write checks to Katrina victims. I left New Orleans two days before the storm with a pair of flip-flops, a deck of cards, and an extra pair of underwear, and couldn't go back until four months later. Like a million others, I desperately needed money for food and clothes and toiletries. Despite hours of sobbing and begging on the phone with FEMA and dozens of paperwork filings and faxes, I still somehow never managed to "legitimately obtain" my debit card. If I had gotten it, I very well may have spent a large portion of that $2,000 on champagne, tattoos, and porn (I'm not really into guns), and I would have had every right to do so. It's none of the government's business what indescribably distressed adults who've been suddenly and forcibly displaced with no job, no place to live, and no reliable information about the state of everything they own or their foreseeable future choose to do with the aid money given them. The government's business is to make sure they get it.
It is up to each individual state to provide for its members, not the federal government.(read the 10th amendment) Unfortunately, Louisiana is as corrupt as any Latin American country and behaves as such. We are told in Democratic California, if there is an earthquake, you are on your own. So much for the Democrats. Lock and load.
Many Katrina victims have resorted to doing their own fundraisers or are recipients of charity groups that do private fundraising on their behalf. For those who would like to have their own Katrina victims fundraiser, you can find more fundraising ideas and tips for generating extra profits for worthy causes.
"It's none of the government's business what [the recipients] choose to do with the aid money given them"??
Where do you think the "aid money" the GAO is talking about comes from? When money is taken from me by force and given to someone else, there's no accountability?
And I say to myself, what a wonderful world......
The funny thing about this post is that Nicole is saying exactly what Reason should be saying if they were ideologically consistent. Why should an avowedly libertarian magazine care about what people do with their money? (Shouldn't it be complaining about the fact that the government's giving Katrina victims any support in the first place?) And if the government IS going to give away money, shouldn't Reason want it to be in unrestricted lump sums so the free market can work its magic?
I was annoyed by your title, but i understand and relate to what you are saying. I got $2000 from FEMA and now they're asking for it back, plus interest. I politely declined their request. We'll see how the appeal goes. Peace in the southern east.
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