Posted on 06/20/2006 5:12:14 PM PDT by neverdem
Less than a year ago, the images of Hurricane Katrina victims were riveted into the nation's collective memory:
Homeowners perched on roofs amid rising water. Families pushed their belongings in trash cans down swamped streets. Children and the elderly camped out amid the squalor at New Orleans' convention center.
If anyone needed a lift, it was folks on the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.
So, who among them wouldn't have enjoyed an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Dominican Republic? What about scoring New Orleans Saints season tickets? Or a little stress-relief with a "Girls Gone Wild" video or a sex toy?
Driven from your neighborhood, you'd certainly want to wash away the taste of flood water with a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. And if things still weren't going right on the domestic front, you might call in a divorce lawyer. If nothing seemed to be working out, some might even consider a sex change.
Sound far-fetched? Well, that's exactly how some purported hurricane victims spent scads of emergency federal aid doled out in the storm's aftermath. The details are contained in a recent General Accounting Office report that counts up as much as $1.4 billion in squandered assistance.
Just another embarrassment for that Category 5 disaster: the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The agency really couldn't win for losing last year: Having been caught flat-footed by the storm, FEMA scrambled to get aid quickly to the thousands of displaced Americans.
Trouble was, handing out $2,000 debit cards to people did little to ensure that the money would be spent wisely. Many people scammed the government by applying for aid multiple times or by posing as storm victims. The con artists took advantage of FEMA's poor safeguards.
In a way, though, how can some politicians complain about tax dollars spent on sex toys? This was what people wanted to buy. Aren't we always getting told by advocates of tax cuts and shrunken government that "the people" know so much better than government how best to spend "their money"?
Maybe this is the lesson: Competence matters. Anyone can waste tax dollars, whether it's an incompetent agency or private individuals with funky priorities. Conversely, if a program is well-conceived and well-run, money can be well-spent, whether by bureaucrats or individuals.
Why should FEMA take all the blame? The cry was help all those poor, poor people. So FEMA shoveled it out under tremendous pressure.
Now those applying the pressure don't want their share of blame. Bastards.
"Anyone can waste tax dollars, whether it's an incompetent agency or private individuals with funky priorities"
Not if you don't GIVE THEM the tax dollars.
I'm still looking for where you can find in the US Constitution the authority of the government to give tax money away for "benificent" purposes.
"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents...."
--James Madison
Apparently the primary author of the document found it as difficult to do as I.
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
--Benjamin Franklin
And I'm afraid that we've passed ol' Ben's point also...
They'll undoubtedly be more careful next time to make sure the likker-drinking sensibilities of their potential critics are satisifed first.
Our tax dollars at play ... again.
EXACTLY!
It wasn't FEMA's job. I believe President Bush did himself--and federalism--a huge disservice by jumping in and grabbing blame.
Are you sure that was a comment of Ben's? It sounds like a twisting of de Tocqueville.
Congress is just upset that people in NO could waste money as fast as them.
handing out $2,000 debit cards to people did little to ensure that the money would be spent wisely
I don't know why they are upset or even surprised. They gave 2 grand to people and told to spend it and they did. The government never set parameters on the money. Who cares what they spent it on. I mean I would rather them not get any money, but since they did they can't really complain.
Gee, I wonder if the author can come up with one example of a Gubmint program which meets these conditions. I am sure there are hundreds. I just can't think of one off-hand.
That's when you just change the Constitution into a "living document". THEN you can do all kinds o' crazy stuff! Forced bussing, abortions, giveaways to every natural disaster any foreign country has ever had, etc. See how much smarter the government is than everyday people?
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