Would Romney Gut FEMA?

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmcquaid/2012/10/29/would-romney-gut-fema/

Getting a clear policy statement from the Romney campaign is pretty hopeless, and his statements on the Federal Emergency Management Agency are no exception. Yesterday the Huffington Post dug up a clip from a Republican primary debate in which Mitt Romney agreed it was a good idea to turn all of FEMA’s disaster response functions over to the states. Coming in the teeth of Hurricane Sandy, this was inconvenient, so today the Romney campaign has backpedaled a bit:

“Gov. Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions,” Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said in a statement. “As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities, and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”

Alas, this says nothing. It is a boilerplate statement of FEMA’s existing mission. FEMA is set up to coordinate disaster response between federal, state, and local governments and private entities. State governments are always in the driver’s seat in disasters, backed up by federal resources.

So, that’s good, right? Well, only in the sense that abolishing FEMA is not an official Romney position. In effect, there is no Romney position on FEMA and disasters at all. Which is, in an era of mega-disasters, President Romney will quickly find not a good thing.

When I wrote a book about Hurricane Katrina and read various post-mortems of the terrible disaster response, one thing became clear: today’ disasters do not respect geographical boundaries. As the scale of a disaster grows, states cannot mount sufficient resources on their own to respond effectively. Nor can they coordinate amongst themselves and the hundreds of different entities trying to help. That is FEMA’s job. If FEMA does that job well, the disaster response will be effective.

But FEMA is an agency with a short history and relatively little bureaucratic power in the federal government. That means its performance depends heavily on the administration that happens to run the government at any given time. And sadly, Republicans have tended to treat FEMA with indifference, and the agency has stumbled. During the 1992 presidential campaign, FEMA’s plodding response to Hurricane Andrew undermined the campaign of President George H.W. Bush.

George W. Bush essentially treated the FEMA director’s position as a patronage slot, and then saw it stripped of resources as it was caught up in the messy, confusing government-wide reorganization that accompanied the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. There’s been some suggestion that FEMA would be a logical candidate for the chopping block in any Romney-Ryan mass discretionary budget cuts – but that, like other elements of the Romney plan, is impossible to pin down. Not that FEMA, with an annual budget of $14 billion, would save much money.

(The White House has suggested that FEMA might also lose $900 million in the automatic “sequester” cuts scheduled to take place later this year. That’s unlikely to happen. What will happen, though, we also don’t know.)

Democrats have been kinder to FEMA, naming professionals to run it. Bill Clinton appointed his emergency director from Arkansas, James Lee Witt, to run it, with solid results. Obama’s FEMA director, Craig Fugate, was previously Florida’s emergency chief, and has done some work to rebuild the agency’s tattered infrastructure and reputation – though there is still a ways to go.

Mitt Romney, the consummate organization man, should note this. Because all it takes is one huge disaster screw-up to wound a presidency.

[Dr.3D]

Needs to be an option, "I don't care."

[specsaregood]

Needs to be an option, "I don't care."

I'd prefer a "Romney is GUTless" option.

[TheGrinch]

I'd prefer a "Romney is GUTless" option.

LOL, nice.

[TonySutton]

FEMA needs to be gutted into non-existence. It's existence presents a moral hazard. People should not be building/living in harms way without taking the necessary precautions.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Hurricane Sandy swallows presidential campaign

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57542146/hurricane-sandy-swallows-presidential-campaign/



With the presidential election just over a week away, the candidates would normally be campaigning in the swing states in an effort to gain a last-minute edge in what is expected to be a razor-thin race.

But with Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the eastern seaboard, the men at the top of the ticket are putting their campaigns on hold. And both sides are scrambling to figure out what impact the storm will have on who emerges victorious next Tuesday.

President Obama cancelled a Monday campaign stop in Florida and Tuesday stops in Wisconsin and Colorado to monitor the storm in Washington. After briefing reporters about storm preparations Monday afternoon and urging Americans to listen to local and state officials, he was asked about the impact it will have on the campaign. The president said he is "not worried at this point on the impact on the election."

"The election will take care of itself next week, right now our number one priority is to make sure we are saving lives," he added.

Mitt Romney, meanwhile, cancelled events in New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Virginia, though he did hold a campaign event in Ohio on Monday morning and plans to hold an afternoon event in Iowa. Like the president, Romney and running mate Paul Ryan will be off the trail on Tuesday.

"Governor Romney believes this is a time for the nation and its leaders to come together to focus on those Americans who are in harms way," said Romney communications director Gail Gitcho. Romney is asking supporters in affected states to bring yard signs inside and for Americans to stay out of harms way; at his stop in Ohio Monday, he tacked a political appeal onto a call for Americans to donate to charity for storm relief.

"I know the people of the Atlantic coast are counting on Ohio and the rest of our states, but I also think the people of the entire nation are counting on Ohio," he said, "because my guess is, my guess is, if Ohio votes me in as president, I'll be the next president of the United States."

There has been no shortage of speculation over what impact the storm will have on the election. One thing that's clear is that it has thrown a wrench in both sides' carefully-calibrated plans for the final week of the campaign. With the storm dominating news coverage, the campaigns have been deprived of the nation's attention at a time when they would otherwise be making their closing argument to the public. That could mean the race is effectively frozen in place - a dynamic which would seem to favor the president, who polls show holds a narrow lead in enough swing states to get the 270 votes he needs to win reelection.

But the storm is also making it more difficult for Americans to get to the polls for early voting - something that David Axelrod, a top adviser to the president's campaign, said Sunday has him concerned.

"Obviously, we want unfettered access to the polls, because we believe that the more people come out, the better we're going to do," he told CNN. "And so, to the extent that it makes it harder, that's a source of concern." In addition to voters' ability to get to polling stations during the storm, there could also be problems related to early votes by mail getting to election officials in a timely manner.

Asked Sunday about the potential impact on voting, the president said, "We don't anticipate that at this point but we're obviously going to have to take a look." The problem could be less significant than it seems at first glance: Almost none of the swing states affected by the storm have early voting, and unless the storm is devastating, they should have their polling places up and running by next Tuesday. (Virginia does allow absentee voting in person before Election Day, but only for select residents.)

The president does not want to be seen as playing politics at a time of national crisis, and he is not expected to attack Romney on the stump until the worst of the storm has passed. It seems possible that the storm will ultimately help the president, since it provides him the opportunity to provide a steady hand during a crisis while looking, well, presidential. The potential downside: If the response to the storm is seen as botched, the blame will land at least to some extent at the president's feet. (Exhibit A: The beating President Bush took in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.)

On Monday afternoon, Mr. Obama sent an email to his campaign fundraising list encouraging supporters to visit ready.gov, listen to state and local officials and donate to the Red Cross. "Michelle and I are keeping everyone in the affected areas in our thoughts and prayers. Be safe," it read. The email was signed "Barack."

[...]

"Nothing either candidate says on the campaign trail is going to matter to voters in these states, so the best you can do is concentrate on those states that are out of the path of the storm, express your concern to those that are in its path, and if you're smart get some pictures taken loading up relief packages," he said.

The storm is also complicating the efforts of the campaigns and outside groups to work the "ground game" - the hard work of knocking on doors and reaching out to voters to make sure they get to the polls. This is an area where Mr. Obama is seen as having the advantage in most swing states. One group on the left, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Sunday it had purchased a generator and a "boat-load of supplies" to keep its Virginia election call center running. The group said it made more than one million calls on Sunday.

The campaigns have yet to say whether they will be cancelling their attack ads due to the storm. For Americans who lose power, the ads won't matter. But the fact that many Americans are tuning to local newscasts during the storm could mean a higher viewership for the ads in counties where the lights are still on. The campaigns have a roughly equal number of ads on the air, the New York Times reports, with Mr. Obama holding a slight advantage over the past month.

As of now, the candidates' schedules going forward are uncertain, and they will depend on just how hard Sandy hits. "We're still trying to figure it out, but his focus has to be on the storm," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina told reporters Monday. Both campaigns are now grappling with the reality that despite their best efforts, Mother Nature has the power to inject huge and unexpected factors into what is shaping up to be a $2 billion presidential campaign. Schnur argued that the political impact of the storm will ultimately depend on Mr. Obama.

"For voters who are in the path of the storm, there is nothing that any political candidate can ever say on the campaign trail that will have even a fraction of an impact on their lives as the storm itself," said Schnur. "So for all the speculation about early voting and ad buys and absentee ballots, the seminal question is how effective the president and his administration are seen in responding to this crisis."

[awake]

This is what I truly despise about politics: every event, tragic or not, becomes an opportunity for crooks, cronies and petty thieves to engrandize themselfs as spiritual and moral "guardians". Its almost enough to choke on.

[DamianTV]

Never let a good natural disaster go to waste.

If anything, FEMA would be repurposed and given unlimited police powers to come in and deprive the people of whatever FEMA could take. Remember that statement (maybe not) that if you are ordered to evacuate and do not evacuate, you not only endanger yourself (their property), you endanger your rescuers. That statment right there should be an indication that if you are ordered to evacuate and are either unable or unwilling to (because they wont take care of your animals; Katrina), they are going to charge you with a Crime, probably a Felony, and even if you lose absolutely everything, you'll be expected to pay even more that you dont have.

The thing is, if there are no limits as to what the govt can do to you, they will take everything from you, and will use any excuse to do so. Natural Disasters are pretty much the exact same thing as a Terrorist Attack in terms of being used by those in power to take advantage of the people.

[John F Kennedy III]

NO. LOL.

[KCIndy]

When push came to shove, Romney would double FEMA spending. And he would make damn sure he got credit for it with everyone who was on the receiving end of the overpriced (and largely ineffective) emergency aid.

[pcosmar]

Needs to be an option, "I don't care."

IDK,,and I don't care.
Oh,, and Romney is not going to gut anything..
Government will continue to grow till it crashes. Regardless of which one is anointed.

[Brian4Liberty]

The NYT was ready to pounce and attack Romney with the storm...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/opinion/a-big-storm-requires-big-government.html
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?393895-A-Big-Storm-Requires-Big-Government

[Elwar]

Republican primary Romney would gut FEMA.

General election candidate Romney would expand FEMA.

President Romney will never happen because NO ONE BUT PAUL!!!

[bunklocoempire]

Would Romney Gut FEMA?

Thars money in that thar FEMA.

FEMA trailers.


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[Czolgosz]

Romney will not cut anything.

[pochy1776]

Firstly, this damn thing in New York is just expanding the much needed free market. The government despite being in "emergency status" did little to help but hindered more shit than it did. Police are going around doing little and the necessity and fear led to a much freer market of ideas and thoughts. believe me, these new york city people were not screaming FEMA save us. In many ways they took to the streets packed iup their bags and hailed whatever resources were avaliable to them. Hotels profited and people bargained. People began Cooperating VOLUNTARILY, so this is my lesson. These people have experienced how freedom, voluntary exchange and the market saved their asses. Not the government which did little. I haven't seen anything from FEMA yet. Thank god for that.